Zitat von ZRDer 146 m hohe Startturm, dessen neuntes und letztes Gittersegment im Juli 2021 montiert worden ist scheint weitgehend unbeschädigt (soweit sich das von außen beurteilen läßt; ebenso die Versorgerarme, über die die beiden Stufen mit flüssigem Sauerstoff und Methan betankt werden – und ebenso die schwenkbaren Gitterarme des „Mechazilla,“
Zitat Chris Bergin - NSF @NASASpaceflight A fair amount of workers are back at the launch site, so they'll be gaining some good insight into the post-launch status of Stage 0, etc. http://nsf.live/starbase Certainly was a positive sign for the Tower and Mechazilla when the chopsticks opened and lowered on Monday. OLM (Orbital Launch Mount) and Tank Farm are obvious watch items for status. 8:32 PM · Apr 25, 2023
Ganz abgesehen vom eigentlichen Thema "Starship" und dem enormen wissenschaftlichen und technischen Umfeld gab es ganz zum Schluss einen Satz, zu dem mir etwas aus meiner DV-Steinzeit einfiel (Ende 70er, Anfang 80er). Es gab natürlich Vorläufer des genialen IBM-PCs und das waren "Tischcomputer", durchaus im wissenschaftlichen Einsatz. Der um den es jetzt hier geht war der IBM 5120, ein Gehäuse, kleiner monochromer Bildschirm, Tastatur und zwei (!) vertikale 8-Zoll Floppy-Laufwerke, tonnenschweres Gerät. Lief bei mir mit Basic und APL, letzere Sprache das exotische Kompaktwunder. Ein Bild ist leicht im Internet zu finden.
Besten Dank. Das ist aber offensichtlich nicht ganz das, was der Künstler Tom Kidd als Vorbild für sein Titelbild genommen hat. Das Vorläufermodell der 5110 (mit horizontalem Schacht) war mir bei der Suche untergekommen, und ich meine mich ganz vage zu erinnern, daß ich zu der fraglichen Zeit auch mal irgendein Modell mit solch einem vertikalen Floppyschacht gesehen hätte. Und dann kommt ja noch die künstlerische Freiheit dazu. Kidd ist übrigens noch einer der ganz wenigen SF-Künstler, die sich in den späten 70er/1980ern einen Namen gemacht haben, der überhaupt noch auf dem Gebiet tätig ist.
1984, als "Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space" herausgekommen ist, war auch das Jahr, in dem William Gibsons "Neuromancer" erschienen ist und die ziemlich angerostste Zukunft des Cyberpunk mit den Datenpiraten und dem Einklinken in der Cyberspace durch Stecker im Hinterkopf anfing. ("Blade Runner" war daran auch nicht ganz unschuldig.) Wobei: viel ist mir aus "Neuromancer" nicht in Erinnerung geblieben: der erste Satz "The sky was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" (auch so ein Satz, der Nachgeborenen mittlerweile erklärt werden muß) und die erste Szene, in der die KI Wintermute zu Bewußtsein erwacht und Case (der mit dem eingebauten Modem) kontaktieren will - Case läuft im Flughafen von Tokyo an einer Reihe öffentlicher Fernsprecher vorbei - und einsr nach dem anderen klingelt, während er vorbeikommt.
Irgendwie kann ich nachvollziehen, daß Gibson vor 20 Jahren erklärt hat, er würde nicht über "die Zukunft" mehr schreiben, sondern nur noch über die Gegenwart.
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
Zitat von 'S/crappy - There's a fine line between scrappy and crappy. Which side is Starship on?' - Ben Kellie Apr 25, 2023Let me be clear that I have never seen massive damage like this occur because a rocket took off like it should. Generally, you’ll get some damage on the ground, even after a successful launch. That damage is usually small - things like hoses, small bits of blast shielding, or other items not protected by the water system.
Here, the heat flux and propulsive force of the world’s largest rocket destroyed the concrete flat pad (that used no cooling water) which in turn took out a number of engines before lift off, some ground tanks, the launch mount, and more. Elon was clear that the decision to fly in that configuration with no water or diverter was his call, and in this case it almost destroyed the pad, accelerated the rocket’s failure, and led to the program being grounded pending FAA review.
Like a lot of programs trying to get to orbit, the next steps are picking up the pieces, reviewing the data, and figuring out how to try again. Elon is saying they will be ready to go in 1 - 2 months, which is simply not going to happen. Fixing the pad alone will be extremely challenging, but it is likely the easy part here. The fix will require complete repouring of the foundation around the launch mount, installation of some kind of cooled-plate to prevent this from happening again, as well as likely refurbishment of the damaged ground tanks.
That's at least what I can tell from pictures, I'm sure there's more.
The hard part will be passing FAA review to get airborne again. That was just announced today, so more to come there. The nigh impossible part might be convincing NASA to let them launch from LC-39A, the historic Apollo and Space Shuttle spaceport, that SpaceX has been successfully launching from for the last five years or so.
This pad is the crown jewel of SpaceX’s facilities, and in many ways the crown jewel of all launch pads. It sent humans to the moon through the Apollo program, and it hosted many critical missions through Shuttle. It was an honor to work out there during my time at SpaceX as an employee and service provider, and I know everyone on that pad feels the same way.
Moreover, it is the only pad that SpaceX can launch astronauts from to service their ISS Crew contract which was just extended and is worth billions of dollars. It is also the only pad that they can launch Falcon Heavy from, which fanbois will tell you doesn’t matter once Starship is running, but it matters a lot until that point.
After this flight at Starbase, is the FAA or NASA going to allow Super Heavy and Starship to launch here, where a mistake could wipe out billions in taxpayer-funded infrastructure while also crippling the only way to send astronauts to space from US soil? I don’t think so. ... I don’t think this was a success, by any measure. Nuking the launch site, losing a high percentage of the engines on a relatively short ascent, failing to even separate the stages during stage separation, and then being grounded by the FAA for a full investigation (the deleterious effects on wildlife and human health are unknown) cannot be judged as a success by any measure.
Worse, their newest contract with NASA stipulates landing humans on the Moon by 2024, which is next year. Keep in mind, that Starship has nothing inside of it except the tanks, valves, and wires needed to make it fly. There is no payload bay. There are no seats. There is no life support system. We don’t know if the re-entry tiles will work. Honestly, if this was any company other than SpaceX I would declare them toast. Companies have folded over much less, especially in this industry.
And yet, while I don’t think that this test was a success, that doesn’t mean that I think the program as a whole is a failure. Right now, SLS is ahead which is something that would have been inconceivable to anyone in industry even six months ago. But it flew Orion, a functioning capsule capable of sustaining human life, around the Moon. Who knows if it will stay ahead. SpaceX is a resilient company and I’ve seen (and been a part of) many miracles there in the past.
So, while in my opinion this test was firmly on the crappy side of the “s/crappy” divide, that doesn’t doom them to remain there. The exciting part for all of us is seeing if they still have that extra gear they can shift into to catch up, pull ahead, and turn this into the machine that it can be. I know what it’s like to be in that position, as an engineer, and I’m rooting for those good people who do the real work with all my energy.
Kleine Korrektur: die Mondlandung steht für Dezember 2025 an. Die NASA hat im April 2021 die Option für Starship als Landefahrzeug festgelegt, und am 31. März 2022 eine weitere Ausschreibung für eine zweite Firma entschieden.
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
Update. Da das hier das bislang einzige Protokoll ist, nehme ich es daher.
Zitat Michael Sheetz @thesheetztweetz Elon Musk is holding a Twitter Spaces discussion on SpaceX's first Starship launch.
Thread:
Musk: "The outcome was roughly in what I expected, and maybe slightly exceeding my expectations, but roughly what I expected, which is that we would get clear of the pad." Musk: "I'm glad to report that the pad damage is actually quite small" and should "be repaired quickly." Musk: "The vehicle's structural margins appear to be better than we expected, as we can tell from the vehicle actually doing somersaults towards the end and still staying intact." Musk: From a "pad standpoint, we are probably ready to launch in 6 to 8 weeks.' "The longest item on that is probably requalification of the flight termination system ... it took way too long to rupture the tanks." Musk: Time for AFTS to kick in "was pretty long," about "40 seconds-ish." Musk: "There were 3 engines that we chose not to start," so that's why Super Heavy booster lifted off with 30 engines, "which is the minimum number of engines." The 3 engines "didn't explode," but just were not "healthy enough to bring them to full thrust so they were shut down" Musk: At T+27 seconds, SpaceX lost communications due to "some kind of energy event." And "some kind of explosion happened to knock out the heat shields of engines 17, 18, 19, or 20." Musk: "Rocket kept going through T+62 seconds" with the engines continuing to run. Lost thrust vector control at T+85 seconds. Musk: Generated a "rock tornado" under Super Heavy during liftoff, but SpaceX does not "see evidence that the rock tornado actually damaged engines or heat shields in a material way." May have happened, but "we have not seen evidence of that." Musk: "It was actually good to get this vehicle off the ground because we've made so many improvements" in Super Heavy Booster 9 "and beyond." "Really just needed to fly this vehicle and then move on to the much improved booster." Musk: After AFTS, "the ship did not attempt to save itself." Musk: "We're going to putting down a lot of steel" under the launch tower before the next Starship flight. "Debris was really just basically sand and rock so it's not toxic at all ... it's just like a sandstorm, essentially ... but we don't want to do that again." Musk: "We certainly didn't expect" to destroy the concrete under the launchpad. Musk: Speculating, but "one of the more plausible explanations is that ... we may have compressed the sand underneath the concrete to such a degree that the concrete effectively bent and then cracked," which is "a leading theory." Musk: Reason for going with a steel plate instead of a flame trench is that for payloads in the rocket, the worse acoustic environment doesn't matter to the payload since it's about 400 feet away. Musk: Flight was "pretty close to what I expected." Musk: "Got pretty close to stage separation ... if we had maintained thrust vector control and throttled up, which we should have ... then we would have made it to staging." Musk: "Our goal for the next flight is to make it to staging and hopefully succeed." Musk: "My expectation for the next flight would be to reach orbit." Next flight profile will be a "repeat." Musk: "The goal of these missions is just information. Like, we don't have any payload or anything -- it's just to learning as much as possible." Musk: "Definitely don't" expect lunar Starship (under the HLS project) to be the longest lead item for the Artemis III mission. "We will be the first thing to really be" ready. Musk: Probably an 80% probability of reaching orbit with Starship this year, and "I think close to 100% change of reaching orbit within 12 months." Musk: Slowed down Raptor engine production "because we've got more Raptors than we know what to do with." Musk: Expect to spend ~$2 billion this year on Starship. Musk: "We do not anticipate needing to raise funding ... we don't think we need to raise funding." Will do the "standard thing where we provide liquidity to employees." "But to my knowledge we do not need to raise incremental funding for SpaceX." Musk: For the next flight, "we're going to start the engines faster and get off the pad faster." From engine start to moving Starship "was around 5 seconds, which is a really long time to be blasting the pad." Going to try to cut that time in half. Musk: Starship didn't get to what SpaceX thought was "a safe point to do stage separation." Musk: "I thought the SpaceX team did amazing work." "This is certainly a candidate for the hardest technical problem done by humans." Musk, on environmental response: "The rocket uses non-toxic propellants and ... scattered a lot of dust, but to the best of our knowledge there has not been any meaningful damage to the environment that we're aware of." Musk: SpaceX has yet to make a final decision on which Starship prototype and Super Heavy booster will fly the next launch. Musk: "Going to be replacing a bunch of the tanks in the tank farm, but these are tanks that we wanted to replace anyway." Musk: "Tower itself is in good shape. We see no meaningful damage to the tower even though they got hit with some pretty big chunks of concrete." Musk: Starship sliding laterally off the launchpad was "because of the engine failures." Musk is signing off, and says he plans to do another Starship update in "3 weeks-ish"
Zitat Ryan Hansen Space@RyanHansenSpace @elonmusk confirmed what I have been speculating for the past few days during #Starship Spaces tonight. The water-cooled plate will not only provide a strong surface but also a "showerhead" deluge system. Holes across the surface will release water aiding in sound suppression.
I did not expect so many details to be talked about tonight and I'm away from my computer for the weekend so all I have are a few screenshots to pick from to share. I will share a few more renders in the coming days. 2:38 AM · Apr 30, 2023
Zitat von May 9, 2023Starbase repairs proceeding – Ships prepared for future flights
Repairs ahead of the next launch:
Scaffolding has been installed on the Orbital Launch Mount (OLM) and a set of stairs for worker access. The OLM is over 70 feet tall, so the scaffolding protects workers as they fix things like plumbing raceways, electronics, and other items.
Earthwork on the OLM foundation is also underway, as damaged rebar, concrete, and dirt is being removed. In addition, new dirt is being poured in to prepare the way for further work. This will prepare the way for a “sandwich” of steel plates and a water deluge system to be added in the coming weeks.
The booster quick disconnect (QD) fitting on the OLM is also undergoing work. A cover is being placed on its pipes to protect the plumbing. A “doghouse” building initially used to house robot dogs Zeus and Apollo, later repurposed to house cryogenic pipes, has been removed.
The platforms, colloquially named “dance floor” and “taco stand,” have been moved to the launch site, possibly to keep the construction site less cluttered. These platforms are used to assist in launch preparation work.
The tank farm has also been undergoing repairs, with at least one hole seen being patched on one of the white tank shells placed on the vertical tanks. These tanks were made in the original high bay using construction techniques similar to those involved in Starship construction.
SpaceX will replace these tanks with horizontal “hotdog” shaped tanks that will be better protected from launch pad debris. The vertical tanks intended to store liquid methane were replaced last year by horizontal tanks better suited to the purpose.
While the OLM and tank farm repairs continue, work has also been done on some future ships and Booster 11. Ship 28 is now in a relatively advanced stage of construction, while Ship 29’s nose section has also been seen recently. Ship 29, like Ship 28, has the tiles and fins needed for reentry testing.
A new high bay is also in work for the Starbase site. White skeletal elements have been seen that will make up part of the new bay’s structure, and they will eventually be moved to the foundation being prepared for this bay. A new high bay would increase the number of ships and boosters that can be constructed and prepared for flight at any one time.
It remains to be seen exactly when the next Starship launch will be. Still, items to watch include installing the steel plates and deluge system, tank farm repairs, recertifying the flight termination system that did not immediately destroy Starship on its first launch, and FAA approval of the Starship system’s return to flight.
Zitat SpaceX making progress toward next Starship test flights written by Alejandro Alcantarilla Romera May 22, 2023
Repairs following the maiden Starship flight and preparations ahead of the second launch are ongoing at Starbase, all while SpaceX is at an all-time high in terms of Starship vehicle production with a new ship and booster soon to be completed.
One of the major issues identified on Starship’s first flight was related to the efficiency of the flight termination system (FTS). The system is intended to break apart the vehicle tanks during flight should something go wrong. However, during that first flight, this system only punched holes in the tanks but never broke the vehicles apart as planned. SpaceX intends to re-certify this system before the next flight of Starship. It seems the company has performed a test of it on a booster test tank at the Massey test facility. The aftermath of the test shows the result that was hoped for from the activation of the FTS, which is a complete destruction of the tank. It is unclear yet if the company will follow up this test with more vehicle destruction tests or whether this piece of data was enough to continue the recertification through computer modeling.
Inside the High Bay, Ship 29 is making good progress through stacking, with just one section left for it to be fully completed. SpaceX production teams have optimized the stacking of ships inside this facility since Ship 28 was being built, and now it is using a new lifting rig that lifts the ships by the lifting points used for the launch tower “chopstick” arms. These lift points are located right below the forward flaps of the ship and allow teams to not need the use of the crane hooks on the tip of the nosecone.
Watercooled Steel Plate Foundation Progress and Testing at McGregor
Ever since the launch of Starship last month, teams have been quickly preparing the ground under the orbital launch mount (OLM) to tackle another issue found during that first launch. The rocket unexpectedly broke the concrete and soil under the OLM, creating a massive crater as it cleared the pad. SpaceX’s plan to solve this will entail installing a massive water-cooled steel plate and deluge system under the OLM, which will dump heavy amounts of water to deflect the energy of the 33 Raptor engines of Super Heavy. Accordingly, teams have been building a massive foundation at the site to prepare it for the installation of this system. To build this foundation, crews have drilled long holes in the ground where rebar cages have been installed, with concrete later being pumped into them to harden the soil under the mount. This will give the ground enough consistency and serve as an anchor for the several tons of steel that make up the new flame deflector system.
Another piece of progress shown off by SpaceX this week was a tweet by the company showing a test of this system at McGregor where a Raptor engine was shot toward a water-cooled steel plate. In the video, it can be seen how the plate contains a hole from where a few jets of water sprayed out, serving as a coolant for the plate. In order to push such heavy amounts of water for these steel plates, a set of pressure tanks have been installed and stacked this week behind the pressurized water tanks south of the launch site. More large water pipes have also arrived this week at the launch site as SpaceX teams start to dig up and clear the area around the OLM for the installation of this system. At this pace, we could be just a few weeks away from the start of the installation of these plates.
Zitat ChromeKiwi@AshleyKillip so much work at Starbase. We have seen sheet piles being driven into the ground these will form a retaining wall that can then be excavated to work on the pipe for the water and install the steel watercooled plates 10:12 PM · May 27, 2023
Zitat Zack Golden@CSI_Starbase Step two of the base structure work for the Orbital Launch mount is underway. There will be ALOT of rebar work down here before concrete is laid. 4:40 PM · May 28, 2023
Zitat SpaceX will need another six weeks or so to finish implementing hundreds of changes to its Super Heavy-Starship rocket and the gargantuan booster’s Texas launch pad before it will be ready for a second attempt to reach orbit, company founder Elon Musk said Saturday.
That’s assuming Federal Aviation Administration clearance to fly in the wake of the Super Heavy’s dramatic maiden launch April 20 in which the rocket blew itself up after multiple engine failures and the Starship upper stage’s failure to separate from the first stage booster.
In a Twitter Spaces discussion with author Ashlee Vance, Musk said SpaceX is implementing “well over a thousand” changes,” and “I think the probability of this next flight working, getting to orbit, is much higher than the last one. Maybe it’s like 60 percent. It depends on how well we do at stage separation.” ... For its second flight, Musk said the stage separation system has been modified, a “late breaking change that’s really quite significant.”
The Starship’s engines will begin firing before all of the Super Heavy engines have shut down. This so-called “hot staging” technique has been used for years in Russian rockets. Musk said it would improve the performance of the Super Heavy-Starship by reducing the velocity lost between first stage engine shutdown and ignition of the upper stage engines.
“We shut down most of the engines on the booster, leaving just a few running and then at the same time, start the engines on the ship, or upper stage,” he said. “Obviously that results in kind of blasting the booster, so you’ve got to protect the top of the boost stage from getting incinerated by the upper stage engines.”
The solution is to add shielding to the top of the Super Heavy stage, along with an extension featuring vents to direct the upper stage engine exhaust plumes away from the lower stage during their initial startup.
“There’s a meaningful payload-to-orbit advantage with hot staging, that is conservatively about a 10 percent improvement if you basically just never stop thrusting,” Musk said. “In order to do this, you actually have to have vents, the super hot plasma from the upper stage engines has got to go somewhere.
“So we’re adding an extension to booster that is almost all vents, essentially. So that allows the upper engine plume to go through the vented extension of the booster and not just blow itself up. So this is the most risky thing, I think, for the next flight.”
Addressing engine problems seen during the rocket’s first flight, Musk said engineers are implementing changes to the Raptor’s hot gas manifold that directs super-heated methane-rich gas toward the combustion chamber. The high temperatures can create leak paths through bolt holes where the manifold is attached.
The manifold itself has been redesigned, Musk said, and higher torque settings will be used to tighten bolts more securely and eliminate potential bolt-hole leak paths. ... One question that was not addressed in Saturday’s discussion was the Super Heavy-Starship’s self-destruct system, which took much longer than expected to activate after the rocket tumbled out of control in April.
The FAA will have to sign off on that system and any other safety-related upgrades before a launch license will be granted.
Asked how much SpaceX has invested in the Super Heavy-Starship program to date, Musk said he did not know the exact amount, “but it’s over $2 billion” and could approach $3 billion by the end of this year.
Oh oh. Beim letzten Start einer Falcon Heavy (dem zweiten Start dieser Rakete in diesem Jahr), ist am 1. Mai der Kommunikationsatellit Viasat-3 in eine geostationäre Umlaufbahn gebracht worden; der erste von drei baugleichen Satelliten, die eine weltweite Abdeckung garantieren sollen. Die Satelliten sollen Breitband-Internetverbingunen mit >100MB/Sek. liefern; Viasat-3 deckt Nord- und Südamerika ab. Der Satelllit hat eine Masse von 6,7 t; die Konstellation ist 2015 angekündigt worden und soll die seit 2017 im Einsatz befindlichen Viasat-2-Satelliten ablösen.
Heute:
Zitat Peter B. de Selding@pbdes @ViasatInc's Viasat-3 Americas satellite launched May 1 suffers major antenna-deployment anomaly. After more than a month of effort, it's still not fixed. Possible $420M insurance claim and a serious blow to Viasat's near-term growth plans. 10:32 PM · Jul 12, 2023
Zitat Viasat-3 satellite suffers major antenna anomaly, upending Viasat Inc.’s growth plans; possible $420M insurance claim written by Peter B. de Selding July 12, 2023
TUPPER LAKE, NY — The large Viasat-3 Americas Ka-band broadband satellite launched May 1 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket has suffered a major anomaly in deployment of its Ka-band antenna and could cripple the satellite’s commercial viability, according to industry officials.
Zitat Just Blue's Poetry Corner 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ @littlebluena Rough comparison between a Viasat 3 loss and a loss of a batch of 54 Starlink satellites. Starlink GBPS adjusted for downtime over oceans, ignoring their utility for airlines/maritime/interlinks. It's about 12 times worse for Viasat, and that doesn't account for how easy
it is for SpaceX to replace a lost batch vs Viasat replacing a Jupiter 3 sat. 11:29 PM · Jul 12, 2023
Zitat Viasat Provides Status Update on ViaSat-3 Americas Satellite
CARLSBAD., Calif., July 12, 2023– Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT), a global leader in satellite communications, today disclosed that an unexpected event occurred during reflector deployment that may materially impact the performance of the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite. Viasat and its reflector provider are conducting a rigorous review of the development and deployment of the affected reflector to determine its impact and potential remedial measures.
“We’re disappointed by the recent developments,” said Mark Dankberg, Chairman and CEO, Viasat. “We’re working closely with the reflector’s manufacturer to try to resolve the issue. We sincerely appreciate their focused efforts and commitment.”
Contingency plans are currently being refined to minimize the economic effect to the company. Potential options include redeploying satellites from Viasat’s extensive fleet to optimize global coverage, and/or reallocating a subsequent ViaSat-3 class satellite to provide additional Americas bandwidth. The initial service priority for ViaSat-3 Americas has been to facilitate growth in the company’s North American fixed broadband business.
There is no disruption to customers from this event, and no impact to coverage or capacity of the respective Viasat and Inmarsat constellations currently in service. Following the Inmarsat acquisition, Viasat has 12 Ka-band satellites in space, excluding ViaSat-3, with eight additional Ka-band satellites under construction.
The company will share additional information on the status of the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite and any necessary contingency plans during its earnings call which is planned for August 9, 2023.
Vor einer Viertelstunde erster Test der Sprinkleranlage für das Orbital Launch Mount in Boca Chica.
Zitat Chris Bergin - NSF @NASASpaceflight WOW! OLM Water Deluge System conducts its first full test! That was super impressive. No more rock tornados, I'd say! http://nsf.live/starbase 8:24 PM · Jul 17, 2023
Seit heute Mittag MESZ (7 EST), steht in Boca Chica die nächste Erststufe, Booster 9, auf dem Orbital Launch Mount, auf den Tag genau 3 Monate, nachdem Booster 7 im April gestartet wurde.
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
Vor einer halben Stunde auf Starbase, Boca Chica: der erste Test des Water Deluge-Systems unter dem OLM unter Volldruck. Zeitmarke auf 1:09:58 p.m. CDT zurückfahren; geht bis 1:10:45.
Zitat Massimo@Rainmaker1973 This water deluge system has the potential to spray up to 350,000 gallons of water (over 1.3 million liters) during SpaceX Starship ignition and liftoff. And most of this water is expected to be vaporized by the heat of the rocket engines. 10:27 PM · Jul 29, 2023
Zitat SpaceX Edges Closer to Next Launch With High-Power Test of Starship’s Water Deluge System. Once operational, the system will work to suppress the power of SpaceX’s megarocket, which exerts nearly 17 million pounds of thrust at launch.By George Dvorsky
Earlier today, SpaceX performed the second test of its newly installed Starship deluge system. This test was considerably more powerful than the first one, which the company conducted on July 17.
The demo took place at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, with the test commencing at 2:10 p.m. ET. Water shot upwards from beneath the orbital launch mount (OLM) for roughly 40 seconds, and it was accompanied by a voluminous blast of sound. No booster was present for this test. NASASpaceflight captured the dramatic—and very wet—moment (to quickly view the test, jog the dial to 1:10 p.m. CT, as seen in the top left of the video).
Although the test was anticipated to be a full-pressure demonstration, official confirmation is still pending. The Elon Musk-led company has yet to disclose the exact volume of water it propelled through the system, though SpaceX claims it would like to discharge as much as 350,000 gallons of water during launches of Starship.
The system appeared to do what it was supposed to do: spray copious amounts of water in an upward direction. When implemented in actual launch scenarios, the deluge system will function in tandem with engine ignition, absorbing the power generated by Starship’s 33 Raptor engines. A plausible next step will be for SpaceX to test the deluge system during a static fire test of the Starship Super Heavy booster.
A functioning water deluge system will work in SpaceX’s favor to protect the pad during launches of Starship and to convince the Federal Aviation Administration that the company is worthy of another Starship launch license. To that end, SpaceX has also constructed a metal diverter beneath the OLM. This infrastructure (both the water deluge system and the giant metal plate) was absent during the inaugural launch of Starship on April 20, resulting in substantial damage to the OLM and the expulsion of dust and debris into the surrounding areas. In the aftermath of that launch, the FAA is now facing a lawsuit for authorizing it, while Starship remains grounded pending an investigation.
During its maiden flight, Starship lasted for approximately four minutes before entering into a fatal tumble that forced controllers to issue a self-destruct command. SpaceX is now working towards the second launch, saying it’s in the process of implementing thousands of tweaks to the 394-foot Starship—the most powerful rocket ever built.
Boca Chica. Gerade Static Fire, 3-Sekunden-Zündung aller 33 Triebwerke für 3 Sekunden für Booster 9 auf dem Starttisch. (Genauer: 2,74 Sekunden Zündung mit vorzeitigem Abbruch durch 4 der Raptor-Triebwerke.)
-00:06 Beginn der Wasserkaskade; 00:00 Zündung der Triebwerke.
Zitat SpaceX has filed a final mishap investigation report to the FAA for its April 20 Starship integrated flight test, the FAA told Payload on Tuesday.
Submitting the report is an important regulatory step toward SpaceX launching Starship on its second orbital test flight, a milestone that will require sign-off from the FAA.
“When a final mishap report is approved, it will identify the corrective actions SpaceX must make. Separately, SpaceX must modify its license to incorporate those actions before receiving authorization to launch again,” the FAA said in a statement.
The review of the report, including any decisions on changes SpaceX must make before the next Starship launch, is still ongoing.
A long time coming: SpaceX delayed submitting the final report for months while it implemented significant changes to both the launch vehicle and pad. The most significant modification was the installation of a water deluge system, which is designed to shoot out water from underneath the orbital launch mount (OLM) to diffuse the energy of the Raptor engines and protect the pad’s foundation.
The water deluge system aims to prevent the scattering of rock and sand particles over miles of surrounding areas—a problem that plagued Starship’s April test flight. On Aug. 6, the company successfully tested the system during a Starship Booster static fire. The demonstration turned the fire from the Raptor engines into steam, which appeared to create a cleaner, quieter, and shorter plume.
Another significant to-do for SpaceX was modifying Starship’s flight termination system (FTS), which took 40 seconds after initiation to explode Starship during the test. SpaceX tested its upgraded FTS on a booster at the Massey test facility in Texas, but has not revealed further details.
Zitat SpaceX@SpaceX Super Heavy Booster 9 static fire successfully lit all 33 Raptor engines, with all but two running for the full duration. Congratulations to the SpaceX team on this exciting milestone!
The test produced approximately 7.9 million lbf of thrust (~3,600 metric tons) 9:38 PM · Aug 25, 2023
Es paßt hier zwar nicht ganz, weil das Starship zwar auch als bemannte Version vorgesehen ist, das aber noch Zukunftsmusik ist. Aber da es um SpaceX geht, stelle ich das mal hier ein. Da ich einen leichten Zahlenfetischismus aufweise, einige Zahlenspielereien zur Mission Crew-7, vorgestern von Cape Canaveral zur ISS gestartet und gestern um 15:16 MESZ angedockt.
Dieser Flug ist der insgesamt 11. bemannte Start einer Crew Dragon-Kapsel; seit dem Erstflug vom 30. Mai sind damit insgesamt 42 Raumfahrer aus 11 Nationen ins All geflogen, die meisten (26) davon aus den USA, gefolgt von Japan (4). Zum Vergleich: die NASA hat von dem ersten Parabelflug von Alan Shepard im Mai 1961 über die Mondlandungen bis zur letzten Skylab-Mission im November 1973 insgesamt 43 Astronauten ins All gebracht. Der nächste Crew-Dragon-Flug ist für Dezember vorgesehen, der erste von drei "Polaris-Dawn"-Flügen, finanziert & unter dem Kommando von Jared Isaacman, er schon im September 2021 den ersten rein privat finaizierten Raumflug, Inspiration-4, verantwortet hat. Der nächste Flug zur ISS, ebenfalls privat durch Axiom Space organisiert, steht für Januar 2024 an; der nächste "reguläre" Flug unter NASA-Regie, Crew-8, für Februar.
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
Zitat Elon Musk@elonmusk Great work by the @SpaceX team successfully launching 61 Falcon rocket missions this year! If tomorrow’s mission goes well, we will exceed last year’s flight count. SpaceX has delivered ~80% of all Earth payload mass to orbit in 2023. China is ~10% & rest of world other ~10%.
Aiming for 10 Falcon flights in a month by end of this year, then 12 per month next year 8:43 PM · Sep 2, 2023
Zitat Chris Bergin - NSF @NASASpaceflight FAA closes Starship mishap investigation from Booster 7/Ship 24's test flight. Following was emailed out by the FAA:
"The FAA has closed the SpaceX Starship Super Heavy mishap investigation.
"The final report cites multiple root causes of the April 20, 2023, mishap and 63 corrective actions SpaceX must take to prevent mishap reoccurrence.
"Corrective actions include redesigns of vehicle hardware to prevent leaks and fires, redesign of the launch pad to increase its robustness, incorporation of additional reviews in the design process, additional analysis and testing of safety critical systems and components including the Autonomous Flight Safety System, and the application of additional change control practices."
"The closure of the mishap investigation does not signal an immediate resumption of Starship launches at Boca Chica. SpaceX must implement all corrective actions that impact public safety and apply for and receive a license modification from the FAA that addresses all safety, environmental and other applicable regulatory requirements prior to the next Starship launch."
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