Massive Anticipation For The Much Upgraded SN15 Version Of Starship

After a number of successful, or seemingly successful static firings, the latest generation of SpaceX Starship test vehicles was rumored to be ready to fly on Friday.

But, whether it was the lousy weather, or technical details unknown to the public, it didn't quite come off. But then again, there been a lot of delays for SpaceX this week with the delay of the Crew One Dragon having been pushed back from Wednesday to, at this point, early Sunday -- again for weather.

Anticipation of SN15 is massive. After four vehicles wound up as little bit more than explosive residue following a series of somewhat successful, but not successful enough, tests; Elon Musk's crew skipped over a couple of serial numbers to bring a much upgraded version of the Starship, one which reportedly included "hundreds of upgrades, and modifications," to the launchpad.

This version, SN15 will follow a similar flight test as seen on SN's 8 through 11, with a vertical ascent to an altitude above 30,000 feet, followed by a temporary hover, and a transition to a belly to earth unpowered descent that is terminated by a radical pitch up and reignition of the three Raptor engines powering this prototype. Once power is stabilized, internal software selects which of the Raptors is performing best and uses that, primarily, to affect a targeted touchdown on a pad very close to where the flight started.

A previous vehicle, SN10, actually did all this… And sat triumphantly on its pad for the better part of 10 minutes before experiencing a well-known RUD… otherwise known as Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly, when internal structures that were compromised by a harder than expected landing, created an explosive finality to what had otherwise been a triumphant flight test.

The pressure is certainly on for SN15, especially now that this basic vehicle will someday be upgraded to become part of the Manned Lunar Lander that SpaceX plans to put on the moon in a few years. Having won a nearly $3 billion contract from NASA, as a sole source provider, all eyes are on SpaceX and Elon Musk, to see if the extraordinary successes he has pioneered over the last few years, will continue all the way to the moon.

FMI: www.SpaceX.com