Jay L. DeShetler

Side-by-side shot of returning boosters with different returning approaches during Flight 7 & 8 from the same remote spot. @NASASpaceflight youtu.be/sSDGxXQEFYY

Today, we honor the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. Their courage and commitment paved the way for future generations to dream bigger, explore farther, and reach for the stars. This Memorial Day, we remember and thank those who gave everything to ensure our freedom.

Filmed 9 hours apart on HWY 4 next to the launch pads for the maiden Starship V3 launch, S39 & B19. youtube.com/watch?v=UfQHy4… @NASASpaceflight

T-20 minute vent. youtube.com/watch?v=KKP8sQ…

I did some aerial storm chasing yesterday.

@MarkWhittington A nuclear-powered future for @NASA exploration is inevitable. SR-1 Freedom is just the beginning 🇺🇸

If you reverse the Starlink Imager deploy video, it does look like you're being eaten by some giant sea creature 🤣

Starbase This Week (2026-05-24) | Written by @KangasSpaceroo Can you watch my full stack while I go take a quick break... so uh… where is my full stack? Well, Flight 12 occurred this week, so let's cover everything up to flight. Welcome to this week’s Starbase This Week. Delays… delays… delays… As we entered flight week, we had expected a wet dress rehearsal before flight with a road delay for the 18th and a beach closure coming out for the 19th ahead of a May 20th flight date. An additional notice for the 21st was also posted as an alternative date. As we got into the week, the delays started coming in. On the 18th it was announced that flight was pushed back to the 21st. As we entered flight day on the 21st, everything seemed like it was going according to plan… until T-40s where we would enter repeated holds as teams were at first making sure lines drained back properly, and then making sure the deluge was healthy, and finally making sure the SQD was ready to retract. Ultimately, Flight 12 would be delayed to the 22nd after a pin in the SQD arm failed to retract. On that 2nd attempt, Flight 12 would successfully count down to T-0 with only one hold at T-40 seconds and lifted off the pad successfully. Flight 12 Preparations However, we can’t have a flight without a booster and ship. But first, a quick full deluge test was performed on the 18th. Our flight vehicles would begin their roll to the pad on the 18th and 19th respectively. Booster 19 would be first late on the 18th and would be lifted early on the 19th. A couple of hours later, its flight partner Ship 39 would roll out and would be stacked that afternoon. After being hooked up to pad systems, the vehicles would be tested one final time before flight with a Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) on the 20th. The WDR would be started around midday on the 20th and would ultimately be stopped with all four tanks being about half full. Another full deluge test would be performed as the vehicles were detanking. Flight 12 Now for the big event of the past 221 days, besides Booster 18 having a minor issue during testing. Flight 12 would enter its count on the 21st and would successfully load all tanks but would ultimately scrub for the day at T-40s due to an aforementioned pin failing to retract. However, teams were able to fix the pin and prepared for a 24 hour recycle on the 22nd. That second attempt on the 22nd would also have a hold at T-40s, this time for fuel pushback. That would be resolved quickly and we would get a “Go for Launch” from the FD. Booster 19 would successfully ignite all 33 Raptor 3 engines and had quite the sporty lift off from Pad 2. About a minute forty into flight, one of the outer raptors would shut down. For some rockets this may be an issue with a loss of thrust, however with 32 of 33 engines running, Booster 19 continued uphill, still at quite a sporty pace. MECO would occur successfully and Ship 39 would be on its way to space. For the booster, the flip and boostback is where troubles began to appear. On its flip, it appears that the booster may not have flipped in the intended direction and as engines reignited it appears as if one engine may not have been happy and had a minor issue. Shortly after this the boostback burn would be cut short. Booster 19 would enter a roll but would recover as its grid fins caught air. As the Booster approached the water, it attempted to relight its engines for its landing burn; however only one raptor would ignite and the booster would lose connection at a speed of 1454 km/h, roughly Mach 1.17 and roughly 100 meters in the air. As for the ship, the first minute of its ascent appeared flawless, and then one of the RVacs would shut down. While giving us flashbacks of flights 7 and 8, Ship 39 was able to correct for the loss of thrust and continued uphill. SECO would occur about a minute later than predicted but Ship 39 successfully reached its suborbital trajectory. Ship 39 would successfully deploy all 20 Starlink simulators and 2 “Dodger Dogs,” which provided us the first views of Starship from another spacecraft. Unfortunately due to the RVac out on ascent, Ship 39 would skip its raptor relight which likely means that Ship 40 will also be suborbital due to that need for a raptor to successfully relight, demonstrating the capability to deorbit a 100+ ton spacecraft which can survive reentry. Speaking of which, Ship 39 would successfully reenter and make a pinpoint landing in the Indian Ocean. Its heatshield, one of the most intact of the program successfully protected the vehicle with Elon posting that there was no burnthrough. Thus concludes Flight 12, except we were busy with the vehicles, how did Pad 2 hold up? Remarkably well actually. The redesigned Pad 2 and flame trench successfully held up to the fury of Raptor with only minor scorching and paint peeling on the BQDs. However, the “GATEWAY TO MARS” sign nearby tells a different story with most of its letters missing, now saying “GAT WAY”. Masseys Not wanting to be left out of the action, B18.3 would perform yet another cryo test late on the 23rd. Well that's it for our Flight 12 coverage. Thanks all for joining us on our stage as we watched V3 successfully debut. How soon do you think Flight 13 will be? For real-time updates, join us in the Discord: discord.gg/ZbrSYPzDAq To explore our maps yourself and track every movement, check out our Figma, now at both Starbase and Cape Canaveral: Starbase: figma.com/design/2AvC161… Cape Canaveral: figma.com/design/lHRSgzU… #SpaceX #Starbase #Starship

Big sky on a beautiful Memorial Day.

After a 3.5-hour flight, Shenzhou-23 docked with the China Space Station at 18:45UTC

With so much focus on Starship of late, let's catch up on the ISS. By Eleanor Day (@elliedayxo) nasaspaceflight.com/2026/05/iss-ro…

Time-lapse of the SpaceX S39 & B19 launch from fueling to launch with a high-fidelity audio recorder. youtu.be/-ixJ-WyqXyU?si… @NASASpaceflight

This Week In Spaceflight with Elysia Segal (@elysiasegal). youtube.com/watch?v=-ixJ-W…

V1/2 and V3 Super Heavy boosters.

Maiden launch of Starship V3, S39 & B19 from the new Launch Pad 2, captured by one of the NSF remote cameras and a high-fidelity audio recorder. The scale is so massive that it looks like a slow-motion shot as the Starship lifts off rapidly. youtube.com/watch?v=UfQHy4… @NASASpaceflight

This new pad design controls the plume of Starship very nicely! It should make deployed camera shots far more predictable, and continue to lead to even more incredible content! 🎥: me for @NASASpaceflight

Oh, I've got a feeling there's a video coming from this!

Starship V3, what a powerful rocket! The deflector and deluge appeared to protect the pad wonderfully, but that doesn't stop the storm of pressure waves emanating from the exhaust during flight. 🎥 @NASASpaceflight

V1, V2, V3

The camera that took this photo was ~650 feet from Starship & Tower 2, WELL within the danger zone at liftoff. To help give the camera a better chance of survival, it needed to be weighed down to combat the winds/debris - but I was lacking any sort of usable weight…until I opened my trunk. This is the “full size spare” tire I briefly ran on after sacrificing a wheel & tire to Highway 4 during the Flight 10 campaign 😂 and it worked! Also helped a bit taking some shelter behind one of Hopper’s legs.

Fairings on a roll at KSC. nsf.live/spacecoast