Update on Starship/Superheavy testing at Boca Chica
Link here.
While work appears to be proceeding aggressively, it increasingly looks like no orbital launch will occur before the end of this year. SpaceX engineers appear to be preparing two different Superheavy prototypes, #7 and #9, but both are still undergoing modifications based on recent engine tests. In addition, modifications to Starship prototype #24 continue.
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Link here.
While work appears to be proceeding aggressively, it increasingly looks like no orbital launch will occur before the end of this year. SpaceX engineers appear to be preparing two different Superheavy prototypes, #7 and #9, but both are still undergoing modifications based on recent engine tests. In addition, modifications to Starship prototype #24 continue.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
“… test the autogenous pressurization system. …”
This is an advancement, correct? Meaning the booster and starship will not have to consume scarce helium? ( But then, is helium scarce in the world? I do worry every time I see helium balloons in my local supermarket. )
The problems with the concrete of the launch pad shattering into pieces … is that occurring because the booster is held in place during the static fire? Normally the booster clears the launch pad before doing this level of damage to the concrete?
Is SpaceX being ultra cautious out of concern that a launch explosion will result in the FAA locking them down for an extended period of time? Would an actual super heavy launch with a subset of its raptor engines meet the same testing requirements of these static fire tests, with the added advantage of SpaceX being able to also test how they can get super heavy to land safely back on Earth.
Stephen Richter asked: “[the autogenous pressurization system] is an advancement, correct? Meaning the booster and starship will not have to consume scarce helium? ( But then, is helium scarce in the world? I do worry every time I see helium balloons in my local supermarket. )”
From the linked article:
Although there is some scarcity of helium on Earth, there is no known supply on the Moon or on Mars, two targets for Starship. If the Starship design can avoid using helium, then it has a much better capability of using onsite resources (in-situ resource utilization) without the need to bring supplies from home. Since Starship can — or will — use the propellants as pressurants, then why not do the same for Super Heavy? It should also make the ground support hardware less complicated.
There are problems to overcome, however, because this has not really been done before, so Stephen is correct, it is an advancement. Helium can be stored onboard at high pressure and released into the propellant tanks without fear that it will condense, but the same is not so true when using the propellants themselves. I suspect that SpaceX had that problem with one of the Starship landing tests, last year. When a gas (e.g. helium, oxygen, methane) goes from a high-pressure tank into a lower-pressure tank the reduction in pressure cools the gas, and there is a risk that the gas condenses into liquid form and does not increase the pressure in the target tank as it is supposed to do.
Another concern that I have is that the propellants may be chilled to near the freezing point, so any gaseous propellant could be chilled by the liquid propellant and condense, decreasing rather than increasing the tank pressure.
SpaceX has probably been spending the past two to six years trying to figure out how to do this successfully. I would not be surprised if they keep this as a proprietary trade secret.