[s1artibartfast]

They already have a falcon heavy capacity vehicle - Falcon heavy. I guess I am confused about what you think they would get out of testing with a smaller platform. It seems like most of their focus is specifically figuring out how to make a large platform work. What do you think would translate?

[adgjlsfhk1]

I think that trying to make a large platform work with engines that aren't reliable and on a fuel system that you don't have experience with is a really dumb idea.

The raptor engine is a pretty giant advance over the merlin engine and methane seems like a reasonable fuel, but testing of the engine has been consistently held back by issues they're running into due to scaling up the rocket so much. Starship has only had 12 test flights in 3 years (vs 50 launches since january for falcon 9). Had raptor testing taken place on a smaller vehicle it seems pretty likely that they already would have a falcon heavy replacement in service that could be launching real payload.

[s1artibartfast]

I see where you are coming from. I dont think they are interested in relpacing falcon heavy. I have not heard anything about that. what would the point be?

from my perspective, the large platform is the goal, and engines are in service of that. It is hard to imagine that this would would advance the timeline of startship. It seems like there are substantial technical challenges around the fueling system, as well as re-entry, and potentially engine restart in space. Any of these could be fatal, so they need to start working on them as soon as possible, even if the engines themselves arent perfect.