"SpaceX Unveils Upgraded Starship Super Heavy Booster: Stunning Photos Inside"
SpaceX has revealed modifications to its Starship Super Heavy booster, including a "vented interstage" and heat shield for its spacecraft-separation system. The changes are aimed at increasing the chances of success on future Starship flights. The modified system will use a separation method called hot-staging, where the second-stage engines of the Starship will ignite to push the ship away from the booster. This design change, commonly used on Russian rockets, could potentially increase Starship's payload-to-orbit capacity by 10%. The test flight of the modified booster and upper-stage vehicle is expected to take place soon, pending clearance from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.