SpaceX's Upgraded Starship S40 Heatshield to Make History...Totally Ahead of Time!

SpaceX's Upgraded Starship S40 Heatshield to Make History...Totally Ahead of Time!
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#techalpha
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0:00 Starship Catch
0:50 Ship 40 Details
5:47 Block 3 Evolution
11:06 Booster 20 Scenarios
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SpaceX's Upgraded Starship S40 Heatshield to Make History...Totally Ahead of Time!
A colossal spacecraft like Starship — with a pressurized cabin volume even larger than the entire International Space Station, weighing over 100 tons — yet capable of descending gently through Earth’s atmosphere and landing softly without a hitch. It sounds almost impossible. But that’s exactly what SpaceX is attempting to achieve with the second Block 3 Starship, Ship 40 — a vehicle poised to make history on Starship Flight 13. Having just completed its critical cryogenic proof tests at the Massey test site with flawless precision, Ship 40 has everyone believing it could be the one to write the next chapter in spaceflight history. So, what is the current status of Ship 40? And is it truly going to be the first Starship ever caught by the Mechazilla chopsticks? Let’s dive in and find out.
SpaceX's Upgraded Starship S40 Heatshield to Make History...Totally Ahead of Time!
If you were blown away by Mechazilla’s tower catch of the Super Heavy booster, then keep your eyes on Ship 40 — the next big step for the Starship program.
Ship 40 is the second prototype of Block 3. The entire stacking process took just 114 days — a clear sign that SpaceX is getting closer to the kind of rapid, repeatable production you’d expect from commercial aviation.
Standing over 50 meters tall, this ship has a dry mass of around 100 tons. Fully fueled, it tips the scales at more than 1,700 tons. It’s built to become the first orbital spacecraft in history designed to be caught mid-air by the tower’s chopsticks instead of splashing down in the ocean.
Its journey kicked off on May 2, 2026, when it rolled out from Mega Bay 2 to Massey Outpost for cryogenic testing. By then, its heat shield was already nearly complete — finished in mid-April.
At Massey, SpaceX ran two back-to-back cryogenic proof tests in just 48 hours as part of a tight but highly efficient five-day campaign.
On May 3, during Cryo Test 1, they filled both the LOX and methane tanks to high pressure to test structural integrity. Even while the ship was contracting from the extreme cold, engineers fully actuated the two aft flaps to verify their movement. Right after draining the propellants, they immediately moved on to Cryo Test 2 on May 4.
SpaceX's Upgraded Starship S40 Heatshield to Make History...Totally Ahead of Time!
The result? Flawless. No leaks, no structural deformation, no anomalies.
On May 6, Ship 40 rolled back to the production site. That’s when Starbase photographers captured some of the most interesting details yet. Several heat shield tiles were deliberately missing — especially on the leeward side — intentionally left off to expose the underlying structure, attachment pins, and handwritten inspection markings like “SG1,” “BG1,” and “BG2” with arrows and serial numbers.
This wasn’t damage or a mistake. SpaceX removed those tiles on purpose at key locations to directly inspect the pin-mounting system and “crunch wrap” seals after the tanks had endured extreme pressure and cryogenic temperatures. Ship 40 is flying the latest generation of Block 3 hexagonal tiles — the most refined and thoroughly tested heat shield the program has ever produced.

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