Ship 43 has entered Highway 4 and is headed to the production site Follow Our Journey: starship-tracking.com/ 📸@NASASpaceflight | Starbase Live | nsf.live/starbase #Tracking ⁠#Starship #Starbase #SpaceX

Starbase This Week (2026-10-25) | Written by @KangasSpaceroo Wow, what a week. Pad 1 construction continues full speed ahead. Flight 15’s vehicles continue to progress towards a flight No Earlier Than Nov. 8, with future vehicles not far behind. AND WE FINALLY GOT AN HLS UPDATE. Welcome to this week’s Starbase This Week. Flight 15 Starting off the week, preparations for Flight 15 were well underway at Pad 2. Late on the 18th, the dancefloor service structure was removed from Pad 2 following checkouts and any repairs post Flight 14. Following the removal of the dancefloor and over the course of 48 hours, a total of four deluge tests occurred at the pad, all four being full deluge tests including the top plate. Additionally, the booster quick disconnects performed a purge in preparation for a vehicle’s arrival. On the 24th, Booster 22, the booster assigned for Flight 15, would be rolled and lifted onto Pad 2. Later on the 24th, a detonation suppression system test was performed on the pad. Then early on the 25th, Booster 22 would light all 33 Raptor 3.1s, Raptor 3.1?, more on that in a minute, and performed a roughly 15 second static fire. Initial views and duration appear to have indicated that the static fire was a success which paves the way for Flight 15 in at least two weeks. Booster 22 may be removed from Pad 2 and be rolled back for any final inspections ahead of flight, or SpaceX may choose to leave the booster at the pad. Its flight partner, Ship 42 is still in Megabay 2 awaiting a rollout to Masseys to perform its own static fire. Ship 42 is currently set to rollout to Masseys as early as 10:00 PM (22:00 CDT) on Oct. 25. Speaking of Ship 42, we finally have confirmation from SpaceX on why engines were removed and swapped. On Oct. 23, SpaceX announced that an upgraded Raptor 3, potentially called Raptor 3.1 or Raptor 3B like how Merlin is called Merlin 1D now, would be debuting on Flight 15. This new engine has supposedly better reliability and higher thrust compared to the Raptor 3 which has been flown on all V3 flights to date. We also received an update from Elon this week regarding the catch status of both Ship and Booster on Flight 15. SpaceX will attempt to catch both vehicles at Pad 2. The so-called “Holy Grail of Rocketry” is almost upon us. Pad 1 Over at Pad 1, construction is still full speed ahead with the conversion of the old pad design which had launched Flights 1 through 11 to the new design that has been built at Pad 2 and LC-39A in Florida. This week the four legs which hold the OLM itself to the pad were installed over the course of a couple of days. Production Site Over at the production site, vehicle construction continues. On the booster side, Booster 24 received its entire forward section this week, beginning with the F2:4 on Oct. 20, and being followed by the HS-FX:3 on Oct. 22, and the F3:4 on Oct. 24. Assuming the FWD section is stacked on the AFT section in the next couple of days, B24’s construction will be the second fastest booster construction, only being outpaced a couple of days by B19. Moving over to the ships, Ship 44 received its AX:4 section which completes major body assembly of the vehicle, barring AFT flap install. Ship 44 continues the trend of the previous ships with major body assembly taking around a month from when the N:3 section rolls from Starfactory to when the AX:4 section rolls out and is stacked. Speaking of ship construction timelines, Ship 45’s N:3 section rolled to Megabay 2 on Oct. 23 beginning the major assembly of this vehicle. Over the course of the next three to four weeks we’ll see this vehicle rise. Lastly for our ships, Ship 46’s nosecone was stacked onto the PL:3 section on Oct. 21, which completes major work inside Starfactory. We’ll likely see this vehicle roll out of Starfactory over to Megabay 2 once Ship 45 completes construction. Masseys Lastly at Starbase, Masseys saw some action this week. Ship 43.1, our lovely nosecone test tank, performed another test this week. Last week as you may remember, Ship 43.1 experienced some crumpling as a result of testing. It appears as if the crumple was indeed expected as teams have since repaired the crumple and tested again. Also at Masseys, Ship 43, conducted two cryo tests on Oct. 23, with both appearing to go smoothly. A road closure has since been scheduled for Oct. 25, where it’ll roll back to the Production Site and Ship 42 will roll out to Masseys. HLS Update We finally got one, an HLS update. The HLS update was announced on Oct. 18 to occur on Oct. 23, and we got a lot of information from it. Starting off, Cabin 1 is in construction. Cabin 1 is the first build of the HLS cabin which will presumably first fly on the uncrewed HLS lander mission, tentatively set for sometime in 2027. Built at Starbase, Cabin 1 is looking pretty far along in construction. Window cutouts that confirm the latest renderings of Starship HLS have been cut and reinforced, but are still lacking windows, and what appears to be a sleeping area has been shown. Moving off to the next critical piece of HLS hardware is the propellant transfer demo, where we received confirmation that the propellant transfer demo ship is in construction. This flight is also currently set for sometime in 2027. Over at Florida, LC-39A is in final testing ahead of receiving its first vehicle for flight which is currently set to be Flight 16. The presumed vehicle pairing for Flight 16 will be Booster 23 and Ship 43 as they are the next in line for flight after Booster 22 and Ship 42. Reuse may play a factor in the timeline but not likely to affect the pairings soon. Lastly, we received the concept of operations for Artemis IV whether that be with Blue Origin’s Blue Moon MK2 or Starship HLS. As we are Starship Tracking, we’ll cover the HLS concept of operations in this Starbase This Week, but we encourage you to check out NASA’s update about both concepts. Starting off for Artemis IV, Starship will first launch the depot ship followed by multiple propellant transfers. Starship HLS will launch next and be refilled by the depot ship before moving to a higher orbit. The depot will receive one last round of propellant transfer before joining HLS in a higher orbit and transferring the final bit of fuel needed for Artemis IV. Orion will launch aboard SLS into a high-Earth orbit where HLS will dock with it. HLS will then push the entire stack to the Moon, entering a low-Lunar orbit similar to Apollo. At the moon, two crew members will board HLS and undock from Orion before descending to the Lunar surface. Following surface operations, HLS will lift off and dock with Orion. Crew, samples, and other science will transfer back to Orion where it will push itself back to Earth. Well that’s all for this week’s Starbase This Week. Do you think both Booster 22 and Ship 42 will be caught on Flight 15? For real-time updates, join us in the Discord: discord.gg/ZbrSYPzDAq To explore our maps yourself and track every movement, check out our Figma, now at both Starbase and Cape Canaveral: Starbase: figma.com/design/2AvC161FuB1… Cape Canaveral: figma.com/design/lHRSgzUwyjD… #SpaceX #Starbase #Starship

Ship 43 is conducting a cryogenic proof test at Massey's currently. Follow Our Journey: starship-tracking.com/ 📸NSF | Starbase Live | nsf.live/starbase #Tracking ⁠#Starship #Starbase #SpaceX