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The full tweet implies that the stack is ready for launch (and indeed has already been stacked once at the pad) but that the FAA's pending approval is the only

The full tweet implies that the stack is ready for launch (and indeed has already been stacked once at the pad) but that the FAA's pending approval is the only bottleneck being waited on for launch.

terramex 5y ago
No, it needs few weeks to be ready for launch. They are still doing electric work and replacing thermal tiles on S20, did not perform cryo tests or static fires on either booster or ship etc. GSE (Ground Support Equipment) still needs finishing too.
jeffparsons 5y ago
A lot of people are interpreting what Elon posted to mean that the stack is ready for launch now and is held up by the FAA, but I'm quite confident that's _not_ what he actually meant. I can't speak to whether or not Elon is playing word games to imply that the FAA is holding things up, or if it was just sloppy phrasing on his part, but the full stack is definitely _not_ yet ready for launch. How am I so confident? I follow the updates posted by the fan community obsessively. There are several different people that take high resolution photos and video from public land adjacent the Boca Chica facility, hundreds who interpret that footage, and tens who post high quality summaries of recent progress. Combine that friendly neighborhood industrial espionage with things Elon said explicitly in his recent interview with Tim Dodd, and it becomes clear that there are at least a few weeks of work left before they could launch. So when Musk says... > First orbital stack of Starship should be ready for flight in a few weeks, pending only regulatory approval ...I think we should read it as "after a few weeks of remaining work, if the FAA has not yet approved the launch _then_ they will be the bottleneck".
- lsaferite 5y ago
  Strange how people are misreading that. If I were to reparse that I'd say "It will be ready for flight in a few weeks. If we have FAA approval at that point, we will be able to launch."

The full tweet implies that the stack is ready for launch (and indeed has already been stacked once at the pad) but that the FAA's pending approval is the only bottleneck being waited on for launch.

terramex 5y ago

No, it needs few weeks to be ready for launch. They are still doing electric work and replacing thermal tiles on S20, did not perform cryo tests or static fires on either booster or ship etc. GSE (Ground Support Equipment) still needs finishing too.

jeffparsons 5y ago

A lot of people are interpreting what Elon posted to mean that the stack is ready for launch now and is held up by the FAA, but I'm quite confident that's _not_ what he actually meant. I can't speak to whether or not Elon is playing word games to imply that the FAA is holding things up, or if it was just sloppy phrasing on his part, but the full stack is definitely _not_ yet ready for launch. How am I so confident? I follow the updates posted by the fan community obsessively. There are several different people that take high resolution photos and video from public land adjacent the Boca Chica facility, hundreds who interpret that footage, and tens who post high quality summaries of recent progress. Combine that friendly neighborhood industrial espionage with things Elon said explicitly in his recent interview with Tim Dodd, and it becomes clear that there are at least a few weeks of work left before they could launch. So when Musk says... > First orbital stack of Starship should be ready for flight in a few weeks, pending only regulatory approval ...I think we should read it as "after a few weeks of remaining work, if the FAA has not yet approved the launch _then_ they will be the bottleneck".

lsaferite 5y ago
Strange how people are misreading that. If I were to reparse that I'd say "It will be ready for flight in a few weeks. If we have FAA approval at that point, we will be able to launch."