--- title: "SpaceX Appears to Be Assembling Its Orbital Starship Booster" description: "Going Super Heavy Pictures taken near SpaceX’s testing facilities in South Texas show the construction of what appears to be the company’s first flightworthy Super Heavy booster prototype, as Teslarati reports. The massive 230 foot structure dubbed BN3 is designed to lift the space company’s Starship spacecraft into orbit. The Elon Musk-led company is making […]" date: "2021-05-20" modified: "2021-05-20" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-assembling-orbital-starship-booster" categories: - "Space" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" tags: - "elon musk" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "super heavy" - "the digest" --- # SpaceX Appears to Be Assembling Its Orbital Starship Booster ![Pictures taken near SpaceX's testing facilities show the construction of what appears to be the company's first flightworthy Super Heavy booster prototype.]() *\Image: SpaceX\* ## Going Super Heavy Photos taken near SpaceX's testing facilities in South Texas show the construction of what appears to be the company's first flightworthy Super Heavy booster prototype, [*Teslarati* reports](). The massive 230 foot structure, dubbed BN3, is designed to lift the space company's Starship spacecraft into orbit. The Elon Musk-led company is making major steps toward realizing its goal of launching its behemoth Starship into orbit following its recent [successful launch]() of its SN15 Starship prototype to around ten kilometers — but getting all the way to space still poses an enormous challenge. ## Road to Hawaii The massive Super Heavy prototype now sports 28 cutouts at its base, each destined for a massive Raptor rocket engine, according to *Teslarati*. It's a gigantic step up from the three Raptor engines that powered SN15. The company [recently filed]() an application with the Federal Communications Commission to allow it to communicate with both a Starship and Super Heavy during an "orbital test flight." This test flight could occur within the next six months, [starting on June 20](). A separate document filed with the FCC [outlined SpaceX's plans]() to launch its Starship Orbital test flight from "Starbase, Texas," fly it into orbit, and land it roughly 62 miles off the northwest coast of Kauai, Hawaii, "in a soft ocean landing." ## Challenge Mode Now, SpaceX needs to finish assembling and test its BN3 Super Heavy booster, as well as its next Starship prototype, dubbed SN20. "Next major technology \[revision\] is at SN20," [Musk tweeted]() in late March. "Those ships will be orbit-capable with heat shield & stage separation system. Ascent success probability is high." Musk noted in the same tweet, however, that such a flight won't be easy. Future Starship prototypes "will probably need many flight attempts to survive" reentry and "land intact," he said. Most imminently, SpaceX is likely to attempt to fly its SN15 prototype [for the second time](), the first Starship prototype to make such an attempt. **READ MORE:** [SpaceX starts stacking Starship’s first orbital-class Super Heavy booster]() \[*Teslarati*\] **More on Starship:** *[Residents Furious at Elon Musk for Turning Rural Town Into Growing Spaceport]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()