NASA document: Starship orbital flight in March ’22
Click for full image.
According to a NASA proposal to observe and measure the temperatures on Starship’s thermal protection during its return to Earth from orbit, that flight is now tentatively scheduled for March ’22.
The graphic to the right highlights the pertinent language in the poster presentation.
It must be noted that the poster might not be telling us when Starship will first launch, but when the designers of the camera system will be ready to film. The two are different. Still, the slowdown in flight testing at Boca Chica by SpaceX since July suggests there may be some truth to this date. That date also seems more reasonable now in connection with the FAA’s regulatory pace, which still needs to provide the final approval of SpaceX’s environmental reassessment of its Boca Chica launch site.
It also seems to me that the March ’22 date would be very convenient for NASA, as it almost certainly guarantees that Starship will reach orbit after SLS, thus avoiding for the agency a very big public relations embarrassment. I would not be surprised at all if the Biden administration and NASA’s top administrators, led by Bill Nelson, are purposely pressuring the FAA to make sure that Starship orbital flight is delayed until after the first SLS test flight, now expected in the January/February time frame.
There is also the possibility that SpaceX’s targeted launch dates were unrealistically optimistic. The company had a lot of work it needed to do prior to launch on its orbital launch facility at Boca Chica, and that work could not go forward while test flights and static fire tests were taking place. Pausing those tests has allowed the launch facility work to move forward aggressively.
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.
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Click for full image.
According to a NASA proposal to observe and measure the temperatures on Starship’s thermal protection during its return to Earth from orbit, that flight is now tentatively scheduled for March ’22.
The graphic to the right highlights the pertinent language in the poster presentation.
It must be noted that the poster might not be telling us when Starship will first launch, but when the designers of the camera system will be ready to film. The two are different. Still, the slowdown in flight testing at Boca Chica by SpaceX since July suggests there may be some truth to this date. That date also seems more reasonable now in connection with the FAA’s regulatory pace, which still needs to provide the final approval of SpaceX’s environmental reassessment of its Boca Chica launch site.
It also seems to me that the March ’22 date would be very convenient for NASA, as it almost certainly guarantees that Starship will reach orbit after SLS, thus avoiding for the agency a very big public relations embarrassment. I would not be surprised at all if the Biden administration and NASA’s top administrators, led by Bill Nelson, are purposely pressuring the FAA to make sure that Starship orbital flight is delayed until after the first SLS test flight, now expected in the January/February time frame.
There is also the possibility that SpaceX’s targeted launch dates were unrealistically optimistic. The company had a lot of work it needed to do prior to launch on its orbital launch facility at Boca Chica, and that work could not go forward while test flights and static fire tests were taking place. Pausing those tests has allowed the launch facility work to move forward aggressively.
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.
Behind the Black is focused on all things Space, but with this story I became interested in the plane that is mentioned in the graphic insert – the WB-57F Research Aircraft.
I looked into it and found out that this plane is a variation of the Martin/General Dynamics RB-57F Canberra which was a highly specialized strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed by General Dynamics in the 1960s.
And that plane was derived from the Martin B-57 Canberra tactical bomber.
The RB-57F was later used by the Air Weather Service for weather reconnaissance (designated as an WB-57F), and later by NASA for high-altitude atmospheric research.
When the NASA space shuttle went back to space in 2005, the flight was observed by the two WB-57Fs, fitted with a telescopic camera turret on the nose. They are regarded as excellent platforms for carrying experiments, not merely because of their payload capacity, which is greater than that of NASA’s U-2 machines, but also because the WB-57Fs are two-seaters, allowing a researcher to go along for the ride and supervise experiments.
They don’t seem to be close to retirement yet, and in fact NASA obtained a third WB-57F — yanked from mothballs in the “boneyard” at Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona in 2011, to be refurbished by Sierra Nevada Corporation in Colorado, and flown on to NASA in late 2013.
Lastly – look at a picture of this plane and to me it is strangely beautiful with its large wing area.
The link is https://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/b-57_feature.html
I’m curious what Bob or any former aerospace engineer out there thinks about the plane.
Also on YouTube, the channel ‘Unusual Attitudes’ has a good video (less than 5 minutes) on NASAs WB 57F from 2019. The comments to the video are also interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE0rtKZJsTU
I think these planes are more than 50 years old & I think they’re very cool!
The first test flight of Starship 20 and Booster 4 will happen long before March 22.
I can’t believe BtB has ZERO aerospace engineers or plane enthusiasts among those who have read this post.
Mark: I think you are being unreasonable to complain about no responses this quickly. People have their own lives. I am certain someone who loves planes will chime in.
Not my expertise, so I have nothing to say.
Bob, you are correct as the moderator to call that out. Unreasonable complaining is never helpful. Reasonable complaining is another matter of course.
However reading other commentators today and in the last week, I know I’m not the only one that occasionally vents, and besides that I’m still ticked off about someone’s derogatory comment regarding John Batchelor.
I guess I’ll just go back to my usual haphazard observations on the downfall of the Global American Empire, and the undeclared war on America and the world by the Chinese Communist Party. We all have our pet peeves, but I do admire that you remain some rare (maybe endangered) breed of Optimist.
I don’t think NASA sandbagged SS-SH…things happen. You seem not willing to spot sympathy for SLS delays. I on the other hand understand that SSSH is a whole new ball game…so I can understand slowdowns…esp now.
A big wing Canberra was hit by three Guidelines like the one that struck Powers’ U2. The Chinese called it a fighter kill. Now they lob FOBS.
Thanx Wal-Mart! That should also be called “capitalism in space’ since free trade libertarianism paid for their efforts-otherwise they would still be on bikes and be where the norks are now,
The WB-57 is a renamed RF-57 which was derived from the Martin B-57 light bomber, two squadrons of which served in Vietnam.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin/General_Dynamics_RB-57F_Canberra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_B-57_Canberra#Vietnam_War
The B-57 is the American version of the English Electric Canberra, the RAF’s first jet bomber, which dates back to the late 1940’s (designed in response to a 1944 requirement for a Mosquito successor)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Electric_Canberra
“In June 2006, the RAF retired the last of its Canberras, 57 years after its first flight. Three of the Martin B-57 variant remain in service, performing meteorological and re-entry tracking work for NASA,”
Not bad for a first attempt, Bill Petter
Ack! Bob could you change “RF-57” to “RB-57” Thank you!
Col B.
Given that NASA is using its WB-57F Research Aircraft as the platform for new instrumentation to observe a 2022 Starship during hypersonic reentry, it would be nice if commercial space managers and young engineers knew more about the British aircraft designer William Edward “Teddy” Petter. In order to design that first Canberra, he must have been working in an environment that encouraged focused effort and innovation.
A colleague of Petter remarked of him “although Petter was generally thought to be difficult I found him logical and ‘ahead of the game’ and totally oriented on making an enormous success of the Canberra. That it achieved this was due to his personal ability to recognise the technical argument and act on it correctly.”
More info on Petter can be found at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._W._Petter
I once picked up a book at the library on the mechanics involved with aircraft design but did not have the aptitude for the subject. Later in life however, it’s usually an enjoyable exercise to learn new things outside my wheelhouse.