Starship and Superheavy readied for orbital flight
With Superheavy prototype #7 already on the launchpad at Boca Chica, Texas, SpaceX engineers yesterday moved Starship prototype #24 beside it in preparation for stacking the orbital spacecraft on top of Superheavy for a launch now expected no earlier than April 10, 2023.
As the article notes, when Superheavy lifts off, it will set a new record for the most powerful rocket, having twice the thrust of either of NASA’s Saturn-5 or SLS rockets. And this record will be achieved by a privately built and owned rocket whose development has been funded almost entirely by private investment capital. Note too that the development took about six years, from concept to first launch, a few years less than it took NASA to build the Saturn-5 in the 1960s, and about one third the time it NASA to do the same thing with SLS in the 2000s, the 2010s, and the 2020s.
The orbital mission, it successful, will have Superheavy lift off, separate from Starship and then land controlled in the Gulf of Mexico. Starship will continue into orbit, and then attempt a controlled vertical splashdown in the Pacific Ocean northwest of the big Island of Hawaii.
At the moment, it appears the only obstacle to launch remains the FAA, which after many months has still not issued the launch license. This new activity at Boca Chica however suggests SpaceX expects that approval to occur momentarily.
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.
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With Superheavy prototype #7 already on the launchpad at Boca Chica, Texas, SpaceX engineers yesterday moved Starship prototype #24 beside it in preparation for stacking the orbital spacecraft on top of Superheavy for a launch now expected no earlier than April 10, 2023.
As the article notes, when Superheavy lifts off, it will set a new record for the most powerful rocket, having twice the thrust of either of NASA’s Saturn-5 or SLS rockets. And this record will be achieved by a privately built and owned rocket whose development has been funded almost entirely by private investment capital. Note too that the development took about six years, from concept to first launch, a few years less than it took NASA to build the Saturn-5 in the 1960s, and about one third the time it NASA to do the same thing with SLS in the 2000s, the 2010s, and the 2020s.
The orbital mission, it successful, will have Superheavy lift off, separate from Starship and then land controlled in the Gulf of Mexico. Starship will continue into orbit, and then attempt a controlled vertical splashdown in the Pacific Ocean northwest of the big Island of Hawaii.
At the moment, it appears the only obstacle to launch remains the FAA, which after many months has still not issued the launch license. This new activity at Boca Chica however suggests SpaceX expects that approval to occur momentarily.
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.
Supposedly the actual work of the FAA approval is done and all the issues have been closed out, and now they are in the part where they write the actual document and then have it go through an internal review period.
“Supposedly the actual work of the FAA approval is done…”
In other words, the actual value-add is done, assuming there was any, and now it’s the chance for the parasites to try to pretend their jobs are important, and delay progress.
I’ve been waiting 50+ years for something to at least rival , let alone outdo, the legendary Saturn V. People still do not realize how game-changing and revolutionary this transportation vehicle (it’s hard to call it just another rocket) is going to be. It will be to space transportation what the steamship was to sailing ships, or the transcontinental railroad was to covered wagons. It really will open up the solar system frontier.
Dear Concerned,
I share the excitement you have, but I have lingering doubts about the “Stage Zero” environment at Boca Chica.
The tank farm is uncomfortably close to the launch table, for one thing.
In addition I worry that it will not be possible to operate at anywhere near a production rate with a single launch table that has no flame trench.
Another worry is the total reliance on the chopsticks as a landing mechanism beyond the first flight.
As best I can summarize, the Boca Chica launch facility has an all-or-nothing vibe about it that seems inconsistent with an aggressive evolution from prototype to production. I fear that any mishaps might bloom into larger setbacks impeding progress by months, or even years.
Starship, assuming it is successful, will change things, but I think your overstating the impact.
The difference between a sailing schooner and a clipper perhaps, following your analogy.
There’s a very cool animation of the orbital flight test at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyYqLaeHM7g
Last night, Elon actually tweeted about Starship, unusual enough in itself these days: “More than days away, but hopefully not many weeks away” It was in response to Eric Berger tweeting out his latest article on Starship.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1642273756289671170
So it still could be the third week of April, but then if Elon still felt confident about that date range, wouldn’t he have just said so?
The FAA may be a hangup here, but just watching the progress down at the launch site, it still feels like there’s another couple weeks of work to be done, even if they decide to hold off on the water deluge system. If I had to bet my life on it, I would say it won’t go up until May.
Note too that the development took about six years, from concept to first launch, a few years less than it took NASA to build the Saturn-5 in the 1960s, and about one third the time it NASA to do the same thing with SLS in the 2000s, the 2010s, and the 2020s.
I think the development time is actually close to that of Saturn V – 1960 to begin initial design work, to first launch in November 1967. Then again, NASA threw $50 billion at it, which has to be over 10 times what SpaceX has spent, despite Starship being a considerably more ambitious vehicle. In both cases, too, all the infrastructure had to be designed and built from scratch, and NASA (naturally) built a lot more of it. So it’s a good comparison to use here.
Of course, without Saturn V, there is no Starship. But that is how progress is supposed to work: we stand tall because we stand on the shoulders of giants. And you sure as hell hope that a private program can do it a lot more efficiently!
If Starship fails to reach orbit what would be the likely causes? Can the boosters guidance system adjust for one or more of the cores failing to function? Are SpaceX controllers able to shutdown a malfunctioning core mid flight? A catastrophic explosion or booster which is flying out of control will not happen, correct?
Democrats have to be terrified of a successful launch. And realistically, they cannot prevent it. Elon will gain tremendously in world wide stature by Starship reaching orbit. Couple with the increasing dominance of Tesla – Elon is showing that it is private enterprise that solves the nations problems, achieves great things. It is government/democrat run NASA and GM which are failures.
Ray—the folk who built SLS are not parasites…they are patriots…same as any who do American Space Projects.
Jeff, I was clearly talking about the paper-pushing bureaucrats at the FAA as “parasites”. They did not build SLS.
I am embarrassed by FAA’s lack of understanding that revenue generated by SpaceX’s solar system taxable ( shhh, they only have to believe it’s actually a thing) revenue activities will keep them in charge.
SpaceX won’t need Boca, the Cape, or the FAA.
They’ll have the moon, Mars, and points in between for their bases.
“All our bases are belong to us!”
“Sod off, swampy.”
(A quote, not an utterance.)
Comman usage: https://instapundit.com/530801/
Concerned,
I agree with the optimism. Not only is the SuperHeavy booster and Starship upper stage able to put as much into orbit as the Saturn V, their reusability allows them to launch more often than the Saturn V, which was at best able to launch four times a year. SpaceX also put an emphasis on low operational costs, something that NASA was far less concerned about when they were inventing a way to put mankind onto the Moon, one giant leap.
With lower costs to orbit and a higher launch cadence, Starship has great potential to do far more far faster than the Apollo Applications Program was attempting to do.
____________________
Ray Van Dune,
Boca Chica’s Starbase looks much more like a test stand than an operational launch site, so it is far more likely being used more to improve the operations of Starship and less to be an operational base, at least in the short run. In order for Baca Chica to be more operational, SpaceX will have to renegotiate the annual launch rate. It looks like Kennedy Space Center is to be more operational. When SpaceX was buying the land at Boca Chica, about a decade ago, they were buying shockingly small lots. At that time, launch sites had always been large, thousands of acres or many square miles in size. The Boca Chica site was two areas of around 20-ish acres each. It is surprising how much SpaceX has packed into these two sites, but they do not have the luxury to put their deluge tanks and propellant tanks as far from the launch pad as every other launch site on the planet.
SpaceX has been full of surprises, including the latest in which they didn’t seem to damage Superheavy #7 on its static fire test, apparently confirming that the lack of flame trench or acoustic diversion will not be a big problem during launch. The ability of the Falcons to land themselves consistently on the drone ships — well within their designated landing circle — demonstrates that SpaceX has an amazing control over the returning boosters, even when landing them on rocking and rolling ocean-going landing pads. The chopstick concept (similar to catching a fly out of mid air) may not be as far fetched as it seems.
Two decades ago, the X-Prize resulted in a private launch of people into space, something that only three national space agencies had been able to do before. Two companies have since put people into space, and SpaceX is still the only non-governmental organization to put people into orbit. Again, only three nations have been able to do this. Hopefully, by the end of this summer a second company will also put people into orbit.
SpaceX has been bold, trying and succeeding at many things that have broken important “rules.” Storing flight hardware outdoors, where nature and the elements can easily contaminate critical parts, has not resulted in the disasters that we engineers have been trained to expect from such bizarre treatment of flight hardware — I’m still appalled at the open-air nature of the Boca Chica rocket-building site. The acoustics of the SLS booster damaged the KSC launch tower’s elevator, but the acoustics of the Superheavy static fire test, reflecting off the flat surface under the pad and echoing onto the bottom of the booster, did not destroy or damage that booster. Booster reentry and landing, considered impossible only a decade ago, is now so routine that few people bother to watch them anymore. Most people are surprised at the success of the early Starship test articles flipping from horizontal to vertical just before landing, but I cannot figure out how they did the initial flip at the top of the arc, tipping Starship in three seconds or so without tumbling the whole 100-ton structure.
SpaceX has designed from scratch rockets similar to those that, before, the resources of entire nations were required to accomplish. For a cost of around $10 billion, SpaceX has designed a super heavy launch vehicle and put into orbit the world’s largest constellation of satellites (we aren’t sure of the division of money spent on each, but we do know that each of the 4,000 satellites cost around $1 million to build, and a similar amount to launch). SLS-Orion cost at least four times as much and only has the rocket, not the satellite constellation, yet the SLS rocket was not designed from scratch but started with existing hardware. So, why did SLS take so long and cost so much? [*** Rhetorical question alert! *** but if anyone has a non-cynical answer, we probably would like to hear it.] The efficiency and efficacy of this one company is astounding, doing on a relative shoestring budget what others require huge budgets and sometimes multiple decades to do. If only Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic were able to be as able to develop their hardware as rapidly … Fortunately, Rocket Lab and a couple of other companies are doing well with rapid, inexpensive development.
So, if SpaceX thinks that they can use a pair of chopsticks to catch a fly out of thin air, we should definitely let them try. It wouldn’t be the first miracle that the engineers at SpaceX could be canonized for.
I guess I missed it, but – from this view – it appears Heavy and Starship have been stacked!
https://www.youtube.com/live/nbBeoReu12E?feature=share