Space X announces 42-engine reusable rocket

[celedhring]

I don't know, an Elon Musk company overpromising? Say it ain't so.

[Berkut]

I don't know, an Elon Musk company overpromising? Say it ain't so.

He definitely over-promises, but what he delivers is also far beyond what just about anyone else manages.

[Malicious Intent]

When it comes to cost, SpaceX is both cheap and very reliable. See the Commercial Crew and Cargo Program.

I am actively following Starship development since before they started welding steel rings in Boca Chica. The speed of progress - though slower than Musk's estimations - is still absolutely astonishing for the industry.
Especially compared to Boeing's SLS.


Oh and speaking of SLS: It and the Orion capsule are now demoted to LEO taxi service for Moon Starship, something Falcon9 and Crew Dragon could achieve more often and for less then a tenth of the price per launch. So expect massive attacks against Moon Starship from those senators, who want that fat Boeing pork for their states.

[jimmy olsen]

Success

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/05/spacex-successfully-lands-a-starship-test-flight/

SpaceX successfully lands a Starship test flight
Given that it's meant to be the basis for a lunar lander, landing it is good.
JOHN TIMMER - 5/6/2021, 7:55 AM

By now, many readers are familiar with SpaceX's Starship tests. The rocket makes its way skyward and performs maneuvers that seem like impossibilities to a generation raised on rockets that simply shot things to orbit. These maneuvers are followed by an ungainly looking float toward the Earth below, which ends in a sudden lurch as the rocket struggles to a vertical orientation and tries to lose speed.

In general, this has been followed by a dramatic explosion as one aspect or another of the incredibly complex series of events required doesn't work quite right. The biggest exception was one case where that explosion waited for several minutes after the rocket's landing.

Today's launch followed the script right up to the landing, at which point everything changed. The landing went off without a hitch this time, and the hardware stayed intact—albeit on fire—well after the landing.

Conditions were cloudy above the launch site, which posed a bit of a problem for tracking the flight. Starship quickly disappeared above the clouds, at which point the video stream from the craft failed. As live timers ticked off progress and data indicated engines shut down to bring the craft to a hover, there was no visual confirmation of any of it. Video returned sporadically after the belly flop started, providing some dramatic images of thunder clouds off in the distance.After landing, a small fire burned on one side of the base of the rocket, but it was out within 20 minutes. Whether it stopped due to lack of fuel or was put out by hardware on the landing pad is unclear.

The landing is a tremendous success and comes at an important time for the company, as NASA has chosen Starship as its intended lander for future Moon missions. While the company had the advantage of having working prototypes, their tendency to explode may have provided an argument against the contentious decision. The successful landing should strengthen SpaceX's case.

Given the lack of context, the maneuver that brought Starship to a vertical took place very suddenly. But the first views from the ground made clear that the maneuver was happening at a higher altitude than in previous attempts that ended in explosions. Given that extra space to work with, the hardware easily reached a vertical orientation well above the ground and then managed a gentle descent for the remaining distance.

[jimmy olsen]

29 Raptor engines installed on the super heavy booster.

[jimmy olsen]

Good article on the matter

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08/spacex-installed-29-raptor-engines-on-a-super-heavy-rocket-last-night/

SpaceX installed 29 Raptor engines on a Super Heavy rocket last night
Progress on the regulatory side of things remains murky, though.
ERIC BERGER - 8/3/2021, 2:23 AM

Sometimes it is difficult to write objectively about the rate at which SpaceX makes progress. The advancements we're seeing at the company's Starbase site in South Texas are unprecedented.

Like, seriously unprecedented.

On Sunday, SpaceX finished stacking what it is calling "Booster 4," the first of its Super Heavy rocket boosters expected to take flight. This is a massive, single-core rocket that is approximately 70 meters tall, with a diameter of 9 meters. It has a thrust approximately double that of the Saturn V rocket that launched NASA astronauts to the Moon.

Then, overnight, something remarkable happened. Technicians and engineers at the SpaceX build facility near Boca Chica Beach attached 29 Raptor rocket engines to the rocket. Twenty-nine engines. Each with intricate plumbing lines and connections. This is the number of engines that Super Heavy will fly with for initial flight tests, although the final configuration is likely to have 33 engines.

I'm not really sure what to write or say about all this, because typically in the rocket business it takes a few days to install a single engine.

After some initial checkouts in the assembly area, Booster 4 will roll to the launch site a couple of kilometers down the road. This may happen as early as Tuesday. After this, there likely will be pressure tests and a series of static fire tests. With this many valuable Raptor engines on the line, we can probably expect SpaceX to be fairly cautious with the test program for this vehicle.

SpaceX has also nearly completed "Ship 20," the latest Starship upper-stage prototype that will be placed on top of Booster 4 for a full-stack launch of the Starship system.

While SpaceX has made substantial progress on hardware, the company's movement on the regulatory side of things remains murky. It appears as though the rapid assembly of Starship, its Super Heavy booster, and the orbital launch complex in South Texas will set up yet another high-stakes showdown between the FAA and SpaceX. The company is going to be ready to fly, but there's no clarity on when the Federal Aviation Administration will complete its environmental review of the Starbase location and approve orbital launches from the site.

For months, SpaceX has been working with the FAA on an environmental assessment. After a "draft" of this assessment is published, there will be a minimum of a 30-day period for public comments. This will be followed by other steps, including a determination by the FAA on whether SpaceX's proposed environmental mitigations will be enough, or if more work is required. More information about this process is available on the FAA's website.

Given all of that, it is difficult to see SpaceX receiving the required regulatory approvals to launch Starship on an orbital test flight before this fall, if not later.

Even so, SpaceX has reportedly been staffing up in South Texas, bringing hundreds of employees in from its California-based headquarters and elsewhere in order to complete assembly of Booster 4 and the launch site facilities. Why would it be doing this if regulatory approval is not coming for months?

It seems like a calculated effort to induce the FAA to move more quickly with the regulatory process. The optics of a completed rocket, by far the largest and most powerful in the world, sitting on a launch pad waiting for paperwork is not great. And with both NASA and the US Department of Defense now having a vested interest in Starship's success, SpaceX may find allies elsewhere in the US government.

[jimmy olsen]

A 50 minute interview with Musk on Starship and Superheavy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t705r8ICkRw

[mongers]

Posted here because I couldn't find Tim's space thread.

[jimmy olsen]

Success or failure, this should be fun. Mark Monday on your calendar!
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/14/world/spacex-starship-launch-license-scn/index.html

SpaceX's Starship rocket, the most powerful ever built, receives government approval for launch

[HVC]

Success or failure, this should be fun. Mark Monday on your calendar!
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/14/world/spacex-starship-launch-license-scn/index.html

SpaceX's Starship rocket, the most powerful ever built, receives government approval for launch

Rocket go boom.

[Josquius]

Not sure how much its muskite cope but apparently this was OK as they were really just aiming for getting the thing off the launch pad?

[The Minsky Moment]

so the story is Elon Musk launches giant metaphor for his recent business activity?