this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2023
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Starship Development Thread #47 (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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SpaceX Starship page

FAQ

  1. When (first) orbital flight? First integrated flight test occurred April 20, 2023. "The vehicle cleared the pad and beach as Starship climbed to an apogee of ~39 km over the Gulf of Mexico – the highest of any Starship to-date. The vehicle experienced multiple engines out during the flight test, lost altitude, and began to tumble. The flight termination system was commanded on both the booster and ship."
  2. Where can I find streams of the launch? SpaceX Full Livestream. NASASpaceFlight Channel. Lab Padre Channel. Everyday Astronaut Channel.
  3. What's happening next? SpaceX has assessed damage to Stage 0 and is implementing fixes and changes including a water deluge/pad protection/"shower head" system. No major repairs to key structures appear to be necessary.
  4. When is the next flight test? Just after flight, Elon stated they "Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months." On April 29, he reiterated this estimate in a Twitter Spaces Q&A (summarized here), saying "I'm glad to report that the pad damage is actually quite small," should "be repaired quickly," and "From a pad standpoint, we are probably ready to launch in 6 to 8 weeks." Requalifying the flight termination system (FTS) and the FAA post-incident review will likely require the longest time to complete. Musk reiterated the timeline on May 26, stating "Major launchpad upgrades should be complete in about a month, then another month of rocket testing on pad, then flight 2 of Starship."
  5. Why no flame diverter/flame trench below the OLM? Musk tweeted on April 21: "3 months ago, we started building a massive water-cooled, steel plate to go under the launch mount. Wasn’t ready in time & we wrongly thought, based on static fire data, that Fondag would make it through 1 launch." Regarding a trench, note that the Starship on the OLM sits 2.5x higher off the ground than the Saturn V sat above the base of its flame trench, and the OLM has 6 exits vs. 2 on the Saturn V trench.

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Quick Links

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Starship Dev 46 | Starship Dev 45 | Starship Dev 44 | Starship Dev 43

Official Starship Update | r/SpaceX Update Thread

Status

Road Closures

Type Start (UTC) End (UTC) Status
Primary 2023-08-04 13:00:00 2023-08-05 01:00:00 Possible
Alternative 2023-08-06 13:00:00 2023-08-07 01:00:00 Possible
Alternative 2023-08-07 13:00:00 2023-08-08 01:00:00 Possible

Up to date as of 2023-08-04

Vehicle Status

As of July 28th 2023

Follow Ring Watchers on Twitter and Discord for more.

Ship Location Status Comment
S15 Rocket Garden Scrapped
S20 Rocket Garden Retired
S24 Gulf of Mexico Destroyed Destroyed on during Flight Test 1
S25 Launch Site Testing Spin Prime and Static Fire
S26 Rocket Garden Resting No fins or heat shield, plus other changes.
S27 Rocket Garden Scrapped Common dome imploded
S28 Rocket Garden Pending Raptor install Previously tested at Masseys
S29 High Bay 1 Under construction
S30 Build Site Under construction
S31 Build Site Parts under construction Assorted parts spotted through S34.

 

Booster Location Status Comment
Pre-B7 & B8 Scrapped or Retired B4 is in the Rocket Garden, the rest are scrapped.
B7 Gulf of Mexico Destroyed Destroyed April 20th in Flight Test 1
B9 Mega bay Pending raptor swap and hot-stage ring install Static fire (August 5th)
B10 Masseys Testing Cryo testing
B11 Rocket Garden Resting
B12 Megabay Raceways installed
B13 Build Site Parts under construction
B14 Build Site Parts under construction
B15 Build Site Parts under construction

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[–] pigeonberry 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Checking The Other Place: chatter there about the massive cryogenic release yesterday.

"the PA mentioned a valve issue"

It’s LOX according to the guys who were sent in to try and close the valve and just happened to stop in front of Rover 2 to make their plan....

They were talking about whether to go in from the front (Hwy 4) or go around through the back.

It was Lox tank 1820. The big boy and they’d have to Spin That Valve

Then at the end it was, we’re going to punch thru, stay together, and if the monitor goes off, get out....

with someone's long explanation:

Short periods of around an hour in highly elevated oxygen levels at atmospheric pressure is not particularly toxic. You may feel slightly dizzy, and feel dryness in your throat making you cough. You don't want to stay too many sustained hours in it, as basically the natural antioxidants in your body will deplete and the oxygen will oxidise you, possibly leading to long term tissue damage. Especially the eyes, namely lens and retina.

What you don't want to be anywhere near whilst working in this environment is an ignition source. If something sparks up or becomes hot, such as an insecure light connection, or grease in a valve spindle, Everything instantly ignites. Living tissue, Everything, including most metals will burn intensely once the heat gets going.

The Apollo 1 deaths of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, who perished during a flash fire caused by an electrical spark in pure oxygen levels inside the crew capsule during a launch rehearsal made NASA redesign the whole system.

So several gather that there was only one big valve whose failure caused a complete dump, and they find a bit surprising to have a single point of failure.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

There evidently is a manual shutoff but an attempt to reach it was aborted.