Link includes photos and video.
Big Highlights from @ElonMusk's talk:
@SpaceX intends to launch 5 Starships to Mars in 2026. Details at the bottom of the post. - The entire talk took place adjacent to a Block 3 integrated Hot-stage section.
- Elon reiterates that @StarbaseTX being on a public highway is "Pretty cool", and that anyone can come and see the largest flying object ever built.
- Starbase's Giga Bay will be built to manufacture 1,000 Starships per year - We saw the first render of a Starship being caught in Pad B's chopsticks.
- We saw the first up-close video of Raptor 3 firing at @SpaceX's McGregor Test Site (of course we've seen hours of Raptor 3 testing from a distance on @NASASpaceflight 's McGregor Live).
We saw an updated render of Orbital Refuelling. This now features 4 extended interfaces on the chaser ship.
- The "Next Gen Starship" will have 3 gridfins on the Super Heavy Booster, rotated 90° from each other, with no gridfin on one side.
- A 9-engined Starship has not been ruled out (we even saw a 9-engined render), but Starship Block 3 will only have six Raptor 3 engines (3 RVac, 3 Sea-level)
- Starship Block 3 is pretty much the Block 2 numbers from April 2024's All-hands talk. Block 3: Ship 52.1m, Booster 72.3m, 124.4m combined "Future Starship": Ship 61m, Booster 81m, 142m combined
- The rocket launch at the end of this year "will be capable of making life multiplanetary" - @SpaceX intends to launch 5 landers to Mars in 2026, carrying 10 tonnes of payload each, including
@Tesla_Optimus robots.
- 2028/29 will see 20 landers, carrying 75t each.
- 2030/31 will see 100 landers, carrying 150t each.
- 2033 will see 500 landers, carrying 300t each (that is 150,000 Metric Tonnes of cargo total) - Mars Base location candidates are currently being identified around the Arcadia region, with large ice deposits.
- @Starlink will be deployed into Martian orbit to provide internet communications on the Red Planet. Earth-Mars latency will be 3 minutes on a good day, 22 minutes when Earth & Mars are on opposite sides of the Sun.