FYI. I still show the higher price in Frisco, TX though.

NEWS: SpaceX has cut the price of its @Starlink Standard Kit to a record low of $89 in parts of the US—a 75% drop from its usual price ($349) and 85% less than a year ago ($599). On top of all this, new customers can also lock in a reduced monthly service fee of $59 (from $120)… pic.twitter.com/4cPMUuGRgU

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) September 13, 2025

Spoiler alert to the clickbait this week; no, they aren't dead Martians, 1MM bits of rock that have some carbon in them.

nortex97 said:

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FYI. I still show the higher price in Frisco, TX though.

NEWS: SpaceX has cut the price of its @Starlink Standard Kit to a record low of $89 in parts of the US—a 75% drop from its usual price ($349) and 85% less than a year ago ($599). On top of all this, new customers can also lock in a reduced monthly service fee of $59 (from $120)… pic.twitter.com/4cPMUuGRgU

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) September 13, 2025

Spoiler alert to the clickbait this week; no, they aren't dead Martians, 1MM bits of rock that have some carbon in them.

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If you live in Sioux Falls SD you can get a good deal

Would be more accurate to say that they found organic compounds surrounded by sulphur and phosphorous in patterns that are common to chemosynthesis on earth and the most likely non-organic process by which that occurs has generally been ruled out, because the conditions in which it occurs, very hot temperatures, was not present in the area.

That scientists don't currently know if that's indicative of life or if some other non-organic process occurred to result in the same patterns. That in order to find out they have to retrieve the samples from Mars with the Mars sample return mission that has been delayed and is growing in expense, that China has their own sample return mission scheduled for 2028 and speculatively they could retrieve the samples taken by NASA and be the first to report with higher probability (or disprove for this sample) organic life on Mars by directly testing the sample.

Cignus XL Launched Aboard Falcon 9 with ZBOT-NC

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/09/northrop-grummans-new-spacecraft-is-a-real-chonker/

4900kg of cargo, including an interesting experiment that might help us out on future missions: Zero Boil-Off Tank Noncondensables (ZBOT-NC)

https://www.nasa.gov/mission/station/research-explorer/investigation/?#id=8190

Interesting new tank rolled out of the Starfactory today.

Too early to tell for sure, but this looks like it could potentially be a propellant storage tank for the Tanker Variant of Starship.

Any other ideas??

🎥: @LabPadre pic.twitter.com/jFCjjBP8xa

— Zack Golden (@CSI_Starbase) September 16, 2025

On the road again…

S38 looking sharp on its way to Pad A for a static fire test.@NASASpaceflight pic.twitter.com/5mwveqX9rF

— Ceaser G (@CeaserG33) September 17, 2025

Not sure of the schedule for a static fire. I guess in the next couple of days. Full heat shield, for the second time, only a few tiles missing around the nose.

The Pad-1 ChopstiX have moved...into Ship receive position. A little earlier, the SQD adapter plate was also moved to the pad, so looks like Ship testing isn't far off now.@LabPadre pic.twitter.com/Tklg2wv9kP

— VixXi (@VickiCocks15) September 16, 2025

This probably makes more sense to transport stuff than as a drone ship to catch stuff.

https://t.co/pe9NaIOO1K

— Jack J Marshall (@jackthejaws) September 16, 2025

But, maybe I'm wrong, it happens.

Looks like beach closures tomorrow and Friday.

Ship 38 has arrived at the launch complex ahead of a static fire campaign. Two primary beach closures have been posted, the first for September 18th from 10:00 until 21:00 and the second for September 19th from 07:00 until 16:00. pic.twitter.com/T9xTpzwddT

— LabPadre Space (@LabPadre) September 17, 2025

Great, thx.

While this would certainly look pretty rad, we are planning to break over both the booster and ship to the horizontal position for transit from Starbase to the Cape. Initial deliveries are a single booster or ship per trip, with the plan to move to multiple vehicles per transit… https://t.co/bF0gR35Eem

— Kiko Dontchev (@TurkeyBeaver) September 17, 2025

Rumor/speculation solved. Kiko is VP of launch at SpaceX (around cocoa beach). Good follow, fwiw.

The TPS on Ship 38 looks superb. https://t.co/e3xbqPo4OD pic.twitter.com/YxEajHeI5Q

— NSF - NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) September 17, 2025

Starship 39 update - September 15, 2025 pic.twitter.com/wmTDHw5SJ0

— Starbase Surfer (@cnunezimages) September 16, 2025

Is that AI generated?

I figure that it would be hell going through open gulf to get there, and they'd just use the ICW - but not seeing land in that pic....

OnlyForNow said:

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Is that AI generated?

I figure that it would be hell going through open gulf to get there, and they'd just use the ICW - but not seeing land in that pic....

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Yes that pic is not real. They will lay both the starship and booster down when they do it for real.

After ocean landings on the ships, do they come in and lay them down?

OnlyForNow said:

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After ocean landings on the ships, do they come in and lay them down?

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Nope

Ship 37 had static fire testing on 7/31 and 8/1. They replaced and R-Vac and then did a spin prime test on 8/13. It was stacked and ready for the first (weather scrubbed) flight attempt on 8/24.

11 days from the beach closure on Friday, 9/19, would have another launch as early as this month.

nortex97 said:

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Great, thx.

While this would certainly look pretty rad, we are planning to break over both the booster and ship to the horizontal position for transit from Starbase to the Cape. Initial deliveries are a single booster or ship per trip, with the plan to move to multiple vehicles per transit… https://t.co/bF0gR35Eem

— Kiko Dontchev (@TurkeyBeaver) September 17, 2025

Rumor/speculation solved. Kiko is VP of launch at SpaceX (around cocoa beach). Good follow, fwiw.

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They should fly them there. Would be a 10 minute trip.

I had to scratch my head at that too. Best I can come up with is it's cheaper by boat and that doesn't cut into their authorized number of annual landings.

While would be cool...
So you'd be bringing extra fuel all the way to space and back just to fly the thing back to shore
or
You'd be installing cryogenic fuel handling and processing onto a landing barge so you're bringing the barge back and forth anyway to get fuel and take it out there. Keep in mind, storage of cryogenics is very tough

In the end you'd simply be giving up any and all benefit of landing offshore if the end goal is to just fly the RTLS anyway.

The barge isn't for landing. It's for transporting starship and booster from Texas to Florida. In theory they could fly themselves from Boca Chica to Cape Canaveral and skip the barge all together.

Add I am not sure if the booster stage could fly itself there, I am pretty sure it doesn't make it far enough down range to clear the tip of Florida and then boost back to the Cape. Developmental upper stages clearing populated areas of Florida at low altitude would also represent a substantial and unnecessary risk next year.

I believe production will also happen eventually within KSC, so this is probably just an interim step anyway.

It might if it wasn't carrying a starship and didn't have to turn around.

But yeah, no one is going to fly a massive developmental rocket over populated areas.

ABATTBQ11 said:

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It might if it wasn't carrying a starship and didn't have to turn around.

But yeah, no one is going to fly a massive developmental rocket over populated areas.

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And yet that's the plan if/when they try can catch a starship.

Mathguy64 said:

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ABATTBQ11 said:

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It might if it wasn't carrying a starship and didn't have to turn around.

But yeah, no one is going to fly a massive developmental rocket over populated areas.

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And yet that's the plan if/when they try can catch a starship.

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By the time they do that I don't think it'll be developmental. At that point the only developmental part will be the catch.

So are they looking at a launch of 38 this Thursday or Friday?

ABATTBQ11 said:

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Mathguy64 said:

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ABATTBQ11 said:

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It might if it wasn't carrying a starship and didn't have to turn around.

But yeah, no one is going to fly a massive developmental rocket over populated areas.

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And yet that's the plan if/when they try can catch a starship.

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By the time they do that I don't think it'll be developmental. At that point the only developmental part will be the catch.

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I wouldn't put it past them.

Having said that I don't know that I would say it flys over the populated area. It's coming in very high and basically dropping straight down in the belly flop.

And I bet they could bring it in well north of all the populated area in S TX and effectively hook a dogleg around Port I well out in the gulf and bring it back. Just like the falcon booster does at the cape.

fullback44 said:

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So are they looking at a launch of 38 this Thursday or Friday?

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Static fire - launch will be in a few (maybe like 2!) weeks.

PJYoung said:

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fullback44 said:

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So are they looking at a launch of 38 this Thursday or Friday?

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Static fire - launch will be in a few (maybe like 2!) weeks.

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If they were serious about shipping across the gulf I'd figure they'd build a ship like ULA's to transport.

Jock 07 said:

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If they were serious about shipping across the gulf I'd figure they'd build a ship like ULA's to transport.

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SpaceX has had hundreds more rocket boosters on ocean going vessels than ULA has had on RS Rocketship. It's like 3.5+:1.

Not sure why they'd really need a "Bentley" barge to haul starships across the gulf. Main issue is navigating the canals/river connection over at KSC for loading/unloading. I think starships are by their nature a lot more robust than SLS sections, but they'll also likely be shipped without engines, imho, so won't require as much protection etc. as the ULA systems require after Stennis static fires, to be loaded/shipped to Florida.

Everything about the way SLS is engineered, built, tested, shipped, assembled, and laboriously crawled to the exorbitantly expensive launch tower contributes to it's bloated/ridiculous cost structure.

Possible static fire today;

Preparing for the last launch of Starship 2 https://t.co/9H7cvvW28O

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 18, 2025

I'm so confused. I could have sworn the last flight of v2 was launch 10…

Falcon 9 transitting the sun with telescope photography of the sun.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOvmUYRDe-m/