In two posts on his social media platform, X, Elon Musk shared that a version 2 of Starship is around the corner and will bring various improvements to the rocket. However, it sounds like there will still be a few “V1” Starships left to be tested before moving to V2.

Four V1 Starships left for testing

We are only just over a week out from the second launch of a full Starship rocket and Musk is already starting to talk about a second version of Starship. While this might sound like a major change in what we’ll see in the future, it most likely won’t be something you will see from the outside.

테스트를 위해 4개의 V1 우주선이 남았습니다. 완전한 우주선 로켓의 두 번째 발사가 일주일 남짓 남았으며 머스크는 이미 우주선의 두 번째 버전에 대해 이야기하기 시작했습니다. 이것이 미래에 우리가 보게 될 큰 변화처럼 들릴 수도 있지만, 외부에서 볼 수 있는 것은 아닐 가능성이 높습니다.

Musk shared this news with a teas of a post on X, formally Twitter, showing the four currently assembled Starship vehicles at Starbase, saying, “four more Starships, the last of V1.” This implied that a V2 rocket would be coming in the future.

Thanks to the community of Starbase watchers, we have been able to track the final four V1 Starship vehicles as they have all been corralled into the High Bay.

The four remaining Starship upper stages will be Ship 28, 29, 30, and 32. Ship 31 was assembled, however, it was moved to Starbase’s Rocket Garden. Usually being put in a Rocket Garden is a spot of honor, but at Starbase it’s a sign the vehicle will soon be scrapped.

나머지 4개의 스타쉽 상부 단계는 Ship 28, 29, 30, 32입니다. Ship 31은 조립되었지만 Starbase의 Rocket Garden으로 옮겨졌습니다. 일반적으로 로켓 가든에 배치되는 것은 명예로운 일이지만, 스타베이스에서는 차량이 곧 폐기될 것이라는 신호입니다.

Ship 28 was moved off of a stand used for Raptor installation and then moved to the High Bay, the smaller of the three rocket vertical assembly buildings. Now Ship 28 will received more work to its heat shield section because if it flies, SpaceX is hoping to get this one around the Earth and attempt reentry.

Ship 28은 Raptor 설치에 사용된 스탠드에서 이동한 후 3개의 로켓 수직 조립 건물 중 더 작은 High Bay로 이동했습니다. 이제 Ship 28은 열 차폐 부분에 더 많은 작업을 받게 됩니다. 왜냐하면 SpaceX가 비행할 경우 이를 지구 주위로 가져와 재진입을 시도하기를 희망하기 때문입니다.

You can catch these moves in the recent tracking update from NASASpaceflight.

All four final V1 Starship seen in Starbase’s High Bay in various stages of completion. Image: Sean Doherty / NASASpaceflight

Will all four of these Starships fly? That’s unknown at the moment. While it might sound like they will, SpaceX in the past has changed plans and skipped vehicles in favor of a more reliable design.

이 네 개의 우주선이 모두 날 수 있을까요? 현재로서는 알 수 없습니다. 그럴 것처럼 들릴 수도 있지만 과거 SpaceX는 보다 안정적인 설계를 위해 계획을 변경하고 차량을 건너뛰었습니다.

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What changes might come to V2?

And that reliability is what Starship V2 will be all about. In a reply to one of his employees asking questions about Starship V2 on X, Musk shared that “version 2 of the ship holds more propellant, reduces dry mass and improves reliability.”

It isn’t a huge surprise that changes would come to Starship that would require a new version. Over the year Musk has talked about numerous issues with Starship’s current design that will need improving. Also, after years of flight tests and development, I’m sure there is a list of items that SpaceX has thought about changing.

One change that has been talked about is a nine engine version of Starship with six vacuum optimized engines on the bottom. In theory there would be room to install three more engines on the underside of Starship, but it’s unclear at this time if that will happen with V2.

논의된 한 가지 변화는 하단에 6개의 진공 최적화 엔진이 있는 9개의 엔진 버전의 Starship입니다. 이론상으로는 스타쉽 밑면에 엔진 3개를 더 설치할 수 있는 공간이 있을 것이지만 현재로서는 V2에서도 그런 일이 일어날지는 불분명합니다.

Starbase is an almost 24/7 operation at this point, so production of V2 parts will most likely begin shortly, if they haven’t started already.

Starbase는 현재 거의 24시간 연중무휴로 운영되므로 V2 부품 생산이 아직 시작되지 않았다면 곧 시작될 가능성이 높습니다.