Beccab

60th and last F9 launch of the year has been completed successfully

Liftoff & max Q

60th SpaceX launch of the year! If Friday's launch schedule holds, we'll see the 60th falcon 9 of the year as well

For the second and third one: - Nothing, the Delta III and Delta IV have next to nothing in common other than upper stage (which again isn't in common in the DIVH) - and at that point, you may as well call Atlas V, Titan IV and Shuttle-Centaur all part of the same family - Again nothing basically, many proposed Saturn V payloads included the RL-10 used in the S-IV stage of the Saturn I but none of the flown ones did; the Saturn IB, however, shares a lot with it, given the S-IVB stages used in each of them are basically the same and share the J2 engine with the second stage. The clustered first stage, however, was always a dead end

We know from NASA that between the launches they are tracking in particular after OFT the first one is a test of tank-to-tank orbital fuel transfer inside the same starship, so probably it's going to be a naked starship with additional internal components and perhaps additional tanks in order to make the first true orbital cryo prop transfer test. It could also be a longer term fuel storage test perhaps - they don't seem to have additional power systems they would need for a true long term test, but it doesn't take a lot to beat the 10 hours or so record that Centaur holds currently

It's speculated to be the first depot/tanker test vehicle, and I agree honestly. Iirc, S27 or so is the next heatshielded starship in the series

Agreed - any prediction made before the 33-engine SF is completed (which should be next on B7's schedule) is going to be little more than a bet. We'll know a firmer schedule only once that one is done and B7 certified for flight On the good side: Soon, no more heat shield removal to lift Starship with the crane!

Would explain some of the Starlink launch delays during early december

Everything had leaked already a few hours after the incident

First booster to achieve 15 flights!

debatable

Yes, but MS-23 is scheduled for late spring, so even an accelerated timeline would take quite a while

Yikes

Great angle of today's static fire

Siren! Static imminent

Its Orion avionics will, which has already proven to have been a pretty terrible decision because it forces Artemis II to be at the very least in May 2024 now

It went on for over 3 hours, and ended up cancelling the EVA. Discussion about what to do with MS-22 continues tomorrow.

Hard disagree. It took the starship program a year and a half to pass from tethered Starhopper hops to the first high altitude test, and another half a year for the first completely successful one to occur; in the year and a half since, SpaceX has built two launch towers and a half (see below), two chopstick catching systems, countless Superheavy prototypes, between 1 and 2 flight-capable versions of that same stage depending on B7 (which is the tallest single stage ever built apart from SLS's core stage, and that's only because of the interstage) and has reached and passed a construction rate of 1 raptor 2 a day. If everything goes right, and that's not certain at all, by the time of the second anniversary of SN15's flight it will have attempted an orbital flight. That's as fast, if not faster, than when Musk was leading it Even if it was not self sustainable somehow, i have strong doubts that a company that just reached 140 billions of evaluation while not being publicly traded would run into a shortage of money soon

Starship's development is currently being managed by Shotwell and many others. If Musk was gone tomorrow, it would lose nothing of value