It was beautiful.
Friday, May 22. 6:30 p.m. EDT. The thing just lifted off. From South Texas.
The Starship didn’t go far. Just a dip into suborbital space. Then fire. Both the booster and the ship splashed down. Hard. Into the water.
Flight 12. Again? Mostly.
Except not really.
This isn’t the same machine. This is V3. Taller. Forty-eight feet taller. One hundred and twenty-four meters of stainless steel screaming into the sky.
It’s the most powerful version yet.
“New fuel transfer tube.”
That’s just one thing.
Faster PEZ deployment. For satellites that might never launch.
New engines. Raptor. Thirty-nine of them. Loud.
Grid fins. Down to three. Instead of four. Why? Aerodynamics, presumably.
And a “hot stage ring” between the two parts. Reusable. Clever.
Why does any of this matter?
NASA.
They’re watching. Waiting.
Artemis is coming. Accelerated. Fast.
Blue Origin wants it. SpaceX wants it more.
If the tests pass. Maybe they land people. By 2028. Late 2028 maybe. For Artemis 4.
But first. Orbit. Real orbit.
Fuel transfer in space. Life support. Actual human systems. Not just robots.
Artemis 3 changed shape. It’s an Earth-orbit test now. Orion meets the lander. Whoever is ready.
Could be Blue Origin. Maybe their Blue Moon lands first. Maybe they’re ready when SpaceX isn’t.
Or maybe Starship just keeps burning through failures. Until it doesn’t.
The photos were good though. 🔥
