SpaceX is back!
Both Starship 24 and Super Heavy Booster 7 are igniting their Raptor engines in preparation for the Orbital Launch,
and the Starship pad at Kennedy Space Center might be more different than you thought!
Let’s dive right in!
My name is Felix, and I am your host for today's episode of What about it.
SpaceX is lighting engines again!
Starbase Texas is getting ready for that first orbital launch, and action is finally ramping up!
SpaceX is back, and this time without a bang!
We’ve seen so much testing in the past week, it will be hard to fit into one episode.
It all started on August 8th with a few Spinup tests on Booster 7. I was commenting on LabPadre’s live stream, and we all enjoyed the show.
While a spin-up test is not a static fire, it still is very important.
It tests the connections between the launch mount and the engines, and it lets the turbopumps spin up.
Last time when SpaceX tried this with Booster 7,
it created a powerful explosion under the booster as a combustible fuel mixture of gasses coming out of the engines ignited under the launch mount.
This time, though, everything went fine.
The next day, SpaceX did the same on Booster 7 and Ship 24 simultaneously.
Spin-up tests.
And in the evening, they did what we’d been waiting for for some time now.
Two static fires. One for Ship 24 and one for Booster 7. The test on booster 7 only involved one engine,
while the booster remained anchored to the launch mount with its hold-down clamps.
Remember that only one engine would be enough to lift the booster up at full throttle.
So those clamps are even needed when only one engine is ignited.
A little before the booster static fire on August 9th, SpaceX also performed a static fire with Ship 24.
Two engines. Five-second duration.
Performed without any problem.
These are huge milestones for SpaceX, as they pave the way towards the orbital launch.
SpaceX also released a video of the Ship 24 static fire,
showing some beautiful and very close-up footage of Ship 24 on one of the two suborbital pads.
Performing two static fires in one day shows that SpaceX is now almost ready for the orbital flight.
These static fires are likely to continue for a few more days now.
Both booster and Ship need to perform a full static fire before a lift-off would be possible.
Closures are scheduled for the next week, and SpaceX is getting ready to test the outer ring of 20 boost engines on Super Heavy booster 7.
In between those spin-up and static fire tests, the SpaceX crew is busy checking the equipment, analyzing results,
and getting the infrastructure ready for further testing.
The freshly installed service platform inside the orbital launch mount is up.
Engineers are checking engine connectors, Raptor engines, fuel lines, and sensors.
A detailed before and after analysis is very important to find weak links and improve the design.
How did the engines fare? Is the launch mount holding up to the task?
Is the system ready for an orbital launch?
A lot of systems are involved in launching a Starship to space.
The lower quick disconnect, for example, is a fueling station for the largest rocket ever built.
It handles fueling operations for the Super Heavy booster.
It has to transfer 3400 tons of fuel into the booster before lift-off, and since the tanks are being topped off right before lift-off,
it has to stay connected until the very last moment.
So, it is a retractable system with a protective hood on top,
which falls down as soon as the connector has moved away from the booster to protect the sensitive hardware from 33 Raptor engines blasting downwards.
There’s no doubt anymore. If SpaceX doesn’t hit another serious problem, the orbital launch is very close now.
Maybe another month. Maybe even sooner.
And of course, that’s not the only thing SpaceX is working on.
McGregor Texas, for example, where we have a new photographer working for and with What about it.
Let me introduce you to WAI Cam Justin and a Raptor 2 test performed on August 10th and on the largest test stand SpaceX has down there.
McGregor is where SpaceX has its large engine test facility, and these tests are conducted almost daily right now.
The reason is simple. Lots of Starships and boosters require lots of engines.
The SpaceX Raptor 2 engine is so far down the development pipeline by now that failures or bad tests can’t be seen often anymore.
Hawthorne produces top-notch powerhouses for upcoming Starship flights!
These are pictures Chief, the WAI cam Starbase operator, took on August 8th.
They show the Ship 25 forward section, the Ship 26 mid-lox section, and the ship 28 payload section.
Elsewhere at the production site, segments of ships 27 and 29 have also been spotted.
This means that SpaceX has currently got 5 different Starships in its pipeline.
Booster 8, 9, 10, and 11 are also in production.
Looking at Booster 8 inside the Mega Bay shows the latest progress very well.
It’s almost finished. Grid fins and a bit of detail work is missing and then it will be ready for a roll-out.
Booster 9 is inside the Mega Bay as well and halfway stacked with all the needed segments to finish the stack already spotted around the production site.
This begs the question of what SpaceX will do with all these if they can’t launch them quickly.
There’s another place where SpaceX already has permission to launch rockets and where they’re quickly building a second Starship launch mount
right now. LC39A at Kennedy Space Center.
It’s still a while until they will actually be ready for a launch, but it’s already visible that progress is quicker at the Cape.
Segment number 6 is stacked. The OLM legs are curing, the repurposed Apollo days Methane tank is almost finished now,
and SpaceX is only months away from having the second launch pad ready for action.
With this, the question of Ships and Boosters being shipped from Texas to Florida is coming up again.
Everything is already prepared in Boca Chica with the new road from Highway 4 to the port.
But even though SpaceX’s progress in Florida is very quick, the Starfactory won’t produce much until some time next year, as it seems.
Too many things are still missing.
To be able to stack, you need high bays, for example.
Virtual Space 3D has been working with me again to get some size comparisons done for you and for today’s episode.
Let’s look at some Rocket Bay’s first.
From left to right we have the Texas Mid-Bay with a height of 45 meters, we have the High Bay with 83 meters and we have the Mega Bay with 107.
As a comparison, we have the NASA Vehicle assembly building on the right.
One of the largest buildings in the world by area, the VAB covers over 32000 square meters, is 160 meters tall, and 157 meters wide.
It is made up of 50000 cubic meters of concrete, and its frame is constructed from 98,590 tons of steel.
Now, the Mega bay is not that tall, but it’s not small either, and these kinds of high bays are needed to handle the world's largest rockets.
Next, we have tank infrastructure that needs to be in place for a Starship launch, and there’s an optical illusion we have to talk about here.
How many of these do you think SpaceX will need to fuel and launch a Starship.
It can be very tricky comparing a spherical tank to a GSE Tank, as seen at Starbase.
Let me get you some numbers with the help of my friends from Virtual Space 3D.
A Starbase, Texas,
GSE Tank either fits 8 point 1 million liters of liquid oxygen or 9.1 million liters of Liquid Methane due to the slightly different height.
Now comes the optical illusion.
The one spherical tank SpaceX is currently preparing for the Kennedy Space Center fits 33 point 5 million liters of Liquid Methane.
That’s three point six five times the volume of a GSE Tank.
SpaceX converted the Methane GSE Tanks at Starbase into Water Tanks for safety reasons,
but two GSE tanks would have been enough fuel for at least one launch.
So, this one spherical tank at LC39A should be enough to fuel two Starship launches.
So, we won’t see a large tank farm being built at LC39A, as SpaceX is using much larger tanks here.
On we go with Mechazilla 2. Segment number 6 got rolled out from Roberts Road towards Pad39A on August 8th.
Spaceflight Now followed it with a camera.
If you’re not subscribed to them yet, show them some love!
They cover so much at KSC and are very dedicated!
Stacking took place in the early morning hours after the rollout.
SpaceX does not waste time at all!
Then it was time for us to go out there and take some fresh pictures up and close with the growing giant.
It’s already taller than the main structure of Pad 39A.
Comparing the two launch structures side by side and again with the help of our friends from Virtual Space_3D shows how much taller it will be
in the end. The launch structure at Pad39A got repurposed by SpaceX.
It was part of the old shuttle launch structure.
So, we’re talking about large infrastructure here.
Anyone who’s ever seen pad 39A in person knows this.
Putting a diagram of the not-yet finished Mechazilla 2 next to it and lifting the two rockets on the launch pad for comparison shows how much
larger the Starship itself and its infrastructure are.
Falcon 9 looks like a broomstick, pun intended, compared to Starship, and the tower itself is so much taller that it’s hard to put into words.
And it has a few changes too. It’s not the same tower they’re building at Starbase, Texas, even though it might seem so at first glance.
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This is a picture of the chopsticks intended for Mechazilla 2 and currently sitting at the SpaceX Starfactory at Roberts Road.
They’re done. Nothing is missing.
Why am I emphasizing this? Because they’re shorter.
Much shorter than those at Starbase, Texas.
So, here’s your next comparison to see how tiny they actually are.
LC39A chopsticks on the left and Boca Chica, Texas on the right.
The ones at Starbase, Texas, reach well beyond the launch mount.
Plenty of wiggle room for a catch.
The ones from Florida, once installed, will barely reach the middle of the mount.
A little more than half the length.
If they were one meter shorter, you couldn’t stack a Booster onto the olm with them.
Lunar Caveman gave us his diagram for the chopsticks to have some measurements.
20.9 meters compared to 11.5 for the area a booster can actually rest on.
That’s actually less than half.
Lunar Caveman’s top-down view shows the landing area with side movement.
The booster is 9 meters in diameter.
The landing area 11.5. That’s 2.5 meters of wiggle room for an imprecise landing.
Falcon 9 boosters manage to land reliably with around 2 meters diversion from the center of a drone ship.
But even there, SpaceX leaves more room because, as seen here on a Starlink launch on April 7th of 2021, sometimes it’s less precise.
So, it would likely be possible to catch a booster or a Starship in this small area, but the margin of error would drastically be reduced.
We can’t completely rule out that SpaceX still wants to catch Starships at Pad 39A,
but the only possible reason for SpaceX wanting to reduce the length of the chopsticks would be to make them lighter for faster movement and Elon
Musk has already said before, that the Sticks will hardly move at all during a catch.
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What do you think? Will SpaceX catch Starships and Boosters at Pad 39A?
Let me know in the comments! We’re still undecided!
Make sure to follow Virtual Space 3D, Lunar Caveman and The Space Engineer!
Links to their YouTube channels and Twitter accounts can be found in the description!