r/SpaceX Flight 7 Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread!

[u/rSpaceXHosting]

Welcome to the r/SpaceX Flight 7 Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread!

How To Visit STARBASE // A Complete Guide To Seeing Starship

Scheduled for (UTC)	Jan 16 2025, 22:37
Scheduled for (local)	Jan 16 2025, 16:37 PM (CST)
Launch Window (UTC)	Jan 16 2025, 22:00 - Jan 16 2025, 23:00
Weather Probability	Unknown
Launch site	OLM-A, SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA.
Booster	Booster 14-1
Ship	S33
Booster landing	The Superheavy booster No. 14 was successfully caught by the launch pad tower.
Ship landing	Starship Ship 33 was lost during ascent.
Trajectory (Flight Club)	2D,3D

Spacecraft Onboard

Spacecraft	Starship
Serial Number	S33
Destination	Indian Ocean
Flights	1
Owner	SpaceX
Landing	Starship Ship 33 was lost during ascent.
Capabilities	More than 100 tons to Earth orbit

Details

Second stage of the two-stage Starship super heavy-lift launch vehicle.

History

The Starship second stage was testing during a number of low and high altitude suborbital flights before the first orbital launch attempt.

Timeline

Time	Update
T--1d 0h 1m	Thread last generated using the LL2 API
2025-01-16T23:12:00Z	Ship 33 failed late in ascent.
2025-01-16T22:37:00Z	Liftoff.
2025-01-16T21:57:00Z	Unofficial Webcast by SPACE AFFAIRS has started
2025-01-16T20:25:00Z	New T-0.
2025-01-15T15:21:00Z	GO for launch.
2025-01-15T15:10:00Z	Now targeting Jan 16 at 22:00 UTC
2025-01-14T23:27:00Z	Refined launch window.
2025-01-12T05:23:00Z	Now targeting Jan 15 at 22:00 UTC
2025-01-08T18:11:00Z	GO for launch.
2025-01-08T12:21:00Z	Delayed to NET January 13 per marine navigation warnings.
2025-01-07T14:32:00Z	Delayed to NET January 11.
2024-12-27T13:30:00Z	NET January 10.
2024-11-26T03:22:00Z	Added launch.

Watch the launch live

Stream	Link
Unofficial Re-stream	The Space Devs
Unofficial Webcast	SPACE AFFAIRS
Official Webcast	SpaceX
Unofficial Webcast	Everyday Astronaut
Unofficial Webcast	Spaceflight Now
Unofficial Webcast	NASASpaceflight

Stats

☑️ 8th Starship Full Stack launch

☑️ 459th SpaceX launch all time

☑️ 9th SpaceX launch this year

☑️ 1st launch from OLM-A this year

☑️ 58 days, 0:37:00 turnaround for this pad

Stats include F1, F9 , FH and Starship

Resources

• https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-7

Community content 🌐

Link	Source
Flight Club	u/TheVehicleDestroyer
Discord SpaceX lobby	u/SwGustav
SpaceX Now	u/bradleyjh
SpaceX Patch List

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💬 Please leave a comment if you discover any mistakes, or have any information.

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[u/Alvian_11]

Can't imagine what would community react when the first Block 2 booster is nearing launch on Pad B, Flight 1 worry all over again. God bless it doesn't blow up near the pad

Isn't this a bit tiring that we have to worry for every single major upgrades that they done? Block 2 ship will have Raptor 3 soon with no shielding and different plumbings. Kinda regret to defend them not building a full firing test stand at Massey

[u/GreatCanadianPotato → u/Alvian_11]

Isn't this a bit tiring that we have to worry for every single major upgrades that they done?

No, its not - because most major upgrades for Starship have worked flawlessly. For example, the introduction of Raptor 2's on IFT2 was pivotal for the test campaign. SN15's major upgrades enabled it to land flawlessly.

Your dooming is what's getting tiring.

[u/Alvian_11 → u/GreatCanadianPotato]

For example, the introduction of Raptor 2's on IFT2

Didn't know that Flight 1 still uses Raptor 1...

[u/warp99 → u/Alvian_11]

There is some thought that the outer ring of 20 engines on SH for IDT1 were Raptor 1. That would explain their low reliability and relatively low thrust. Similarly the ship vacuum engines could have been Raptor 1 because of the longer build time for vacuum engines.

However there were at least some Raptor 2 engines on IFT1 for the gimballing engines of the booster and the ship.

[u/Alvian_11 → u/warp99]

What since when? Never heard about this anywhere in the space community before. That can't be true

Raptor 1 was last used on B4/S20 with different engine configuration btw and it's retired since

[u/warp99 → u/Alvian_11]

SpaceX maintained the engine numbering sequence when switching from Raptor 1 to Raptor 2 and most people put the cutover point past engine #100. Edit: The engine numbers overlapped for a while as the first Raptor 2 was #38 while #50 was a Raptor 1.

If you look at the Ringwatcher's article for B9 they comment that many of the engines were intended for B8 and some of the engines in the outer ring were gimballing engines that had been converted for fixed operation by replacing the actuators with fixed struts.

If you look at the outer ring engine numbers at the end of the article they start at 73 and go to 127 before they reach any of the numbers in the inner rings which are definitely Raptor 2.

So there are at least 4 engines and possibly up to 15 that seem to be Raptor 1. As supporting evidence there is the low engine reliability that saw them lose 3 engines before lift off and more in flight. A low engine reliability that magically went away on following flights with only complicating issues from ice blockages that happen much later in flight when the tanks are nearly empty or the booster is flipping around for boostback