SpaceX

Starship SN20 is stacked atop a giant booster, makes it the tallest rocket ever. Elon Musk is thrilled, rocket taller than Saturn V

SpaceX’s newest Starship prototype was placed atop its massive booster for the first time on Friday (Aug. 6), setting a new record for the world’s tallest rocket ahead of a planned orbital test flight this year, marking the major milestone of a fully integrated Starship stack

Engineers performed the stacking test at the SpaceX Starbase facility in South Texas, near the village of Boca Chica, in view of livestreams from NASA Spaceflight and Spadre.com. SpaceX has not commented on the stacking procedure yet on Twitter, although founder Elon Musk sent an update suggesting the company actually wanted to complete the stacking Thursday (Aug. 5), a few hours after Starship completed its rollout to the launch pad, but winds were too high.

Starship SN20 (“Serial No. 20”) and its Super Heavy booster were mated for about an hour for fit checks, during which time the two vehicles posed a towering site. Super Heavy alone stands 230 feet (70 meters) tall and Starship SN4 added another 165 feet (50 m) of height. Together they stood a whopping 395 feet tall (120 m), taller than NASA’s massive Saturn V moon rocket, which was 363 feet tall (110 m).

While the orbital launch attempt is not imminent, the duo is expected to undergo a series of ground testing objectives, including multiple Static Fire tests for the booster. This will also allow for the final elements to be completed at the Orbital Launch Site (OLS), from which the duo will conduct the milestone test flight.

Path to Booster 4/Ship 20:

Following a short ground testing campaign with Booster 3, which included cryo proofing and a three-engine Static Fire test, the focus is now on what will become the first integrated stack of a Super Heavy booster and a Starship vehicle.

This is set to be achieved in double-quick time, following a call to arms from SpaceX to its workforce. This included the transportation of hundreds of workers from other sites in the country, as per a memo leaked on Facebook.

That was later confirmed by the local media reporting high booking uptake in the local hotels, along with extra parking capacity at Starbase. Elon Musk has since confirmed Starbase is in a “Warp 9” surge.

Vehicle preparations on Booster 4 are continuing inside the High Bay, with all the sections now staged for final mating operations. This includes the Thrust Section with its impressive set of plumbing spread over the Thrust Puck.

Another first-time operation also took place late in the week, with the first installation of a Grid Fin. Notably, for Booster 4, at least, these Grid Fins will remain extended.

Tweaks to the forward plan remain on the cards, with Elon Musk tweeting “Grid fin designs clearly work, but do they maximize payload? Good chance that they do not. Something with much more drag to reduce terminal velocity & so reduce landing propellant might have better performance. Not sure. Potential future optimization.”
Once the sections have completed stacking operations, expected sometime in the week to come, rollout down Highway 4 will occur. However, its actual pad destination has yet to be confirmed.

There are numerous options on the path to seeing such a stack taking its position next to the Orbital Launch Site (OLS) tower, likely determined by the pad’s own readiness.

Completing the Launch Tower’s Fixed Service Structure was marked by installing the ninth and final section. A small lightning tower rod is yet to be added atop this section.

The Tower is also yet to receive its catching arms mechanism, which is likely to double up as providing the capability of stacking Starships with the boosters. No crane is set to be added to the top of the tower.

At the base, the long-awaited rollout and installation of the launch table from the Production Facility provided the final piece to the launch mount puzzle.

The 370-ton piece of hardware will host the booster and provide the hold-down points, receiving the title “Stage Zero” from Chief Engineer Elon Musk on Twitter.

However, a lot of work remains before a Booster can be tested on the table, which led to the assumption Booster 4 would first pay a visit to the Suborbital launch site. Simply sitting on the table now appears to be a near-term possibililty.

With its two pads, one currently occupied by Booster 3, Booster 4 will likely head to Pad A, allowing it to complete its predecessor’s path of cryo proofing and engine testing – this time moving past the three-engine test, eventually firing up nine Raptors.

Booster 4 would then be moved to the Orbital Launch Site Pad (OLP) for a pre-launch campaign to include a full 29 engine set Static Fire test.

The alternative option is for Booster 4 to immediately head to the OLP, ready to receive Ship 20, for fit checks and photo opportunities. This would be ahead of the aforementioned test campaign that would likely occur at the suborbital site.

As per usual, Elon Musk often provides good clues to the near-term plans, referencing the Launch Table installation with “Needs to be level & match booster fittings. We will find out on ~Tuesday.” As tweeted this weekend.

This could point to Booster 4 heading directly to the OLS this coming week.

Numerous deliveries of Raptors have taken place over the past number of days, including at least three Raptor Vacs.

While there are likely to be enough engines at Starbase to allow for a full configuration vehicle to be processed at the launch site, the actual flight site of engines is not expected to be installed until after the nine-engine Static Fire test.

Meanwhile, Starship 20 (Ship 20) was being processed inside the Mid Bay, ahead of its own journey to the High Bay for nosecone mating.

It is likely that Ship 20 will eventually undergo ground testing at suborbital Pad B after it had enjoyed its first integrated stack opportunity with Booster 4.

Ship 20 is received its aero surfaces in the form of the aft flaps, which are smaller in scale and thus lighter on S20 and beyond. This has been a benefit of lessons learned during the suborbital campaign.

Meanwhile, the nosecone underwent TPS (Thermal Protection System) installation. It also received of the flaps – for the first time covered in their own TPS – pointing to its speedy processing towards its eventual mate atop Ship 20.

That mate occurred on Friday, with the historic event lasting around one hour, as crewed conducted fit checks and used it as a photo opportunity.

t was then demated and rolled back to the High Bay.

Unlike previously flown Starships, during their high altitude “hops,” Ship 20 will be the first to launch into space, thus requiring the entire windward side of the vehicle to be covered in TPS tiles.

A Look into the Future:

While Booster 4 and Ship 20 will both end up in the ocean at the conclusion of the test flight, Mary (@bocachicagal) has already spotted sections for Booster 5 and Ship 21.

However, clues to the future have either already been on view or confirmed via Elon Musk.

Firstly, a pathfinder nosecone was observed in recent days. This will be a key element of Starships opening operational flights, likely to begin with lofting huge amounts of Starlink satellites.

Such pathfinder operations are likely to continue on future spare nosecones, as the design evolves.

Elon Musk also provided encouraging news about the down mass capability of Starship, albeit with a one word answer – “sure” – when asked if Starship could be used to return Hubble from orbit at the end of its lifetime, allowing it to be put on display, as opposed to suffering from a destructive re-entry.

SpaceX’s Chief Engineer also provided an update on the expansion of Starbase, with a new High Bay set to rise out of the ground in the coming months.

In expanded comments, Musk added that the new facility would be only slightly taller, but much wider. This will allow for increased cadence with the stacking of sections to cater for SpaceX’s Rapidly Reusable rockets.

“Dream come true,” Elon Musk said of SpaceX’s Starship.

SpaceX’s Starship has officially become the world’s tallest rocket  — and Elon Musk is over the moon.

The excitement of this major milestone was not lost on SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk.

Along with a Twitter post he made sharing some photos of Starship “Fully Stacked,” as the tweet reads, Musk wrote that it is “an honor to work with such a great team,” and added that it’s a “Dream come true,” to see the vehicle stacked.


The Starship spacecraft that was stacked today is the company’s SN20 prototype, and it was secured to a Super Heavy prototype known as Booster 4. The stacking is part of the preparation for an orbital test flight that the company has planned for the vehicle.

Now, Musk is not alone in his excitement about today’s achievement. CNBC space reporter Michael Sheetz shared on Twitter a video of Starship fully stacked from science communicator Tim Dodd, also known as “Everyday Astronaut.”

The video shows a crowd gathered in South Texas to watch Starship come together, cheering and clapping along to celebrate the moment. Under the tweeted-out video, Sheetz asked Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, his thoughts, knowing Zurbuchen has been following Starship’s journey.

Zurbuchen was quick to add his voice of excitement to the crowd, tweeting “Yes, I have been following this all along and am excited for SpaceX achieving this milestone! Can’t wait to see it fly!”

Musk, who has been replying to many people on Twitter (seemingly a sign of his excitement), responded to Zurbuchen’s comment, saying that “due to its size & ability to return science instruments even from deep space, Starship will enable a whole new class of science missions.”


Starship, which is comprised of the Starship spacecraft as well as the Super Heavy first-stage booster, is the craft that SpaceX intends to use to fly humans beyond Earth to destinations like the moon, Mars and beyond.

This past April, NASA awarded SpaceX its Human Landing System contract for a version of Starship to land astronauts on the lunar surface, as part of the agency’s moon-bound Artemis program.

Kiran Fernandes

Kiran is your friendly neighbourhood tech enthusiast who's passionate about all kinds of tech, goes crazy over 4G and 5G networks, and has recently sparked an interest in sci-fi and cosmology.

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