Elon hints to having this solved by end of 2025 in this tweet: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1783880139887239390?s=46
Will there be at least one successful refuelling in orbit of a starship by end of 2025?
@ElliotDavies There is a starship in orbit around earth. X happens so that starship has more fuel than before X happened. This is planned to be two starships docking and transferring fuel from one to the other.
@HansPeter there's also been discussion about having a propellent depot that will accumulate propellent on-orbit. After enough propellent has been launched and transferred to the depot, a deep space Starship (bound for the Moon or Mars) will rendezvous with the depot and take it all.
The depot may be a Starship variant. Or it could be something smaller, lofted into space as a payload. Or maybe all refueling will be done Starship-to-Starship, and the depot was just people speculating.
If SpaceX transfers propellent from a a Starship to a depot like vehicle, will that be enough to resolve YES? Or would the depot need to transfer propellent to something that's decidedly Starship shaped before it counts?
Also, does a Starship need to take on a useful amount to count, or small test quantities are enough?
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@DanHomerick pretty sure the depot will also be a starship (depot variant of starship, likely without flaps or tiles, probably stretched tanks)