Topic: Interesting stuff about SpaceX Starship (hate the name)

[Nemesis]

Falcon Heavy is now contracted to send 2 pieces of the Lunar Gateway to lunar orbit.  Power and propulsion and habitat modules.  I don't know if there are other modules planned.

[Nemesis]

SN10 has had a static fire.  The various closures have been cancelled.  I don't know when the next stage will happen.

[Nemesis]

I haven't seen any video on the static fire but have seen conflicting statements on whether it happened.

The landing pad is not only being repaired but being made thicker so it may take time before it is ready for a launch.  Guess they should have made 2.

[Nemesis]

The Texas snow storm looks to be shutting down most work on the Starship launch site for now. 

A new shipment has arrived that is not positively identified but is being speculated as grid fin halves for the Super Heavy Booster.  If so then a booster launch may be sooner than many expect.  There is no "belly flop death dive" like Starship just a Falcon 9 booster style landing on land at the first stages.  Probably a local hop like SN5 and SN6 before a higher hop like SN8 and SN9 before going even higher.  Probably using both boosters currently under construction.  As Starship is being used to do most of the development work I don't expect near as many SH prototypes as Starship ones and each generation will probably lag the Starship iterations that match.  I doubt very much they will on these early versions try the "catch" that is planned for the production version as I don't see a tower under construction so the actual landings should be on legs/ feet like the earlier Starship short hops.

[Nemesis]

Perseverance has landed on Mars.  Now to see if the helicopter flies.

[Nemesis]

Looks like a probable static fire followed by possible hop for SN10 this week.

[Nemesis]

Looks like the actual static fire was yesterday and they are changing an engine.  So I wouldn't expect a launch this week but they have closures for the next 2 days then Monday and Tuesday.  With luck we will get the new static fire this week and the launch next week.

[Nemesis]

Launch is currently scheduled for Monday 1 PM EST.  Subject to change of course

Link to launch list across the industry (multinational)

[Nemesis]

Space Launch System vs Starship

SLS uses the shuttle main engines.  For some reason Boeing added a valve that wasn't in the original design.  They are having troubles with the valve and it will take months to fix because they have to fabricate a custom tool. 

SpaceX prototype after a static fire they rejected one of the engines.  In 24 hours they replace the engine and do a new static fire. 

SpaceX for the win. 

Blue Origin vs SpaceX

Blue Origin older company in over 20 years has not put a single kilo into orbit on their "launchers".  Claims to plan to move all heavy industry into orbit but their only functional rocket is one they plan (someday) to use to send people on suborbital flights.  They just did not get a contract to put Space Force cargos into orbit due to lack of demonstrated ability to do so has delayed the planned first launch of their New Glenn rocket till late 2022. 

SpaceX due to expenses in A/ putting up over 1000 Starlink satellites and B/ developing their next generation rocket that is to me the first that will (if successful) be the first real space SHIP, raised 850 million in private funds and was offered 6 billion because of their proven track record.  Is Starship behind what they planned?  HELL YES!  But since their founding they developed Falcon 1, Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy,  cargo Dragon, Crew Dragon and Starlink, all these are either fully functional except Starlink which is partially functional.

So for all their accomplishments and all Blue Origins lack of accomplishments, SpaceX is the definite and decisive WINNER.

Once again Bezos put your money where your mouth is.  Ante up some of those billions to finish developing a rocket to compete with Falcon Heavy and your Amazon internet satellite systems.  Then if you really MEAN it about moving industry in to space you need to ante up again and build a FULLY REUSABLE SPACESHIP!  Then you need your mining bases and industrial bases.  Even your wealth will need to stretch for that but if you succeed you will multiply your wealth.  If not then get used to Musk saying Bezos who?

[Nemesis]

A comment I saw on the topic of SpaceX not being contracted by NASA to provide lunar landing services:

SpaceX loses contract, flies team of astronauts to the moon anyway to film the Artemis crew arriving...

[Nemesis]

Launch is currently scheduled for Monday 1 PM EST.  Subject to change of course

Link to launch list across the industry (multinational)

Changed to Wednesday at 1 PM EST.  Subject to change of course

[Nemesis]

SN10 had an automatic shutdown of the engines almost immediately after ignition, the cause thrust was too high.  A few hours later they successfully launched. All 3 engines reignited and it landed.  Too me it looked like it bounced twice and wasn't quite vertical when the smoke cleared.  They were beside the circled X so they landed very close to target. I suspect it won't fly again but be taken apart to see the wear and tear.  While I was writing that I checked some other videos and some time after the landing something caused it to explode.  What I don't know yet.  I'm guessing a fuel leak, the double bounce I saw if real might have caused damage.

R.I.P. SN10 Long Live SN11!


I have heard the the BN1 booster will not be flying but will only be used for ground based testing. 

[d4v1ks]

It was quite impressive.
I saw it from the beginning to end.
But yeah, in that last moment, it looked like something failed. Not something very important as it landed almost 'perfectly'.
But there was that fire, that was worrying...
Anyway it was a test. And it was successful!

Kudos to SpaceX! 

[d4v1ks]

I'm guessing a fuel leak, the double bounce I saw if real might have caused damage.

Did you saw how the landing gear was not deployed well in all sides?
Only some got in place.
That for sure didn't helped.
They are meant to absorb the impact (1 time use)

The first video i saw didn't show the explosion.
I thought that they had controlled the fire initially.

[Nemesis]

I've read that about the gear but didn't see it on the videos I've seen so far.  These landing gear aren't even what I would call a prototype, they are just a place holder for landing gear to be designed later.  There is supposed to be a longer version of them but I haven't seen them yet.

[Nemesis]

I'm watching some videos now to see more details.  I expect to look at more over the next few days and so will likely post more as I gain info.

The Angry Astronaut has one that shows SN10 landed and it looks like it is resting not on feet but on the "skirt" around the Raptors.  While he mentions the landing leg issue I don't see it in this video. 

One thing that I saw mentioned on The SpaceX launch video is that at apogee with one engine running it hovered, Falcon 9 can't. 

One thing I'm looking for in a video is one that post landing gives a good look at the tiles so we can see if any are missing or have major damage. 

As with SN9 you see a cylinder with an exhaust fly off.  Elsewhere when this was commented on with SN9 I claimed it was the AI escaping. 

[d4v1ks]

While he mentions the landing leg issue I don't see it in this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF9mdMI1qxM&t=223s

[Nemesis]

Thanks I saw that one last night after I last posted.

How about this idea for the early SH boosters that are being tested but which might not be ready to do a reentry.  Send it (them) all the way to orbit.  Then later drain the fuel (ideally salvaging it but you could just vent to space) and with future missions of Starship before others are committed to using it send cargo to remodel the SH boosters in orbit as a space station.  Such a station could also be built up incrementally using end of life boosters and Starships, don't scrap them use them as stations. 

Attach 2 expended SH to a "hub" sent up as cargo with the two being end to end.  Two (possibly 4, 6 or even 8 ) more later get attached perpendicular to the hub.  At the end of these perpendicularly mounted units you mount more at their center via a new attachment point.  Then rotate the whole thing based on those first two.  (wish I could draw this but I lack artistic skill).  The resulting station would be 550 feet across rotate at 3.26 rpm and you have 1 g at the outer hull (Mars gravity at 105 feet from center).  At 2 rpm you get .38 g - Mars effective for testing how people handle it.  At .74 rpm the outer habitats are lunar gravity for long term testing.

To give an idea of the basic station I used the code block below.  The horizontal lines indicate the boosters used to connect the hub (the 4 central vertical lines which represent the 2 vertically linked SH) to the main habitat areas (the 2 vertical lines on the right and left sides). 

Code: [Select]

  |
|_|_|
| | |
  |


Each of the "habitat" units is a cylinder 230' tall and 30' in diameter.  A station with 2 - 8 of these would dwarf the current station and have 1g habitat and variable levels of gravity in the spokes to the hub.  Imagine a station with 8 of those habitats, 8 spokes and the 2 central ones forming a hub.  It could be even bigger by adding side links at the top and bottom (non rotating) that links to another (or multiple) copy of the original each rotating individually.

A station made of "garbage" for the structure but then refurbished inside for your station. 

Rotation/g calculations by this site - https://www.artificial-gravity.com/sw/SpinCalc/

[Nemesis]

SpaceX has a road closure for Monday.  I expect them to be moving SN11 to the launch pad.  Could also be connected with the cleanup of SN10.

[Nemesis]

Found this comment on the Marcus House video for today:

Elon tweeted that the Starship failed to increase thrust when commanded and that caused the harder that nominal landing. The legs were crushed as a result. On the next launch, they will attempt to land on 2 raptors.

Explains the hard landing and possibly explosion.

Rocket Labs is getting interesting.  They have announced that they are working on what is planned to be a fully reusable, human rated competitor to the Falcon 9.  Slightly smaller diameter than the Falcon but pretty good sounding.