It's also the fire fighting system in case of issues.
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Just watched this. It’s good to see Jay promoting and explaining SpaceX and Starship to a general audience who likely know very little about the company and Elon’s Mars ambitions, but those of us who follow SpaceX closely are unlikely to learn anything new from that show.
I did enjoy seeing Elon being so animated and passionate about his vision.
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Elon seemed to be a rush to "get to the point." That was probably because he had the meeting he had to get to.
This is what “hardware rich” actually means:“With our hardware-rich approach, multiple developmental units and redundant test stands enable a high test tempo and rapid learning.”
Stacking apparently had some issues.
Elon Tweeted they are proceeding cautiously because an on mount RUD would result in a 6 month delay.
The form factor of this rocket looks a bit skewed. The ratio of the diameter to the height of the full rocket seems very much skewed, and it looks like a very tall and thin tube. How will they make sure it doesn't tip off to the side when it launces from the pad? I know they can direct the thrust towards the center of gravity, but it looks a bit dicey
Starship fineness ratio is around 13.3 (120/9), F9 is almost 19 (70/3.7).
Thrust vectoring plus the high CG and mass allow good controllability. Plus thurst to weight ratio of 1.5ish means it won't be near the pad for long.
S24 was unstacked on Sunday. I follow this NSF thread and don’t see any information as to why that was done. Some speculation here on twitter about an issue with the stage separation mechanism.
Last night S25 was moved to near suborbital stand A, assume it will be cryo tested there.
Last night S25 was moved to near suborbital stand A, assume it will be cryo tested there.
S24 has once again been stacked on B7. On the stream a commentator noted that one of the S24 RVac engines has a clean bell indicating that it has not been static fired. I would have thought that would have been done at McGregor already?
Also note that S24 still has its crane lift points in place and those will have to be removed and the final tiles added before the launch. So S24 will need to be de-stacked again for that to happen.
This is a beautiful view of the B7/S24 full stack, B8, and S25 on suborbital test stand A all together at the launch facility! Plus “Starhopper The Immortal”. Super cool.
Also note that S24 still has its crane lift points in place and those will have to be removed and the final tiles added before the launch. So S24 will need to be de-stacked again for that to happen.
This is a beautiful view of the B7/S24 full stack, B8, and S25 on suborbital test stand A all together at the launch facility! Plus “Starhopper The Immortal”. Super cool.
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Alternatively, they did short duration and/ or minimal sooting. SN24 had a 6 engine static fire Sept 8th ish. I'm not aware of any Rvac swaps since then.
Depending how the B7 stacked testing goes, SN24 may need more tiles replaced. Once they are confident SN24 doesn't need to get craned, it will get 'final' tiles applied while on the transporter.
Old clean R1 testing
Here is Jack Beyers shot of the S24 engines during the restacking showing the clean RVac engine bell, which presumable means that engine has not been static fired (or maybe it has and the bell was later replaced?).
Note; an interesting point about the MVac vs. RVac engine bells is that the former have a protective ring on the edge that is blown off during SES-1 while the latter have what is believed to be a permanent protective ring on the edge and just above that a fixed structure that anchors the bell to the vehicle. The difference is explained by the F9 2nd stage being an expendable design while of course Starship is designed to be completely reusable.
Note; an interesting point about the MVac vs. RVac engine bells is that the former have a protective ring on the edge that is blown off during SES-1 while the latter have what is believed to be a permanent protective ring on the edge and just above that a fixed structure that anchors the bell to the vehicle. The difference is explained by the F9 2nd stage being an expendable design while of course Starship is designed to be completely reusable.
It could have been swapped when S24 was sent back to the Mega Bay.
That video does not show the appearance of the bell after the test concludes.
I wouldn't call that unfired clean.
Engine at 5 o'clock: super dark
9 o'clock: dark on left, lighter on right
2 o'clock: definite discoloration in the bell.
Right, but it does show the bell as white partway through the testing.
Methane should be low soot, so the discoloration may be primarily from shutdown. Firing on a horizontal test stand would give the 9 o'clock pattern. Vertical testing may leave it cleaner, as would less film cooling.
SpaceX released a timelapse video of the restacking.
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