SpaceX just officially revealed Starship Flight 15 Launch This Week!

Oh my, we've got a packed day of major aerospace news. Starship Flight 15 has been delayed once again, while Blue Origin's next New Glenn launch has slipped beyond this year. But that's not all. Blue Origin has also unveiled an entirely new rocket design and engine. Could this new hardware challenge Starship And could Blue Origin finally become a serious competitor to SpaceX? and SpaceX's powerful Raptor engines? Stay tuned, because we've got plenty to unpack. Let's start with Starship Flight 15. The mission was originally scheduled to launch on November 8th, before being delayed by four days to the 12th. But now, that date has shifted once again. According to the latest FAA schedule, the launch is now scheduled for Friday, November 13th. SpaceX has since confirmed the updated date on its official launch page, which also lists November 14th as an alternative date. Meanwhile, a new NOTAM has established a launch window running from November 13th through November 19th. As for the launch time, the window is scheduled to open at 4.45 p.m. Central Standard Time, earlier than the corresponding window for Flight 14. So if you've traveled all the way to Starbase to witness this mission in person, you're in for quite an experience. And if that's you, leave a US flag in the comments. What makes this particular flight so special? The answer can be found in SpaceX's official mission update. Right at the beginning, the company emphasized that the upcoming flight is planned to be the first to return both Starship and Super Heavy to the launch site for catch. If successful, this will mark the first full recovery of an orbital launch system and a breakthrough moment in making Starship a reliable, rapidly reusable rocket. Musk reinforced that objective in a post on X, stating, SpaceX will attempt to catch both the Super Heavy booster and Starship on the upcoming flight. If both are successful, it will mark the first time that all parts of an orbital rocket return to Earth intact. This is the critical breakthrough needed to make life multi-planetary. That is the defining objective of Flight 15. SpaceX isn't simply trying to launch Starship successfully. It's attempting to demonstrate that both stages can return to the launch site and be recovered for potential reuse. And the company has now revealed considerably more about how it plans to achieve that goal. First, the mission is targeting an orbit approximately 275 kilometers above Earth. Starship is expected to complete up to 14 orbits during a mission lasting approximately 22 hours. That's a significant expansion compared with Flight 14's original plan. SpaceX has also outlined distinct objectives for each stage. For Super Heavy, the plan is to complete launch, ascent, stage separation, and the boost back burn before returning to the launch site for a tower catch. This will be the first return and catch attempt involving a V3 super heavy booster. It follows three successful booster catches across 2024 and 2025 with two of those recovered boosters having already flown again. But the biggest challenge of Flight 15 will be the Starship itself. As with the previous mission, the vehicle is expected to deploy Starlink satellites as part of its flight objectives. However, the real milestone will come during the return phase, and SpaceX has made it clear that the attempt will only proceed if the vehicle is healthy enough to make the journey back safely. The company stated Starship will only execute a return to launch site if the flight control team has guaranteed that the vehicle systems critical for reentry maneuvers and final landing burn and tower approach are healthy. In other words, the catch attempt is not guaranteed. SpaceX will only proceed if the vehicle's condition and flight data indicate that a safe return is possible. To help assess that condition, three camera-equipped satellites will continue observing Starship's heat shield throughout the flight. They will capture images of the vehicle and transmit the data back to Earth, giving engineers a closer look at how the thermal protection system performs under actual flight conditions. That information will be particularly important in determining whether Starship is ready to attempt a return and catch. It'll also provide valuable data for future heat shield improvements and, speaking of the heat shields, SpaceX has revealed several upgrades planned for Flight 15. According to the company, the heat shield for this flight will incorporate the improvements made on Flight 14, including additional retention mechanisms on tiles in areas deemed to be at highest risk of falling off during ascent and addressing areas with a with a flow path for plasma to get behind the tiles. The vehicle will also feature a curved tile design across a substantial portion of its heat shield. These tiles have demonstrated the potential to reduce heating in the gaps between adjacent tiles. That's an important development because protecting Starship during atmospheric reentry remains one of the biggest challenges standing between the vehicle and reliable reuse. Better tile retention, improved protection against plasma intrusion, and reduced heating Heating between adjacent tiles could all contribute to a more durable thermal protection system. And ultimately that's exactly what SpaceX needs. The goal isn't simply to bring Starship back once, it's to develop a vehicle capable of returning, undergoing inspections and refurbishment, and flying again as quickly as possible. Finally, SpaceX has also released a detailed timeline outlining the major events planned throughout its approximately 22 and a half hour mission. There's quite a lot to unpack, so I'd like to dedicate another episode to walking through that timeline in detail. Think of it as a complete preview of Flight 15 prepared by the Great Space team. Oh, and of course there's one more announcement I'd like to share. We've changed the channel's name and logo, moving from Great Space X to Great Space. This change reflects our plans to cover a broader range of aerospace topics and reach an even wider audience. Of course, SpaceX will remain at the center of much of our coverage. We haven't forgotten the viewers who have supported us throughout this journey, and we'll continue delivering the SpaceX updates you come to expect. Our goal is to simply expand our coverage while remaining a reliable source of aerospace news and analysis. If you support this change, let us know by commenting OK KEVIN. And with that, let's keep supporting SpaceX as it approaches this historic milestone, by commenting KEEP SUCCEEDING if you're excited for Flight 15. Speaking of launch delays, SpaceX isn't the only company facing schedule changes. Blue Origin has also postponed its next New Glenn mission. Following an incident earlier this year, the company accelerated its recovery efforts, hoping to return the rocket to flight before the end of 2026. The FAA's schedule reflected that ambition, listing December 28th as the the target launch date, but that plan has now changed. An email from Blue Origin CEO Dave Lemp to employees indicated that the next launch has been pushed back to January of 2027. The reason? The company wants to complete construction and prepare to begin testing new CONOPS. It's a disappointing setback for the program. During its third mission, New Glenn successfully landed its first stage booster, but an upper stage problem prevented successful payload deployment. Blue Origin then began investigating the issue and started preparing for another flight. However, a subsequent incident during a static fire test disrupted those plans once again. As a result, New Glenn will enter 2027 without another launch in 2026. The company now faces the challenge of restoring its launch operations while continuing development of its lunar lander, particularly as NASA's Artemis program approaches its next major milestones. But despite the delay, Blue Origin has also been making progress on some ambitious hardware upgrades, and one announcement stands out. In a recent update on X, Dave Limp revealed that Blue Origin is adding an entirely new third stage to New Glenn called GS3. This additional stage could significantly expand the rocket's capabilities and open the door to more demanding missions. Until now, New Glenn has used a conventional two-stage architecture. GS3 introduces another propulsion stage that can be integrated into both the 7x2 and 9x4 configurations. But what makes it particularly interesting is its massive composite liquid hydrogen tank. According to Limp, Blue Origin has completed testing of what it expects to be the largest composite liquid hydrogen tank ever flown in space. The tank was pressurized at cryogenic temperatures beyond 100% of its maximum expected operating pressure, or MEOP. It completed 10 test cycles lasting more than 2.5 hours, including over 10 minutes at 150% of MEOP. That's a significant qualification milestone. GS3 itself stands approximately 37 feet tall or 11.28 meters and is housed within an interstage structure designed to preserve the rocket's full payload fairing volume. Blue Origin has also released images of the new hardware, showing its distinctive diamond-like structure positioned above the second stage. But the real question is what GS3 will allow New Glenn to accomplish. According to Blue Origin's official announcement, the prototype is expected to fly in 2028. Although the company's current lunar program doesn't require it, GS3 could eventually support sustained operations around the moon and expand New Glenn's ability to deliver high-energy payloads. Its intended missions include direct injection into geostationary orbit, or GEO, and Earth escape trajectories toward destinations such as the Moon and deep space. Blue Origin has also published projected payload capabilities for both configurations. The 9x4 version is expected to deliver approximately 14 metric tons to GEO and 20 metric tons to Translunar Injection or TLI. The 7x2 version is projected to deliver around 8 metric tons to GEO and 10 metric tons to TLI. These capabilities could make New Glenn more competitive in the commercial, government, and national security launch markets. And while the tank qualification tests represent an important step forward, GS3 is still several years away from its expected debut. But it's not the only new hardware Blue Origin has revealed. The company has also introduced an entirely new rocket engine. New Glenn is already powered by two engine families, the BE4 and BE3U. But Blue Origin is now expanding that lineup with an entirely new engine called Northstar, and it could become an important part of the company's plans to compete with SpaceX. In another update on X, Dave Limp shared approximately 32 seconds of footage showing what appears to be a Northstar engine test. Blue Origin also released additional images alongside its GS3 announcement, revealing a more streamlined design than the existing BE4. Despite its simpler appearance, Northstar retains an oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle and a single-shaft turbopump architecture, using liquefied natural gas as fuel. In some ways, its engineering philosophy resembles SpaceX's Raptor 3. Reduce complexity, simplify manufacturing, and improve performance, and the thrust figures According to Dave Limp and Blue Origin's official announcement, Northstar is designed to produce approximately 715,000 pounds of thrust, or around 324 metric tons. But raw power isn't the only priority. Blue Origin says more than 65% of the engine is additively manufactured using its in-house 3D printing capabilities. The company also claims Northstar can be assembled in less than a day, with approximately 30% less weight and 50% fewer components than its predecessor. These improvements are intended to simplify production, reduce manufacturing costs, and make it easier to build engines at a much higher rate. Together, Northstar and GS3 represent two major upgrades to New Glenn. Greater engine thrust and improved high-energy mission capability. And that's where the competition with SpaceX will become particularly interesting. And with that, thank you for tuning in to today's episode. I'm Kevin, and I'll see you in the next one. Until then, keep looking up.