SN15 next

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Last week, April 8, the next Starship prototype to be tested rolled out to its launch pad. They skipped SN12-14, so this one's called SN15 and it's the result of those "hundreds of design  improvements" mentioned in yesterday's post. 

New and improved prototypes keep coming out of the factory. By year end there should be an SN20 capable of orbit.

Both the final version of Starship and the first stage it will ride on (Super Heavy) will be fully re-usable for multiple launches, which is the essential key to routine space travel. Otherwise, the costs would be (ahem) astronomical and prohibitive.

Elon Musk put it this way: "It's absolutely profound to have a reusable rocket . . .This is the holy grail."

Only with reusable space vehicles and rockets can the human race even consider colonizing Mars, and that's the goal he's always been going after.

See SN15 transported by "tankzilla" (starting about 8:40), workers attaching lift jig to the nosecone, and an enormous crane placing SN15 on its pad: