SpaceX completes six-engine static fire test of Starship prototype #25
SpaceX yesterday successfully completed a six-engine static fire test of Starship prototype #25, the prototype that will be stacked on top of Superheavy prototype #9 and flown on the next orbital test flight.
Musk said in an interview on Saturday that more than a thousand upgrades were planned before the next flight of the Starship/Super Heavy. Including a significant change to the stage separation system that will see the Starship ignite its engines while still attached to the Super Heavy. Improvements are also being made to the Raptor engines to prevent leaks of super-heated gas which resulted in multiple engine failures during the April launch.
Major repair work and modifications are also underway to the Starship launch pad, after extensive damage occurred during the April 20 test flight.
Musk has also said the company will be ready to launch by August. While it is certainly possible that engineering will cause a slight delay to that schedule, more likely SpaceX will be ready, and then have to sit and wait for the FAA and the Biden administration to issue a launch permit. I am predicting it will not be issued by then, and likely not for months afterward.
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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.
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SpaceX yesterday successfully completed a six-engine static fire test of Starship prototype #25, the prototype that will be stacked on top of Superheavy prototype #9 and flown on the next orbital test flight.
Musk said in an interview on Saturday that more than a thousand upgrades were planned before the next flight of the Starship/Super Heavy. Including a significant change to the stage separation system that will see the Starship ignite its engines while still attached to the Super Heavy. Improvements are also being made to the Raptor engines to prevent leaks of super-heated gas which resulted in multiple engine failures during the April launch.
Major repair work and modifications are also underway to the Starship launch pad, after extensive damage occurred during the April 20 test flight.
Musk has also said the company will be ready to launch by August. While it is certainly possible that engineering will cause a slight delay to that schedule, more likely SpaceX will be ready, and then have to sit and wait for the FAA and the Biden administration to issue a launch permit. I am predicting it will not be issued by then, and likely not for months afterward.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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 or subscription:
4. 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.
Politically, the democrats have to stop Elon from achieving the public acclaim that an orbital launch would earn him. But it will not be easy. They do not have an FAA administrator in place who can take step forward and make a “non partisan” decision to block the launch. Elon is spreading his money around by hiring NASA officials. They have to prove their worth by working the system to the advantage of SpaceX. There is Gwen, who as a successful woman executive, can have her success claimed by women in the media and congress. Biden himself might be too distracted by his own problems – he has to remain politically viable to keep prosecutors from picking off members of the Biden circle.
What’s a year, or two? Compared to 50+.
Tent cities are more important than solar system resource utilization.
They most fear us leaving them on Earth without being able to be exploited.
Hey, at least they’ll have tents.
Ironically Starship/SuperHeavy is going more Soviet all the time:
Automated Dragon…grid fins…now hot staging.
SuperHeavy might need upward firing flank engines to ease separation.
In place of inert grid fins—have petal- like thrust deflectors open up at the top of SuperHeavy once Starship is away.
These thrust deflectors then act AS steering surfaces with the same actuators.
A two-fer.
I am intrigued by the idea (from another commenter) of using derivatives of the upper-hull mounted landing and takeoff rockets that SpaceX plans to use anyway on the HLS (Human Landing System). They would provide sufficient thrust to separate the two ships. Suitably developed, they might even provide the initial rapid response component of a launch abort system!
But the best part is that they are already required for the HLS version of Starship to avoid launching lunar regolith, so it reduces the need for design variation – all ships could benefit from them. As Elon almost said: “The best part is the part you already have for something else!”