If they can pull this off I think we may enter an age with a clear "Before super heavy reusable launch" and "after".
It's mind boggling how much stuff a Starship will be able to chuck into space and come down and then do it again and again.
Consider this, the military is starting to explore the idea of moving heavy military equipment anywhere in the world within 90 minutes using this kind of capability. International Space Station sized habitats are a handful of launches over months, not dozens over decades. A single Starship launch could place multiple hubble-sized space observatories up in a single launch.
Press releases from SpaceX have alluded to a possible launch date of 420, which I think would be hilariously on brand.
A rocket size comparison video [1]
[1] https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1602270207287902209
Tim Dodd posted a video on how to watch the launch in person.
I saw on their YouTube channel that they are tentatively targeting 4/20 to light it up :)
I like that we live in a time where real world photo's are like 3d renders for science fiction novel covers.
I get pretty sad when I see this and then SLS. So much money and energy wasted on the SLS. I wonder how the NASA guys feel who are working on the SLS.
What could prevent them from getting a launch license?
What’s the FAA considering in approving or denying a request like this?
Not my favorite Star Trek show, but this song very appropriate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmQsrXLofMY
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-...
official spacex launch plans with estimated timelines
There's drone video for those photos.[1]
if this works out does there become a bottleneck in the world's ability to produce space-ready, useful things (satelites, telescopes, etc).
Its incredibly costly and complex to build things like the james webb telescope and that would be a great problem to have, but are there any measures of the demand for rocket capacity at given price points?
Whether or not they hit April specifically (some of which isn't under their control, freak weather or the like can happen) they've clearly been checking through prep at an impressive, disciplined pace and it'll be soon. And importantly once they start they've set things up to keep the iteration going and do more and more ironing things out, and then going into full production. All technical merits aside, that, mass production and cadence, will itself be amazing vs previous efforts. The first launch will simultaneously be incredibly exciting and meaningful, and yet also meaningful in that it won't be that meaningful if that makes any sense. If it operates perfectly beyond expectations great, if it blows up at Max-Q that'd still give them a fair amount and they can quickly try again. Not a multi-billion white elephant that we might only ever see a handful of launch in history, but something aimed to ultimately be as unremarkable and reliable as a commericial airline.
I'm a bit too young for Apollo, so it feels incredibly fortunate to be able to watch the next great step forward for humanity. Starship is both the first true economics focused rocket to production and after F9 the end of the beginning of a shift in mindset for space. The ripple effects of the disruption will be fascinating and exciting as well. And we'll get to watch if live, in beautiful detail.