https://www.space.com/spacex-starshi...acked-1st-time
SpaceX stacks Starship atop massive booster for 1st time to make the world's tallest rocket
SpaceX's newest
Starship prototype was briefly placed atop of its massive booster for the first time on Friday (Aug. 6), setting a new record for the world's tallest rocket ahead of a planned orbital test flight this year.
Engineers performed the stacking test at the
SpaceX Starbase facility in South Texas, near the village of Boca Chica, in view of livestreams from NASA Spaceflight and
Spadre.com
Starship SN20 ("Serial No. 20") and its Super Heavy booster were mated for about an hour for fit checks, during which time the two vehicles posed a towering site. Super Heavy alone stands 230 feet (70 meters) tall and Starship SN4 added another 165 feet (50 m) of height. Together they stood a whopping 395 feet tall (120 m), taller than NASA's massive Saturn V moon rocket, which was 363 feet tall (110 m).….
On Twitter, Musk wrote that Starship and its Super Heavy booster also still need at least "4 significant items" before they'd be ready to fly. Those include final heat shield tiles for Starship, thermal protection for the Super Heavy's engines, more ground system propellant storage tanks and a quick disconnect arm for Starship, likely attached to the pad's gantry tower.
It's likely that both Starship SN20 and Super Heavy Booster 4 will test-fire their engines in separate static fire tests. SpaceX routinely conducts such tests before its commercial launches and
test-fired its Super Heavy Booster 3 prototype last month.….
