Space Space X Test Flight

[Telmar]

Monday a frozen valve led to the hold of the countdown on the orbital test flight of Starship but tomorrow 7 am Texas time ....might be a reality even if there are so many obstacles.

Was super excited Monday, I hope I can clear my schedule to watch it on spacex.com

This is historic in many ways, but not least is the total collapse of launch prices per ton to orbit. It' s economics that spread technology, wether it was for plane travel, computers or communications.

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.

www.spacex.com

 

[Ivan le Fou]

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Failure to separate.
Max altitude reached: 39km.

 

[Telmar]

The launch of the Superbooster and Starship was complicated by the insufficient preparation of the launch pad for such power.

It is now thought that by blowing out the pad, some engines were damaged and the dynamics of the rocket were altered, which is a huge problem for the starship separation.

The starship is not blown off the superbooster: the latter makes a trajectory that frees Starship, enabling it to start its engines.

Anyways amazing video showing how the launch pas was blown to smitherines.

Stunning video shows SpaceX Starship launch obliterate car and tree: Watch what happened | Fox News Video

A car and a tree were hit by debris after the SpaceX Starship launch in south Texas — see the incredible video. Just minutes after blasting off, the rocket exploded.

www.foxnews.com

 

[Telmar]

There might be quite some delay in future tests as the pad problem is acute.

Many failures are suspected to have been caused by insufficient preparation inspite of some warnings by NASA.

Thing is that I am not sure they can really dig a trench deep enough so close to ocean on what looks to be extremely low terrain. Port Isabel is also too close and apparently received some debris.

Maybe they will try it at the cape next time.

Starship Orbital Test Flight Raises Serious Questions - AmericaSpace

Yesterday, April 20 at 8:33 CST, SpaceX attempted its first orbital launch of the Starship (S24) and Super Heavy Booster (B7). Starship succeeded in clearing the launch tower and surviving through MaxQ, or maximum dynamic pressure, but was terminated 4 minutes after launch. Update: Mike...

www.americaspace.com

 

[snowmanca]

It actually dug it's own flame trench, pre launch the ground level was flat under the launch stand, the hexagon at the base is footings of the stand to hold the rocket. There had been concrete at the surface but probably ended up the chunks of concrete that hit where media set up cameras around a mile away.

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[Ivan le Fou]

That elon-rocket has more thrust than a Proton or a Soyuz, yet the pad was merely a slightly elevated pod.

Despite that, it remains a significant achievement compared to other tests conducted during all of the previous space programs:
-managed to take off,
-broke sound barrier,
-reached 39km or so,
-maintained structural integrity until the end,
-etc..

That's not bad for a first

 

[Telmar]

The rocket passed maxQ and got to 39 km (or miles) with up to 20% of its engines off line at the end. The rocket seems quite sound.

Because some light debris fell all the way to Port Isabel, I doubt there will be a new launch authorization from Boca Chica until some serious structural work is done on the pad.

The launch decision with three engines out is not going to resonate well with FAA also. Knowing the pad was blown to smitherines and unusable for months, decision was probably taken to let it fly off as the next test will be in a long time.

The next moon landing is further away than previously thought. Unless testing can be done at the cape with the right infrastructure.

I´m still a fan...only by dividing costs by ten or more and multypling load factor by two compared to a Saturn V will near space become part of our environment.

 

[snowmanca]

The rocket passed maxQ and got to 39 km (or miles) with up to 20% of its engines off line at the end. The rocket seems quite sound.

Because some light debris fell all the way to Port Isabel, I doubt there will be a new launch authorization from Boca Chica until some serious structural work is done on the pad.

The launch decision with three engines out is not going to resonate well with FAA also. Knowing the pad was blown to smitherines and unusable for months, decision was probably taken to let it fly off as the next test will be in a long time.

The next moon landing is further away than previously thought. Unless testing can be done at the cape with the right infrastructure.

I´m still a fan...only by dividing costs by ten or more and multypling load factor by two compared to a Saturn V will near space become part of our environment.

Since the tower for Starship/SuperHeavy at the cape is basically collocated on the same pad with the tower SpaceX uses for ISS crew launches, it seems likely NASA would want proof the refinements have resolved major issues before being open to a launch there.

Not helped by Boeing has still yet to start normal crew flights from their pad, granted the first crewed test flight is planed for July, but it has been slipping deadlines from an original plan to launch in 2017. So hard to be sure can count on it to pickup the slack if SpaceX were unable to launch crew for several months. Plus it is not like relations with Russia have been going in a good direction, so buying rides from them again is likely not politically viable anytime soon either.

 

[Telmar]

FAA grounds Starship. Very doubtful flight will resume this year. Fallout from damage all the way to Port Isabel due to unadapted launch pad and a "go" given with some engines out of commission. This is so dissapointing...Such an amazing machine but nowhere to test it safely.

SpaceX Starship grounded indefinitely by FAA

The spacecraft could be out of operation for months as the FAA investigates the cause of last week's launch explosion, Jack Daleo reports for reports for Flying.

www.militaryaerospace.com

FAA Starship Investigation May Take Months - AmericaSpace

The FAA’s mishap investigation following Starship’s first launch may take several months to complete, following SpaceX’s first orbital launch attempt flight test of the giant moon rocket prototype on April 20. Such an investigation is standard procedure following such accidents, and for now any...

www.americaspace.com

EDIT: interesting debrief pre FAA announcement

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[Euroamerican]

That launch area looks rather beat up. it is a bit depressing to see. I'd figure that the knowledge of how much a launch basin needs to be reinforced would be "baked in" for anyone's facility design.

 

[colin traveller]

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[Ivan le Fou]

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/04/renderings-of-the-spacex-water-cooled-steel-plate.html

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So who's going to win, the Rocket or the Platform?

I am uncertain about the flat surfaces, the flames have got to go somewhere.

Unless the plan is to have some kind of "turbo-cooling" apparatus the same outcome as last time is to be expected.

Which is what they seem to be going for.

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[Ivan le Fou]

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[Telmar]

I would not miss this one

SpaceX test flights of starship only get more exciting with each one. The last time, we had a perfect launch, perfect seperation and flight of the starship and a reentry that looked like it was going to be succesful.

Wednesday, another test with an attempt to soft land the superheavy booster in the gulf of Mexico and succesfully reenter the starship in the atmosphere before attempting a soft landing in the Indian Ocean

SpaceX sets early June launch of next Starship test flight

SpaceX has set a June 5 launch date for its next Starship integrated test flight, with a focus on demonstrating the ability to bring back both stages.

spacenews.com

 

[Mike1976]

Watched the Starship update on the SpaceX page (Elon Musk talking to all the internet geeks and very specialized press corps).

Lots of things already explained before but some numbers that Musk just gives between two "ummms" are sometimes crazy:

-3 flights a day
-In one year doubling of the total tonnage ever put in orbit
-Cost of Starship launch at 10 million dollars (NB Space shuttle was 470...one seat on Soyouz is sold for 100 million)
-Starship booster rocket has twice the power of a Saturn V rocket.

It all sounds so out of this world...such a leap from the boring SLS

Tim Dobbs form the "everyday astronaut" put it in these words 18 months ago: "Starship is impossible until it is´nt".

As for Falcon 9: one launch every week.

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[Ivan le Fou]

Ignore the comment on the post.

Another view of the booster's final approach.

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[Ivan le Fou]

 

[colin traveller]

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[colin traveller]

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[Ivan le Fou]

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That plasma cushion will never not be an absolutely beautiful thing to watch.


Also now we even have footage from the booster itself:

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