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SpaceX stacks Starship and Super Heavy booster for “wet dress rehearsal” test

SpaceX has fully stacked Ship 24 and Booster 7 for the third (and hopefully second to last) time. (SpaceX)

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3 years ago

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For the third time in three months, SpaceX has fully assembled Starship 24 and Super Heavy Booster 7 after another period of separate tests, repairs, and modifications.

Measuring around 120 meters (~390 ft) tall from ship tip to booster tail, the fully-stacked rocket is again the largest ever assembled. Compared to the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets SpaceX currently operates, Starship is far larger. It’s also meant to be fully reusable, while the Falcon family – which expends its orbital upper stage – is roughly 80% reusable. If SpaceX can meet its technical goals, Starship could eventually cost around a magnitude less to launch than Falcon while carrying roughly 5-20 times more payload per launch. In short, it could revolutionize the cost of access to orbit.

Combined with orbital refilling, the ability to transfer propellant between Starships, reusable Starships could also radically exceed Falcon 9 or even Falcon Heavy’s expendable performance. But first, SpaceX needs to make sure that Starship can reach orbit at all.

Compared to Ship 20 and Booster 4, earlier prototypes that were also fully stacked a few times in 2021 and early 2022 before their retirement, Ship 24 and Booster 7 are closer to supporting Starship’s first orbital launch attempt. After their latest full-stack milestone, they could be just a few major tests away from being cleared for flight.

“According to CEO Elon Musk and a NASA official, the last major standalone test between Booster 7 and flight readiness is a full 33-engine static fire. Together, B7’s 33 Raptor 2 engines could produce up to 7600 tons (16.7 million lbf) of thrust at sea level, likely making Starship the most powerful rocket stage in the history of spaceflight.

A wet dress rehearsal is a routine test conducted before a rocket launch and is generally designed to simulate every aspect of a launch save for engine ignition and liftoff. Most importantly, that involves fully filling the rocket with propellant and passing all of the checks the same rocket would need to pass to be cleared for launch. The first full-stack WDR will test Starbase’s launch facilities just as much as Booster 7 and Ship 24.”

Teslarati.com – January 9th, 2023

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The January 9th assembly of B7 and S24 confirms that the WDR will likely occur first, as conducting the first 33-Raptor Super Heavy static fire while fully stacked would unnecessarily risk the Starship. Ship 24 could fly on a future booster if B7 does not pass (or survive) proof testing. More likely than not, Ship 24 will be removed from Booster 7 after WDR testing, freeing Super Heavy for one last round of standalone static fire testing. If that testing clears Booster 7, Ship 24 will be reinstalled – possibly for the last time.

While hardware challenges continue to trump paperwork, an FAA launch license is another significant hurdle standing between SpaceX and Starship’s orbital launch debut. SpaceX and the FAA are in the middle of hammering out the details of such a license, which is partially contingent upon the completion of dozens of “mitigation” measures. Because Starship’s unprecedented size elevates the risk it could pose to local residents, it’s likely that that license is also contingent upon results from ground tests and will be one of the last gates to be lifted.

SpaceX has three windows that could be used for B7/S24 full-stack testing this week: two from 8am to 8pm CST on January 11th and 12th and one from 8am to 4pm on January 13th. CEO Elon Musk says that Starship could be ready for its first orbital launch attempt as early as late February or March 2023.

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Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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Tesla takes first step in sunsetting Model S and X with drastic move

Tesla won’t be taking custom orders of the Model S or Model X in Europe any longer.

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2 hours ago

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July 30, 2025

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Credit: @supergeek18 | X

Tesla has seemingly taken the first step in sunsetting two of its older vehicles, the Model S and Model X, by ending international orders.

The flagship sedan and SUV from Tesla are the two oldest cars in the company’s lineup. They account for a very small portion of overall sales, and several years ago, CEO Elon Musk admitted that Tesla only continues to build and sell them due to “sentimental reasons.”

Earlier this year, there were calls for Tesla to end the production of the two cars, but Lars Moravy said that the Model S and Model X were due to get some love later in 2025. That happened, but the changes were extremely minor.

Tesla launches new Model S and Model X, and the changes are slim

Some took this as an indication that Tesla has kind of moved on from the Model S and Model X. A handful of people seemed to think Tesla would overhaul the vehicles substantially, but the changes were extremely minor and included only a few real adjustments.

In Europe, customers are unable to even put a new order in on a Model S or Model X.

We noticed earlier today that Tesla pressing the ‘Order’ button on either of the flagship vehicles takes you to local inventory, and not the Design Studio where you’d configure your custom build:

Tesla simply does not make enough Model S or Model X units to justify the expensive logistics process of shipping custom orders overseas. It almost seems as if they’re that they will essentially build a bunch of random configurations, send them overseas every few months, and let them sell before replenishing inventory.

Inversely, it could also mean Tesla is truly gearing up to sunset the vehicle altogether. It seems unlikely that the company will fade them out altogether in the next couple of years, but it could absolutely think about ending international orders because volume is so low.

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Energy

Tesla inks multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution to avoid tariff pressure

Tesla has reportedly secured a sizable partnership with LGES for LFP cells, and there’s an extra positive out of it.

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7 hours ago

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July 30, 2025

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has reportedly inked a multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution in an effort to avoid tariff pressure and domesticate more of its supply chain.

Reuters is reporting that Tesla and LGES, a South Korean battery supplier of the automaker, signed a $4.3 billion deal for energy storage system batteries. The cells are going to be manufactured by LGES at its U.S. factory located in Michigan, the report indicates. The batteries will be the lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, chemistry.

Tesla delivers 384,000 vehicles in Q2 2025, deploys 9.6 GWh in energy storage

It is a move Tesla is making to avoid buying cells and parts from overseas as the Trump White House continues to use tariffs to prioritize domestic manufacturing.

LGES announced earlier today that it had signed a $4.3 billion contract to supply LFP cells over three years to a company, but it did not identify the customer, nor did the company state whether the batteries would be used in automotive or energy storage applications.

The deal is advantageous for both companies. Tesla is going to alleviate its reliance on battery cells that are built out of the country, so it’s going to be able to take some financial pressure off itself.

For LGES, the company has reported that it has experienced slowed demand for its cells in terms of automotive applications. It planned to offset this demand lag with more projects involving the cells in energy storage projects. This has been helped by the need for these systems at data centers used for AI.

During the Q1 Earnings Call, Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja confirmed that the company’s energy division had been impacted by the need to source cells from China-based suppliers. He went on to say that the company would work on “securing additional supply chain from non-China-based suppliers.”

It seems as if Tesla has managed to secure some of this needed domestic supply chain.

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Lifestyle

Tesla brings perhaps the coolest interior feature to cars in latest update

Tesla adds on to the “fun” aspect of its vehicles.

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9 hours ago

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July 30, 2025

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has brought perhaps the coolest interior feature to its cars in a new update that is rolling out to vehicles now.

The feature will require a newer vehicle that has interior ambient lighting, which is present on the new Model S, Model X, Model 3 “Highland,” and Model Y “Juniper.” The Cybertruck also has ambient lighting strips throughout.

Tesla Model Y’s ambient lighting design changes revealed in leaked video

With the Version 2025.26+ Software Update, Tesla is rolling out a new “Sync Accent Lights w/ Music” feature, which is available on the Tesla Toybox:

To enable the feature, you’ll access the Toybox, choose “Light Sync,” and then choose “Sync Accent Lights w/ Music.”

Although it does not improve the performance of the vehicle, it is yet another example of Tesla making one of the coolest cars out there. This is truly a cool add-on that can be used to impress your friends and family.

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