SpaceX Starship - Orbital Test Flight - Starbase TX

Launch Date: April 20
Launch Window: 8:28am CDT (6:28am PDT, 13:28 UTC) - 62 minute window
Launch site: LC-1? - Starbase, Boca Chica Beach, Texas
Core Booster Recovery: Expended in Gulf
Starship Recovery: Water landing near Hawaii
Booster: Super Heavy Booster 7
Starship: Starship 24
Mass: No mass simulator mentioned
Orbit: LEO-ish
Yearly Launch Number: 26

A SpaceX Super Heavy and Starship launch vehicle will launch on its first orbital test flight. The mission will attempt to travel around the world for nearly one full orbit, resulting in a re-entry and splashdown of the Starship near Hawaii.

Webcast:

 

[Electroman]

Note: Manley thinks that the next launch will likely not be until 2024 or best case late 2023.

Agreed. The govt regulatory agencies would not allow another launch unless they are convinced Stage-0 wouldn’t create debris.

 

[mongo]

Agreed. The govt regulatory agencies would not allow another launch unless they are convinced Stage-0 wouldn’t create debris.

Merely creating debris is not a mishap criteria:

• Serious injury or fatality
• Malfunction of a safety-critical system
• Failure of a safety organization, safety operations or safety procedures
• High risk of causing a serious or fatal injury to any space flight participant, crew, government astronaut, or member of the public
• Substantial damage to property not associated with the activity
• Unplanned substantial damage to property associated with the activity
• Unplanned permanent loss of the vehicle
• Impact of hazardous debris outside of defined areas
• Failure to complete a launch or reentry as planned

https://www.faa.gov/space/compliance_enforcement_mishap

 

[ecarfan]

SpaceX is busy excavating loose dirt and debris from the damaged launch pad area.

 

[Grendal]

NASA is hoping for a quick resolution.

Nelson expects SpaceX to be ready for next Starship launch within months

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told a House committee that SpaceX’s truncated Starship test flight was not a major setback for the Artemis program.

spacenews.com

 

[mongo]

Elon gave a one hour talk on spaces
Launched with 30 engines, take off slide was due to that, not intentional. Exhaust could probably cut up to an inch of steel per second.
At 84 seconds they lost engine 6 communications and thrust vectoring.
No separation actions were activated/ commanded
TFS was activated and insufficient. Stages failed 40 seconds later when they reached lower, thicker, atmosphere. Recertification with longer det cord may be the long pole item for next launch.

Super splash pad will be fastened to mount legs. Two layers of steel with holes on top and water pressure greater than thrust at pad.
Thrust may have compressed subsurface, bending and breaking concrete.

Replacing damaged tall tanks with double layer vacuum insulated hot dog versions.

May fly S28 next for reentry, still TBD.

 

[ecarfan]

Elon gave a one hour talk on spaces

Thanks for posting! I have many questions.

Launched with 30 engines, take off slide was due to that, not intentional.

Do you take that to mean that the 3 engines shown as out when the engine graphic was first displayed (at T+00:16) failed to ignite?

And “take off slide” means the quick lateral translation away from the OLM that we saw?

Super splash pad will be fastened to mount legs. Two layers of steel with holes on top and water pressure greater than thrust at pad.

“Splash pad”? Funny term.

That sounds like a crazy high level of water pressure. Powerful pumps! But they only have to operate for maybe 15 seconds or so?

Thrust may have compressed subsurface, bending and breaking concrete.

So interpreting that…the engine exhaust pressure on the pad concrete was so great that the surface was pushed down enough such that the concrete then fractured. It never had a chance to wear away; it just broke up immediately.

Replacing damaged tall tanks with double layer vacuum insulated hot dog versions.

What is a “hot dog version”?

 

[Dan D.]

Elon gave a one hour talk on spaces
Launched with 30 engines, take off slide was due to that, not intentional. Exhaust could probably cut up to an inch of steel per second.
At 84 seconds they lost engine 6 communications and thrust vectoring.
No separation actions were activated/ commanded
TFS was activated and insufficient. Stages failed 40 seconds later when they reached lower, thicker, atmosphere. Recertification with longer det cord may be the long pole item for next launch.

Super splash pad will be fastened to mount legs. Two layers of steel with holes on top and water pressure greater than thrust at pad.
Thrust may have compressed subsurface, bending and breaking concrete.

Replacing damaged tall tanks with double layer vacuum insulated hot dog versions.

May fly S28 next for reentry, still TBD.

Whoah. So they launched with 30 engines, "the minimum needed for liftoff. "
"At T+27 seconds. engine 19 lost communications".
"At T+85 seconds... 'we lose thrust vector control of the rocket,' he said, meaning it could no longer steer."
"controllers initiated the flight termination system, it took much longer than expected, about 40 seconds, for explosives to rupture the vehicle’s tanks."

If they had lost more engines sooner, or lost thrust control sooner, say 5 seconds after launch, and if it took 40 seconds to terminate the rocket's flight, in a worst case scenario it could have flown in a random direction - say the nearby town and not have been able to be terminated. 40 seconds of failure to terminate is bound to be very concerning.

 

[Cosmacelf]

From the twitter spaces talk:

Booster 7 (this one) had a lot of old technology. Next booster will be much newer, more fault tolerant and especially engines much newer. Elon said they needed to just get Booster 7 up in the air and see info they could get.

Launch pad can be rebuild in 6-8 weeks - they plan on having a massive upside down shower head. Two steel plates sandwich with water in between, top plate perforated with water pressure going up to meet and exceed rocket plume blast.

"Starship won't be the long pole in Artemis development". He tried to say, and thought better of it, that it'll be the first piece to get done.

"Better than 50% chance of reaching orbit next flight, 80% chance of reaching orbit this year, 100% within 12 months."

"SpaceX is very good at manufacturing. We are making a Falcon 9 upper stage every 3-4 days".

"A couple of $B will be spent this year on Starship. We don't anticipate we need to raise funding for SpaceX".

Next flight, engines will start faster, throttle up faster. Maybe 2 1/2 seconds. High strength steel gets eroded 1/2" to 1" per second by the thrust.

"This is one of the hardest technical projects humanity has ever done."

It'll take a few more years to get Starship to where Falcon 9 is today (regular landings).

Next flight, Elon would rather have a ship that has heat tiles so they can test re-entry all the way.

Will be replacing some tanks in the tank farm, which they wanted to replace anyways.

Will do another twitter spaces update before next flight. Maybe in three weeks.

 

[ecarfan]

This was posted on Reddit

 

[mongo]

That sounds like a crazy high level of water pressure. Powerful pumps! But they only have to operate for maybe 15 seconds or so?

I saw a video where they are cross stacking 2 layers of tanks. Mostly fill with water and then pressurize.

So interpreting that…the engine exhaust pressure on the pad concrete was so great that the surface was pushed down enough such that the concrete then fractured. It never had a chance to wear away; it just broke up immediately.

Yeah, or maybe liquefaction due to vibration/ acoustic energy and the high water table?

What is a “hot dog version”?

Like the helium and methane tanks. Long and skinny.

 

[Electroman]

Next flight, Elon would rather have a ship that has heat tiles so they can test re-entry all the way.

I thought even the one that was launched also has heat tiles.

 

[HVM]

"At T+27" Lost communication to the shutdown/RUD engines, not the whole vehicle!

Tankfarm tanks:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1652470230331817986

 

[ecarfan]

I was most interested to learn from Elon’s twitter spaces talk that, as far as SpaceX can tell, the engines and vehicle were not damaged in a significant way from the pad disintegrating underneath it at liftoff. There was a massive amount of online chatter about that, and it was simply wrong.

Also, that stage sep was never initiated or commanded.

Here is the flight at the time when Musk says TVC was lost. Clearly well before stage sep was planned, though long after the visible explosion on the side of the booster near the base that many think was an HPU that failed.

 

[mongo]

I thought even the one that was launched also has heat tiles.

It did. The original FAA plan called for the next two flight to not have aero features. Going with a flappy heatshield version is a change from that plan, not the first flight.

 

[ecarfan]

Next flight, Elon would rather have a ship that has heat tiles so they can test re-entry all the way.

So why did SpaceX already build two ships with no flaps or tiles?

Elon is being pretty optimistic to think that the likelihood of the second test flight reaching orbit is high enough that it is worth risking a complete ship.

Maybe the fact that the first flight showed that the vehicle had more than adequate structural integrity to pass through MaxQ intact gave him the confidence to go for again attempting the entire flight sequence all the way to re-entry?

 

[mongo]

So why did SpaceX already build two ships with no flaps or tiles?

Multi orbit tests. Less parts, less to go wrong, less junk to potentially leave in orbit, less mass, more margin.

Elon is being pretty optimistic to think that the likelihood of the second test flight reaching orbit is high enough that it is worth risking a complete ship.

He is. Greater than 50% chance of success.

Maybe the fact that the first flight showed that the vehicle had more than adequate structural integrity to pass through MaxQ intact gave him the confidence to go for again attempting the entire flight sequence all the way to re-entry?

Indeed. MaxQ plus flip, turn, barrel roll, flat spin, ...

 

[Cosmacelf]

Indeed. MaxQ plus flip, turn, barrel roll, flat spin, ...

Stainless steel for the win!

 

[mongo]

Stainless steel for the win!

Highly braced, pressurized, >3mm thick stainless

 

[ecarfan]

As expected, work under the OLM is ongoing, even on a Sunday morning.

 

[Grendal]

For those that want to listen to the whole Twitter Spaces presentation: