SpaceX's Upgraded Starship S40 Heatshield to Make History...Totally Ahead of Time!

A colossal spacecraft like Starship, with a pressurized cabin volume even larger than the entire International Space Station, weighing over 100 tons, yet capable of descending gently through Earth's atmosphere and landing softly without a hitch. It sounds almost impossible, but that's exactly what SpaceX is attempting to achieve with the second Block III Starship, Ship 40, a vehicle poised to make history on Starship Flight 13. Having just completed its critical cryogenic proof tests at the Massey test site with flawless precision, Ship 40 has everyone believing it could be the one to write the next chapter in spaceflight history. So what is the current status of Ship 40, and is it truly going to be the first Starship ever caught by the Mechazilla chopsticks? Let's dive in and find out. If you were blown away by Mechazilla's tower catch of the super-heavy booster, then keep your eyes on Ship 40, the next big step for the Starship program. Ship 40 is the second prototype of Block III. The entire stacking process took just 114 days, a clear sign that SpaceX is getting closer to the kind of rapid, repeatable production you'd expect from commercial aviation. Standing over 50 meters tall, this ship has a dry mass of around 100 tons. Fully fueled, it tips the scales at more than 1,700 tons. It's built to become the first orbital spacecraft in history designed to be caught mid-air by the tower's chopsticks instead of splashing down in the ocean. Its journey kicked off on May 2nd, 2026, when it rolled out from Mega Bay 2 to Massey outpost for cryogenic testing. By then, its heat shield was already nearly complete, finished in mid-April. At Massey, SpaceX ran two back-to-back cryogenic proof tests in just 48 hours as part of a tight but highly efficient five-day campaign. On May 3rd, during Cryo Test 1, they filled both the LOX and methane tanks to high pressure to test structural integrity. Even while the ship was contracting from the extreme cold, engineers fully actuated the two aft flaps to verify their movement. Right after draining the propellants, they immediately moved on to Cryo Test 2 on May 4th. The result? Flawless. No leaks, no structural deformation, no anomalies. On May 6th, Ship 40 rolled back to the production site. That's when Starbase photographers captured some of the most interesting details yet. Several heat shield tiles were deliberately missing, especially on the leeward side, intentionally left off, to expose the underlying structure attachment pins and handwritten inspection markings like SG-1, BG-1, and BG-2 with arrows and serial numbers. This wasn't damage or a mistake. SpaceX removed those tiles on purpose at key locations to directly inspect the pin mounting system and crunch wrap seals after the tanks had endured extreme pressure and cryogenic temperatures. Ship 40 is flying the latest generation of Block 3 hexagonal tiles, the most refined and thoroughly tested heat shield the program has ever produced. Right now, the ship is back in the factory getting its Raptor 3 engines installed. Close watchers at Starbase widely consider it the top candidate for Starship Flight 13, the mission that could deliver the program's first ever mid-air catch of a Starship by Mechazilla's chopsticks. Of course, this isn't just speculation. The timeline comes straight from Starship program lead Elon Musk himself. He posted on XStarshipCatch is probably Flight 13 to 15, depending on how well V3 flights go. So, SpaceX's current plan is clear and cautious. Flight 12 will be the very first flight of a Starship version 3 vehicle. They don't want to risk attempting a tower catch on this mission, because the stakes are high, the intense heat exhaust plume and shockwaves during ascent could damage the tower's sensor's cameras or even the chopstick mechanisms. Any failure there would be a serious setback. That's why they'll start with a controlled splashdown, using Ship 39. If it survives re-entry cleanly and touches down softly, especially without exploding on contact with the water, then Ship 40, the first fully refined V3 ship is lined up to become the first Starship in history to be caught mid-air by Mechazilla. By the way, you might wonder why Starship, and sometimes even Super Heavy, often explodes shortly after a seemingly gentle splashdown. The main reason is simple. Starship isn't built like an Apollo capsule designed to float peacefully on the ocean. It's an ultra-thin stainless steel vehicle that still contains residual liquid methane and liquid oxygen in its tanks and plumbing after re-entry. The hull has just endured thousands of degrees of plasma, which can create tiny cracks or weak points. Even if the landing burn is perfect and it kisses the water, at near zero vertical speed, the ship can still tip over due to waves or momentum. That relatively light impact is often enough to crack a downcomer pipe or tank wall, causing propellants to mix. The leftover heat from re-entry, plus any spark from tearing metal, is all it takes for the CH-4 and LOX to ignite instantly, resulting in a rapid unscheduled disassembly. Right now, SpaceX treats these post-splashdown explosions as an expected outcome during the testing phase. Their goal is simply to gather as much data as possible up to a successful soft splashdown. As Elon has repeatedly said, they need to push the vehicle hard in these early flights to make sure it's truly reliable when it eventually carries people or high-value payloads. Let's get back to the main point. To understand why Ship 40 matters so much, you have to look at the long, often frustrating road SpaceX has traveled. Right after Mechazilla successfully caught the super-heavy booster on Flight 5 in October 2024, Elon Musk posted on X, Hopefully early next year, we will catch the ship too. He was optimistic they'd catch an upper stage in early 2025. But as is typical with Starship reality, followed its own schedule. A series of setbacks throughout the first half of 2025 pushed the timeline back significantly. That's why Elon and the entire SpaceX team are clearly determined to make it happen this year. And it's not just because Ship 40 happens to be the next vehicle after Ship 39. The real reason it's the prime candidate for the first catch lies in the fundamental design of Block 3 itself. Remember why SpaceX wanted to catch the upper stage with Mechazilla in the first place. Starship is enormous. Trying to land it on legs like a Falcon 9 would require massive heavy landing legs and a complex landing pad infrastructure. The chopstick approach eliminates all of that and saves significant mass. That's the basic engineering logic. With Block 3, SpaceX has taken that logic much further. On the ship's side, Block 3 includes new purpose-built catch points positioned lower on the vehicle to perfectly match the tower's arms. In other words, these ships were designed from the drawing board to be caught not modified or patched later. Structurally, the nose cone has significant internal reinforcement, especially around the forward flap attachments and the dedicated lifting catch points. This is crucial. The catch points aren't add-ons, they're part of the original architecture engineered from day one. While Block 1 and Block 2 were still experimental, Block 3 is the first time SpaceX has built a Starship with full catch capability baked in from the start. On top of that, there's the Raptor 3 engine. With internalized secondary flow paths and regenerative cooling for hot section components, Raptor 3 can run without heavy engine heat shields. The switch from Raptor 2 to Raptor 3 is expected to add roughly 40 tons of payload capacity, bringing reusable performance up to around 100 tons. The extra power and lighter design also allow for smoother, more precise landings, exactly what you need for a delicate tower catch. That's said for Flight 13. SpaceX is unlikely to risk putting Ship 40 into full orbit. The ship still has unfinished areas in its heat shield, and orbital re-entry is unforgiving. The heat shield must survive 1,400 to 1,600 degrees Celsius plasma for 10 to 12 minutes at 7.8 kilometers per second. SpaceX still needs at least one or two real flights to validate tile loss rates. Hot gas, ingress, flap hinge, overheating, and other unknowns. A single microcrack or lost tile in the wrong spot can be catastrophic. That's why Flight 13 with Ship 40 will very likely follow a high-energy suborbital trajectory instead of a full orbital one. This profile requires only 6.5 to 7.0 kilometers per second, a shallower re-entry angle, much shorter plasma exposure, and about 30 to 40 percent less total heat load. The ship will take less damage, the catch success probability goes way up, telemetry stays cleaner, and even if something goes wrong with the heat shield, SpaceX still has a good chance to recover the vehicle, or at least gather critical data. Here's how it's expected to play out. Just seconds before reaching the tower, the Starship Vivye 3 will perform the famous landing flip, a precise 90-degree rotation from horizontal to vertical. Three or four Raptor 3 engines at the base will then ignite delivering powerful but finely controlled thrust to kill both horizontal and vertical velocity. Thanks to its lighter, more powerful and simplified design, Raptor 3 will let the ship hover stably right between Mechazilla's arms. The key moment is how the chopsticks interact with the vehicle. Mechazilla won't grab randomly, it will target specially reinforced hard points and catch pins built into the Starship's structure. These points are positioned to completely avoid the aft flaps. The chopsticks close in from both sides, guiding the pins into precise load-bearing slots, typically located just above or between the flap areas, without touching the hinges or flap surfaces. The entire process demands incredible synchronization. Starship must control its roll perfectly so the catch pins line up with the guiding channels on the chopsticks. Even a few centimeters of misalignment could cause a slip or collision. Powerful hydraulic systems combined with real-time laser sensors and cameras allow Mechazilla to make dynamic adjustments for any slight wobble. When you hear that solid clunk and the arms lock tight, Starship will be held securely in a vertical position, no landing legs needed. It will then be gently lowered onto a transport stand, rolled back to the Megabay for inspection. And mark what could be one of SpaceX's biggest milestones yet. Now that we've covered Ship 40 in detail, what about its partner, Booster 20? This massive super-heavy is in the final stages of stacking inside Megabay 1. In early May, the team completed installation of the large methane downcomer, a critical Falcon 9-style pipe that feeds propellant from the upper tank to the engines. Stacking is now nearing completion, but Booster 20 has not yet undergone cryogenic proof. Testing doesn't have all 33 Raptor 3 engines installed and hasn't rolled out to the pad. Compared to Booster 19, B20 is running slightly behind due to a few process gaps. Even so, it remains on track for Flight 13. While SpaceX hasn't officially announced anything, close observers see two possible scenarios for this mission. Both center on the same historic goal, attempting the first-ever mid-air catch of a Starship, the most likely approach. Booster 20 performs a standard hot-staging boost-back burn and controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean, just like previous boosters. All eyes would then focus entirely on Ship 40, which would fly a high-energy suborbital trajectory, before attempting the first mid-air catch by Mechazilla.