SpaceX schedules likely first static fire tests for orbital Starship and Superheavy
Capitalism in space: SpaceX has scheduled a weeklong series of road closures at Boca Chica, beginning next week, suggesting they are about to begin the first static fire tests for the orbital prototypes of both Starship (#20) and Superheavy (#4).
The company has been installing or replacing engines on both prototypes, with the installation apparently now complete on Starship #20.
Starship’s current design features three gimballing sea-level Raptors and three vacuum-optimized variants with much larger nozzles – all in close proximity inside a 9m-wide (30 ft) skirt. As such, the first Starship static fire with any combination of Raptor Center and Raptor Vacuum engines will be a significant milestone for SpaceX. Eventually, that will likely culminate in the first static fire(s) of a Starship (likely S20) with all six Raptors installed – a test that will effectively qualify that prototype for its first orbital launch attempt.
As for Superheavy #4, they have been replacing some of its 29 engines while it sits on the launchpad, for reasons that are not clear.
It appears the company is aiming to get all of its ground-testing completed while the FAA’s approval process for the permit for the orbital flight is ongoing. This will make it possible to launch as soon as approval is obtained.
This strategy carries some risk. As long as the testing proceeds smoothly it will provide positive coverage during the FAA’s public comment period, running until mid-October. Should a test fail dramatically, however, the explosion could generate the wrong response during that comment period. Not surprisingly, SpaceX is willing to accept that risk.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Capitalism in space: SpaceX has scheduled a weeklong series of road closures at Boca Chica, beginning next week, suggesting they are about to begin the first static fire tests for the orbital prototypes of both Starship (#20) and Superheavy (#4).
The company has been installing or replacing engines on both prototypes, with the installation apparently now complete on Starship #20.
Starship’s current design features three gimballing sea-level Raptors and three vacuum-optimized variants with much larger nozzles – all in close proximity inside a 9m-wide (30 ft) skirt. As such, the first Starship static fire with any combination of Raptor Center and Raptor Vacuum engines will be a significant milestone for SpaceX. Eventually, that will likely culminate in the first static fire(s) of a Starship (likely S20) with all six Raptors installed – a test that will effectively qualify that prototype for its first orbital launch attempt.
As for Superheavy #4, they have been replacing some of its 29 engines while it sits on the launchpad, for reasons that are not clear.
It appears the company is aiming to get all of its ground-testing completed while the FAA’s approval process for the permit for the orbital flight is ongoing. This will make it possible to launch as soon as approval is obtained.
This strategy carries some risk. As long as the testing proceeds smoothly it will provide positive coverage during the FAA’s public comment period, running until mid-October. Should a test fail dramatically, however, the explosion could generate the wrong response during that comment period. Not surprisingly, SpaceX is willing to accept that risk.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I’m glad they are taking the risk. The worst case scenario is that SpaceX gets delayed in launching. But an explosion will definitely delay things anyway
The FAA`s public hearing on this is a farce.They require to much info on every individual to comment.
Who wants to give up their personal info to hoardes of brownshirts? ..Its not Spacex on the hotseat its
the FAA.
Here is to hoping the pairing of Starship/Super-Heavy makes like Rocketship- Orbit Jet…not like Grandcamp and High Flyer did a few miles up the coast nearly 3/4s of a century ago….I just turned 55 on midnight…born in 66′ oo 9/22. The numerologists would have a field day. I am as old as Star Trek…was probably conceived the hour Korolev did nine months earlier, around the time the Saturn V contract lapsed. I was given up for adoption…and was told the matron found that while I enjoyed attention…”I did not need it…”
I have always been lamenting what could have been…and wasn’t.
Maybe one Tarot card I was dealt by a co-worker was accurate after all:
The King of Rods. Less pompous actually than it could be. Tell me Robert…is it true that in Jewish tradition…there is the concept of the unknown just…a figure where even when bathed in God’s light and love for a thousand years…the tears still come?
I was working on a contract with the FAA at the Volpe Center in Cambridge. Talk I heard as far back as 2000 was about how much better performance and credibility the space industry could have if it were like the airline industry with FAA regulation. Not micromanaged as with NASA.
It is very dangerous to link successful tests to FAA approval.. First off, there is no logical link. Second, it goes against the entire development process t work here. It is inherently risky which many would call reckless. The first failue could be your last if you give into this mindset.
I think people are overly dramatizing this issue. ell, maybe I hope they are because if you are controlled by the US Gov you might as well go home.