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Cake day: June 10th, 2023
  • threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.worksOPMtoSpaceX@sh.itjust.works•Starship Development Thread November 2024English
    4·
    8 hours ago

    Starbase activities (2024-11-20):

    • Nov 19th cryo delivery tally.
    • Nov 20th road closure is revoked.
    • 1-hour road delay was posted for Nov 21st (00:00 to 03:00) for transport from factory to pad, but then revoked.
    • Build site: S26 moves to Highbay, the LTR1220 crane delivers a ring spreader, and the lower 4 rings of S26 are removed. (ViX 1, ViX 2, ViX 3, Beyer, DeffGeff)
    • Booster transport stand arrives at the production site. (ViX)
    • Potential raptor delivery truck is spotted. (ViX)
    • Pad A: Chopsticks and launch mount inspections overnight. (Starbase Pulse)
    • Launch mount work platform rolls back out to the pad. (ViX, NSF)
    • Three truckloads of cryo piping are delivered. (ViX)
    • Booster stabilization pins are moved back towards the launch mount. (ViX)

    IFT-6:

    • Gulf of Mexico: Final sighting on Nov 19th of B13 heading south into Mexican waters, guarded by support aircraft. (LabPadre)
    • Two out of three support ships return to port. (Cornwell, Cornwell 2)
    • Indian Ocean: The two ships slowly move west, likely following the remains of S31. (Cornwell 1, Cornwell 2)
    • “What caused the catch abort?” Elon: “Lost comms to the launch tower computer. Catch would probably still have worked, but we weren’t sure, so erred on the side of caution.”
    • “What happened to the banana?” Elon: “Well, the fairing did blow up when the ship fell over after landing in the water (as expected)”
    • FAA confirms no mishap. All outcomes were within the scope of the launch license. (Beil)

    Other:

    • “Is the perspirative cooling still off the table?” Elon: “Metallic shielding, supplemented by ullage gas or liquid film-cooling is back on the table as a possibility”
    • The FAA publish a revised Environmental Assessment draft (Revised Draft EA, PDF warning) for increasing launch cadence to 25 per year. Document includes (pg. 153 and 154) a map showing the planned trajectory for Starship RTLS, passing over Matamoros (Mexico) and the outskirts of Brownsville. (thanks u/Nydilien and u/scarlet_sage in The Other Place)
    Embedded screenshot

  • threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.worksOPMtoSpaceX@sh.itjust.works•Starship Development Thread November 2024English
    4·
    1 day ago

    Starbase activities (2024-11-19):

    IFT-6:

    • Launch pad clearing begins. (ViX 1, ViX 2)
    • Road is closed. (LabPadre)
    • A few cryo deliveries continue. (ViX 1, ViX 2)
    • Chopsticks open to launch position. (LabPadre, ViX, NSF)
    • Booster transport stand arrives at the roadblock. (ViX, NSF)
    • Chopstick landing rails are raised. (LabPadre, ViX)
    • Frost and venting are observed on the vaporizers to the left of the D2 gate. (ViX)
    • Helicopter and fast boats are spotted, presumably for range duty. (ViX, NSF, RGV Aerial)
    • Tank farm, tower, and launch mount venting. (LabPadre, ViX, NSF 1, NSF 2, Golden)
    • Frost on ship and booster, propellant is loaded. (LabPadre, SpaceX)
    • IFT-6 happens. The payload is a single banana. (ViX, Cornwell)
    • Booster catch attempt is aborted. B13 performs a soft splashdown, propellant tanks rupture when booster tips over. (LabPadre, ViX, NSF)
    • SpaceX marine assets approach B13. (Cornwell)
    • B13 continues to to belch fire over an hour after splashdown. (LabPadre, Golden)
    • In-space raptor relight test is successful. (SpaceX, LabPadre)
    • Slight warping of the hull is observed during reentry. (Golden)
    • S31 survives reentry and performs a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean. (SpaceX, courtesy of marine assets)
    • S31 had an older heatshield design, fewer tiles, and flew a steeper reentry profile. (Tankwatchers, Maxarick 1, Maxarick 2)
    • Cause of catch abort: Although “Tower is go for catch”, was called out during the webcast, it seems like a later check identified an issue which triggered the abort: “Following a nominal ascent and stage separation, the booster successfully transitioned to its boostback burn to begin the return to launch site. During this phase, automated health checks of critical hardware on the launch and catch tower triggered an abort of the catch attempt. The booster then executed a pre-planned divert maneuver, performing a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.” (Golden’s thoughts](https://x.com/CSI_Starbase/status/1859074034698183118))

    Non-IFT-6:

    • Nov 18th cryo delivery tally.
    • Build site: A Bigge BG-28H drill rig, Bigge Tadano crane, and drill bits are delivered. (ViX 1, ViX 2, ViX 3, Golden)
    • Minor damage to the lighting and communications pole on Tower A. (NSF, Golden)
    • Booster load spreader moves into Megabay 1. (ViX)

    Other:

    • Elon shares flight 6 objectives. (Elon)
    • SpaceX share updated HLS renders. (SpaceX, Golden)
    • SpaceX share photos of heatshield tests in simulated martian atmosphere. (SpaceX)
    • Elon shares some numbers: “Flight 6 liftoff thrust is ~7500 tons and mass is ~5000 tons. The tanker version of Starship V3 will weigh over 7000 tons.”
    • Elon shares more Starship V3 info: “Same diameter of 9m (~30 ft), but longer and at least 2 versions. The propellant tanker version will be especially heavy, as the payload volume in the forward section will mostly contain propellant. Thrust goal will be ~10k tons (3X Saturn V) and liftoff mass of tanker version ~7k tons. This should be capable of ~200 tons of orbital refilling. Note, 3% of liftoff mass as useful cargo would be insanely good for a fully reusable orbital rocket. Most expendable rockets aren’t that good.”
    • Elon regarding flight 7 and 8: “We will do one more ocean landing of the ship. If that goes well, then SpaceX will attempt to catch the ship with the tower.” This puts S34 as potentially the first RTLS ship.

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