FAQ

When (first) orbital flight? First integrated flight test occurred April 20, 2023. "The vehicle cleared the pad and beach as Starship climbed to an apogee of ~39 km over the Gulf of Mexico – the highest of any Starship to-date. The vehicle experienced multiple engines out during the flight test, lost altitude, and began to tumble. The flight termination system was commanded on both the booster and ship."
Where can I find streams of the launch? SpaceX Full Livestream. NASASpaceFlight Channel. Lab Padre Channel. Everyday Astronaut Channel.
What's happening next? SpaceX has assessed damage to Stage 0 and is implementing fixes and changes including a water deluge/pad protection/"shower head" system. No major repairs to key structures appear to be necessary.
When is the next flight test? Just after flight, Elon stated they "Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months." On April 29, he reiterated this estimate in a Twitter Spaces Q&A (summarized here), saying "I'm glad to report that the pad damage is actually quite small," should "be repaired quickly," and "From a pad standpoint, we are probably ready to launch in 6 to 8 weeks." Requalifying the flight termination system (FTS) and the FAA post-incident review will likely require the longest time to complete. Musk reiterated the timeline on May 26, stating "Major launchpad upgrades should be complete in about a month, then another month of rocket testing on pad, then flight 2 of Starship."
Why no flame diverter/flame trench below the OLM? Musk tweeted on April 21: "3 months ago, we started building a massive water-cooled, steel plate to go under the launch mount. Wasn’t ready in time & we wrongly thought, based on static fire data, that Fondag would make it through 1 launch." Regarding a trench, note that the Starship on the OLM sits 2.5x higher off the ground than the Saturn V sat above the base of its flame trench, and the OLM has 6 exits vs. 2 on the Saturn V trench.

Quick Links

Starship Dev 47 | Starship Dev 46 | Starship Dev 45 | Starship Dev 44

Official Starship Update | r/SpaceX Update Thread

Status

Road Closures

Type	Start (UTC)	End (UTC)	Status
Primary	2023-08-24 13:00:00	2023-08-25 01:00:00	Cancelled
Alternative	2023-08-25 14:00:00	2023-08-26 02:00:00	Concluded
Alternative	2023-08-28 13:00:00	2023-08-27 01:00:00	Cancelled

Up to date as of 2023-09-05

Vehicle Status

As of 2023-09-05

Follow Ring Watchers on Twitter and Discord for more.

Ship	Location	Status	Comment
S20	Rocket Garden	Retired
S24	Gulf of Mexico	Destroyed	Destroyed on during Flight Test 1
S25	Stacked on B9	Spin Prime and Static Fire
S26	Rocket Garden	Cryo tested
S27	Rocket Garden	Scrapped	Common dome imploded
S28	Engine Install Stand	Raptors installed	Previously tested at Masseys
S29	High Bay	Under construction	Flap installation in progress
S30	High Bay	Under construction
S31	High Bay	Under construction
S32	Build Site	Parts spotted
S33	Build Site	Parts spotted
S34	Build Site	Parts spotted

Booster	Location	Status	Comment
Pre-B7 & B8		Scrapped or Retired	B4 is in the Rocket Garden, the rest are scrapped.
B7	Gulf of Mexico	Destroyed	Destroyed April 20th in Flight Test 1
B9	Launch mount	Hot-stage ring installed	Static fire (August 5th)
B10	Megabay 1	Cryo tested
B11	Rocket Garden	Resting
B12	Megabay 1	Grid fins installed
B13	Build Site	Parts under construction
B14	Build Site	Parts under construction
B15	Build Site	Parts under construction

Resources

LabPadre Channel | NASASpaceFlight.com Channel
NSF: Booster 7 + Ship X (likely 24) Updates Thread | Most Recent
NSF: Boca Chica Production Updates Thread | Most recent
NSF: Elon Starship tweet compilation | Most Recent
SpaceX: Website Starship page | Starship Users Guide (2020, PDF)
FAA: SpaceX Starship Project at the Boca Chica Launch Site
FAA: Temporary Flight Restrictions NOTAM list
FCC: Starship Orbital Demo detailed Exhibit - 0748-EX-ST-2021 application June 20 through December 20
NASA: Starship Reentry Observation (Technical Report)
Hwy 4 & Boca Chica Beach Closures (May not be available outside US)
Production Progress Infographics by @RingWatchers
Raptor 2 Tracker by @SpaceRhin0
Acronym definitions by Decronym
Everyday Astronaut: Starbase Tour with Elon Musk, Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Everyday Astronaut: 2022 Elon Musk Interviews, Starbase/Ship Updates | Launch Tower | Merlin Engine | Raptor Engine

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[-] LettuceTurnipTheBeet@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:

Starbase live-

10:45pm- Crane removes a piece manifold at the deluge tank farm

11:52pm- Crane removes another big chunk of the manifold from the deluge tank farm

2:48am- Forklift removes one of the light towers from around the OLM

2:54am- LR11000 picks up the lifting squid

8:58am- Crane lifts another beam up to the new mega bay

9:44am- S26 starts rolling

9:49am- Pauses at the entrance to the rocket garden

9:51am- Turns on to Remidos

10:05am- Turns on to Hwy 4

10:35am- They aren’t taking any chances today. Have an extra power pack for the SPMT’s and a forklift in the motorcade.

11:20am- Turns into the launch site

11:33am- Arrives at the sub orbital pad

11:57am- Squid lowers to just above S26

12:12pm- Lift goes up to connect the squid

12:51pm- Squid connected. Lift goes down

2:45:52pm- Ignitor test at the OLM

2:55pm- Chopsticks release S25 and open a bit

2:57pm- Chopsticks lower a few feet

3:02pm- Chopsticks open wide and lower to their launch position

3:15pm- Chopsticks raise back up and close part way again

4:46pm- Lift up at the nosecone of S20 at the rocket garden. (Reinstalling lift hooks so it can be lifted and scrapped? Or practicing installing tiles on nosecones?)

5:22pm- S26 lifted off its transport stand and swung over to pad B

5:37pm- Making final adjustments to get it lined up on the pad

5:49pm- Gap disappears. Looks like it’s down

9:04pm- Single lift goes up to the OLM

(This gets synced)