LOL....the LOX farm is cheechin' away and the booster transport stand is leaving the pad.

The chill down took about an hour and 15 minutes which means the static fire should happen in about 30 minutes from now.

lolol ok the rate of loading is ridiculous on this thing in that you can see it moving live up the screen. Each ring is 9 meters in diameter and it's taking like 70 seconds a ring (27,000 gallons).

400 gallons per second.

You could fill up a 737-800 in 2 1/2 to 3 minutes.

Well that is one way to heat up water

That was short

What will this do to viewing angles on launch day? The steam plumes are massive and violent

It's a rocket (and GSE) engineered, then re-engineered a couple times top to bottom for speed. Unlike, say, that orange behemoth folks just spent a couple weeks celebrating.

Still amazing they didn't think they needed a booster bidet/flame trench or anything on V1.

Booster 19 Static Fire as seen from our remote camera pic.twitter.com/CuHpDRiJxY

— RGV Aerial Photography (@RGVaerialphotos) April 15, 2026

These are great

Some quick and dirty clips of other NSF cam views pic.twitter.com/1wyQ6Jv0XY

— NSF - NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) April 15, 2026

First 33-engine static fire for Super Heavy V3 pic.twitter.com/m3swZHF7iQ

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 16, 2026

There is still a beach closure tomorrow. Wonder if they're planning on trying a longer static fire?

My favorite thread on Texags! This is some cool stuff

Anybody else done this and had success? I sent one last week just to find out I'd done it in October when I was there for IFT11. I've never received anything in response.

PJYoung said:

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Booster 19 Static Fire as seen from our remote camera pic.twitter.com/CuHpDRiJxY

— RGV Aerial Photography (@RGVaerialphotos) April 15, 2026

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No one thought to move that Suburban before the test firing? Just in case it done blowed up of something? I mean, it's been known to happen.

Webcam platform!

The speed and distance at which the plume moves with the new flame trench is insane. I can't imagine what a full duration ignition at lift off will look like!

YellowPot_97 said:

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The speed and distance at which the plume moves with the new flame trench is insane. I can't imagine what a full duration ignition at lift off will look like!

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The cloud it produces is going to be big enough to generate its own weather.

This is a really fun 10 minute watch as they respond to the various replays. I've synced it up to the start around 6:37 pm.

https://www.youtube.com/live/sJOsivvVL5I?si=zpKyvuY6uNbsGGsG&t=7148

The wider shots are outstanding. That V with those plumes after a 3 or 4 second burn is so ridiculous.

Static Fire vs No Parking
1 -- 0
photo via @JohnRand0061 who is out there looking for the debris pic.twitter.com/H3d3hlHsmt

— SIGNAL : noise (@BocasBrain) April 16, 2026

Great presser going on right now with the crew. I unfortunately missed about the first 45 min.

This is only 50% throttle. What the hell, SpaceX!? pic.twitter.com/q3sahfugwW

— Mookafish (@Mookafish) April 16, 2026

fullback44 said:

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Any estimates on Starship launch dates? Still First or second week of May? Got a little group who are trying to see this one

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Listening to the livestream yesterday and today it sounds like the best guess is 3 to 6 weeks with most likely around a month from now.

Looks like they might be going for a wet dress rehearsal on the booster today.



The new timeline seems to be methane reclaim vent to launch in around 90 minutes which is about half as long as it was with Flight 11.

EDIT: yep right at 95 minutes.

So adding the Methane loading:

We calculated a propellant flow rate into the booster of ~700 gallons PER SECOND during peak loading on today's test.

~35 mins to load a Super Heavy booster from empty.

BONKERS https://t.co/P7hhL02yfc

— Max Evans (@_MaxQ_) April 16, 2026

torrid said:

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PJYoung said:

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Booster 19 Static Fire as seen from our remote camera pic.twitter.com/CuHpDRiJxY

— RGV Aerial Photography (@RGVaerialphotos) April 15, 2026

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No one thought to move that Suburban before the test firing? Just in case it done blowed up of something? I mean, it's been known to happen.

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That suburban is always there, one of the remote cameras is attached to it and a solar panel powers it.

Really nice video.

What is the fuel? 700 gallons per second is insane.

Liquid methane and liquid oxygen

PJYoung said:

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Liquid methane and liquid oxygen

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~2 Olympic swimming pools worth.

*Do not attempt to swim in liquified gasses.

normaleagle05 said:

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*Do not attempt to swim in liquified gasses.

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Fun-ruiner

Akshually, H2O can be safe to swim in, in certain conditions that are approaching, in Texas.

Nice statement here. TLDR: SLS does not equal the efficient way to get to a launch cadence required for a Lunar base.

I understand some in the community have an affinity for specific hardware, but the focus should be on outcomes. With respect to SLS, the desired outcome is launching crewed Orion spacecraft at a reasonable cadence, rebuilding muscle memory, and buying down risk so we can land…

— Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) April 17, 2026

For me the interesting part was the last two paragraphs of Isaacman's post:

I am not here to favor companies or perpetuate underperforming programs. I do not want to throw away billions of taxpayer dollars, and time we do not have, on a flavor of a rocket that is not necessary to return astronauts to the moon. Those billions could go toward more Artemis missions or more science and discovery. Our focus must be on the immensely hard task of sending astronauts to the Moon with frequency and safely so we can land and stay.

Above all else, I care about outcomes, and so does the hardworking team at NASA, focused on delivering for the American people and everyone around the world who eagerly await the headlines we all experienced this past weekend.
[url=https://x.com/rookisaacman/status/2044940336590397627][/url]

That is encouraging to hear. However, there is a reason this thread is on F16

Most reading here look at this as an Engineering problem and don't question the goal of Space exploration. Most in Washington don't think that way. Many don't care about going to the Moon or having a Space program. They do care about where money is spent and whether they and their allies benefit. And there were lots of DC denizens cringing at the pro-USA aspects of the Artemis "success" and coverage.

While we are thinking about types of rockets, I suspect there are plenty of Madame Defarge types petting their cats. They are scheming how they can get revenge on Elon for supporting Trump, DOGE, X, his wealth, etc.

The point being it would be nice if the problem was just the most efficient path to the Moon and beyond.

And I realize few will still get the Defarge reference. :-)

LOL, thx. I had to look it up. Knitting beside the guillotine is about right for how much of DC 'feels' to me. I couldn't stand reading Dickens as a kid.