So I’ve been thinking long and hard about Ship 26. And it sucks. A lot. It’s dumb. Stupid, even. Foolish, if you will. Some may even say its the work of buffoons!
Ship 26 was first spotted via its common dome section on February 23rd, 2022. As the year progressed, more sections were spotted and stacking had officially begun in October.
Initially, Ship 26 had no real signs of it being just a dumb bullet. The original thought was that it was another iteration on the general Starship vehicle design, or would perhaps be an operational Starlink launcher. According to Jax, member of the Ring Watchers and commentator on RGV Aerial Photography’s Starbase Weekly livestreams, the most important change that seemed to be made was that S26 sports “internal stringers in the LOX tank.”
The first signs of S26 being very different than previous prototypes appeared on August 16th. The nosecone for S26 was originally receiving tiles for what would eventually be a full heatshield. Instead, photographers captured the nosecone being de-tiled while remaining in Tent 3. As noted by Ryer of the Ring Watchers, the normal mindset following this event would be that S26 is due for scrapping, but instead “many things suggest otherwise” The aft dome for S26 was sleeved only a week before. The decision to scrap S26 would have come with more foresight, and we would have likely seen the aft dome continue to sit unsleeved while the nosecone was de-tiled. Unfortunately, we don’t live in this timeline.
Instead, Elon’s hubris has led to an amalgamation of what is supposed to be innovation, but is instead manufacturing running rampant and a two year old getting his drawing built like he won a contest.
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.â€
Dr. Ian Malcolm, 1993
As so wisely stated by famed doctor and dinosaur enthusiast Ian Malcolm-who also looks suspiciously like Jeff Goldblum, by the way. Article on THAT ONE later-the engineers and manufacturing department of Starbase had outpaced the testing of their prototypes so much that the prototype population has all but exploded out of control. And, as such things happen, birth defects tend to appear. Born with a malformed tile system that had to be removed after the fact, and coupled with being born without any flaps whatsoever. If you ask me, scrapping it would be a mercy killing.
The Depot Debate
To cause even further pain for this world, the space community could scarcely agree on what the purpose for S26 is. Many believe it’s a prototype fuel depot or tanker, as speculated by Chris Bergin of NasaSpaceFlight in a (now deleted) tweet when S26 underwent cryogenic proof testing on February 21st, exclaiming that “They are filling the refilling ship!”. Other notable names in the community as well pushed out that S26 had a true purpose (other than scarring children), as LabPadre posted in their thumbnail for their 50th episode of their Starbase Weekly Update Youtube series:
This tweet in particular drew a response from the other school of thought in this debate, which can be perfectly summed up in a quote tweet by the Ring Watchers themselves:
As they are often to do, the Ring Watchers busted out the book of facts and laid out what S26 really is: just a starship “without flaps or tiles”.
The main issue here is that there was a debate in the first place of this type. Normally, Starbase and Starship development is rife with speculation and general dissenting theories, which is to be expected. SpaceX does not disclose exactly what they’re doing more than livestreaming when they have a major testing milestone such as the test flights of previous prototypes. Ship 26, however, has spawned a mess of misinformation and false information that greatly deludes where SpaceX truly is in their development. SpaceX are not to the point of testing a tanker/refuel depot. They are still learning Starship just as a vehicle itself. Ship 26 is a lesson they’ve learned in this process: to not build something so demonstrably disgusting ever again.
Getting Back on Track
As with all good things, except in this case terrible, they must come to pass. Ship 28 has all the parts to become a full fledged starship prototype once more, payload door, flaps, and thermal protection tiles included. All subsequent ships, at the time of publication, are believed to be full-scale ship prototypes as well. Ship 27 suffers from the same conditions as S26, however it managed to still have a payload door. For it’s efforts, it often does not hold the same unenviable distinction within the space community. It gets a pass from me. But it’s on thin ice. You know the frost that forms when they start getting filled with cryogenic fluids? Yeah. That’s what it’s on.
For S26, things aren’t so lucky. It should die. Now. Via FTS test. Or by brutal scrapping. Either works for me.
After doing my job a little bit more and figuring out where it is right now, S26 had been moved and lifted onto a stand in the rocket garden on the 25th of March, shown in Kevin Randolph’s tweet below:
This could be SpaceX owning up for its mistake, which I would applaud them for. Only time will tell. This may be them figuring out they shouldn’t, even if they could. You can do it SpaceX, there’s still time. Kill it. Kill it now. Make Dr. Malcolm proud.
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