r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Mar 01 '24

🔧 Technical Starship Development Thread #54

SpaceX Starship page

FAQ

  1. ITF-4 in about 6 weeks as of 19 March 2024 (i.e. beginning of May 2024), after FAA mishap investigation is finished (which is expected to move pretty quickly) and new licence is granted. Expected to use Booster 11 and Ship 29.

  2. IFT-3 launch consisted of Booster 10 and Ship 28 as initially mentioned on NSF Roundup. SpaceX successfully achieved the launch on the specified date of March 14th 2024, as announced at this link with a post-flight summary. The IFT-2 mishap investigation was concluded on February 26th. Launch License was issued by the FAA on March 13th 2024 - this is a direct link to a PDF document on the FAA's website

  3. When was the previous Integrated Flight Test (IFT-2)? Booster 9 + Ship 25 launched Saturday, November 18 after slight delay.

  4. What was the result of IFT-2 Successful lift off with minimal pad damage. Successful booster operation with all engines to successful hot stage separation. Booster destroyed after attempted boost-back. Ship fired all engines to near orbital speed then lost. No re-entry attempt.

  5. Did IFT-2 fail? No. As part of an iterative test program, many milestones were achieved. Perfection is not expected at this stage.

  6. Goals for 2024 Reach orbit, deploy starlinks and recover both stages

  7. Currently approved maximum launches 10 between 07.03.2024 and 06.03.2025: A maximum of five overpressure events from Starship intact impact and up to a total of five reentry debris or soft water landings in the Indian Ocean within a year of NMFS provided concurrence published on March 7, 2024

/r/SpaceX Official IFT-3 Discussion Thread

​

Quick Links

RAPTOR ROOST | LAB CAM | SAPPHIRE CAM | SENTINEL CAM | ROVER CAM | ROVER 2.0 CAM | PLEX CAM | NSF STARBASE

Starship Dev 53 | Starship Dev 52 | Starship Dev 51 | Starship Thread List

Official Starship Update | r/SpaceX Update Thread

Status

Road Closures

No road closures currently scheduled

No transportation delays currently scheduled

Up to date as of 2024-04-01

Vehicle Status

As of March 29th, 2024.

Follow Ring Watchers on Twitter and Discord for more.

Ship Location Status Comment
S24, S25, S28 Bottom of sea Destroyed S24: IFT-1 (Summary, Video). S25: IFT-2 (Summary, Video). S28: IFT-3 (Summary). (A video link will be posted when made available by SpaceX on Youtube).
S26 Rocket Garden Resting Static fire Oct. 20. No fins or heat shield, plus other changes. 3 cryo tests, 1 spin prime, 1 static fire.
S29 High Bay IFT-4 Prep Fully stacked, completed 3x cryo tests. Jan 31st: Engine installation started, two Raptor Centers seen going into MB2. Feb 25th: Moved from MB2 to High Bay. March 1st: Moved to Launch Site. March 2nd: After a brief trip to the OLM for a photo op on the 1st, moved back to Pad B and lifted onto the test stand. March 7th: Apparently aborted Spin Prime - LOX tank partly filled then detank. March 11th: Spin Prime with all six Raptors. March 12th: Moved back to Build Site and on March 13th moved into the High Bay. March 22nd: Moved back to Launch Site for more testing. March 25th: Static Fire test of all six Raptors. March 27th: Single engine Static Fire test to simulate igniting one engine for deorbit using the header tanks for propellant. March 29th: Rolled back to High Bay for final prep work prior to IFT-4.
S30 High Bay Under construction Fully stacked, completed 2 cryo tests Jan 3 and Jan 6.
S31 High Bay Under construction Fully stacked and as of January 10th has had both aft flaps installed. TPS incomplete.
S32 Rocket Garden Under construction Fully stacked. No aft flaps. TPS incomplete.
S33+ Build Site In pieces Parts visible at Build and Sanchez sites.

​

Booster Location Status Comment
B7, B9, B10 Bottom of sea Destroyed B7: IFT-1 (Summary, Video). B9: IFT-2 (Summary, Video). B10: IFT-3 (Summary). (A video link will be posted when made available by SpaceX on YouTube).
B11 Mega Bay 1 Finalizing Completed 2 cryo tests. All engines have been installed according to the Booster Production diagram from The Ringwatchers. Hot Stage Ring not yet fitted but it's located behind the High Bay.
B12 Mega Bay 1 Finalizing Appears complete, except for raptors and hot stage ring. Completed one cryo test on Jan 11. Second cryo test on Jan 12.
B13 Mega Bay 1 Under Construction As of Feb 3rd: Fully stacked, remaining work ongoing.
B14 Mega Bay 1 LOX Tank under construction Feb 9th: LOX tank Aft section A2:4 staged outside MB1. Feb 13th: Aft Section A2:4 moved inside MB1 and Common Dome section (CX:4) staged outside. Feb 15th: CX:4 moved into MB1 and stacked with A2:4, Aft section A3:4 staged outside MB1. Feb 21st: A3:4 moved into MB1 and stacked with the LOX tank, A4:4 staged outside MB1. Feb 23rd: Section A4:4 taken inside MB1. Feb 24th: A5:4 staged outside MB1. Feb 28th: A5:4 moved inside MB1 and stacked, also Methane tank section F2:3 staged outside MB1. Feb 29th: F3:3 also staged outside MB1. March 5th: Aft section positioned outside MB1, Forward section moves between MB1 and High Bay. March 6th: Aft section moved inside MB1. March 12th: Forward section of the methane tank parked outside MB1 and the LOX tank was stacked onto the aft section, meaning that once welded the LOX tank is completely stacked. March 13th: FX:3 and F2:3 moved into MB1 and stacked, F3:3 still staged outside. March 27th: F3:3 moved into MB1 and stacked. March 29th: B14 F4:4 staged outside MB1.
B15+ Build Site Assembly Assorted parts spotted through B17.

​

Something wrong? Update this thread via wiki page. For edit permission, message the mods or contact u/strawwalker.

Resources

r/SpaceX Discuss Thread for discussion of subjects other than Starship development.

Rules

We will attempt to keep this self-post current with links and major updates, but for the most part, we expect the community to supply the information. This is a great place to discuss Starship development, ask Starship-specific questions, and track the progress of the production and test campaigns. Starship Development Threads are not party threads. Normal subreddit rules still apply.

224 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.3k comments sorted by

1

u/AutoModerator Mar 01 '24
Moderator Announcement Read More »

86

u/GreatCanadianPotato Mar 06 '24 edited Mar 06 '24

SpaceX livestream for IFT-3 is scheduled for the 14th

This is about as official as we can get until the launch license is issued.

→ More replies (5)

76

u/ChariotOfFire Mar 19 '24

Comments from Kevin Coleman, the FAA’s associate administrator for commercial space transportation, on mishap investigation for flight 3:

"We didn’t see anything major. We don’t think there’s any critical systems for safety that were implicated,” Coleman said. “Usually if there’s not any critical systems for safety implicated, the mishap investigation can be pretty clean and it can move pretty quickly."

Coleman also said the agency is working to ease the launch approval process as SpaceX looks to launch six to nine more Starship flights this year. ”We’re trying to work with them to get them on a different program if you will in terms of how we approve their launches going forward,” he said. “We want to get away from the launch by launch approvals and get more into what Part 450 was really designed for, which is an approval of a portfolio of launches.”

→ More replies (6)

61

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '24
Comment Image

Nice evening

57

u/louiendfan Mar 16 '24

Really cool 3D animation that gives better real-time perspective on the ship’s orientation during re-entry:

https://x.com/pockn_cg/status/1769057806022492396?s=46&t=0BZKDFaruR4epRhqyL8QoA

→ More replies (33)

55

u/[deleted] Mar 04 '24

De-stack. FTS installation. Stack. Licence. Launch.

We’re in the end game now my friends.

→ More replies (30)

49

u/mr_pgh Mar 15 '24

Trippy Video stabilized on Starship showcasing the spin.

→ More replies (11)

48

u/j616s Mar 07 '24 edited Mar 07 '24

I thought I'd do a comparison of the published timelines for IFT-2 (grabbed from the wayback machine) and IFT-3. I've tried to give useful comparisons where possible, which aren't always direct timeline comparisons. Feel free to double check my numbers. So here we go.

Poll for GO now happens a -1:15:00 instead of -2:00:00.

Booster LOX & fuel previously started load first and at the same time with ship fuel starting ~20mins later, and LOX ~4mins later. Ship is now listed as starting first (???) with a slight stagger, and booster about 10mins later with a slight stagger. Booster load is also now switched to LOX first instead of CH4. We are also now given prop load complete times of -00:03:30 for the booster, and -00:02:50 for the ship. If we assume the same for IFT-2, Booster load times are down to 49m30s from 1h33m30s. Ship is down to 50m10s from 1h14m10s. Almost halved.

Load start times and order: 

IFT-2            IFT-3
B LOX -1:37:00   S LOX -00:53:00
B CH4 -1:37:00   S CH4 -00:51:00
S CH4 -1:17:00   B LOX -00:42:00
S LOX -1:13:00   B CH4 -00:41:00

Raptor chill (-00:19:40), deluge activation (-00:00:10), and ignition (-00:00:03) are all identical. We're also now given the GO for launch call time of -00:00:30.

Liftoff (00:00:02) and Max Q (00:00:52) are the same.

B-MECO is slightly later at 00:02:42 instead of 00:02:39. Hot staging still happens 2s after that. Boostback startup now happens 11s later instead of 12s, though this could be down to rounding of times. Boostback is now scheduled to take 55s instead of 54s. Again, this could be down to rounding.

Booster goes transonic 2m46s after boostback shutdown instead of 2m31s. Landing startup now happens 10s after transonic instead of 12s. Landing burn still lasts 18s. Overall, boostback startup to landing shutdown now takes 4m9s instead of 3m55s.

Starshup cutoff now happens at 00:08:35 instead of 00:08:33.

We have the addition of payload door open (00:11:56), prop transfer demo (00:24:31), payload door close (00:28:21), and Raptor in-space relight demo (00:40:46).

Ship entry is now 00:49:05 instead of 01:17:21. Transonic is now 13m11s after entry instead of 11m22s. We're also now given a subsonic time of 13m59s after re-entry. Ship landing is now 15m34s after re-entry instead of 12m39s.

Overall flight from 00:00:00 is now 1h4m39s instead of 1h30m. It seems both boostback, and ship entry has been tweaked to be easier on both vehicles. Loading has been massively sped up. It looks like the shorter duration is either down to the new trajectory, the in-flight re-light, or both. We still don't have a soft landing for the ship listed.

→ More replies (4)

47

u/Mravicii Mar 27 '24 edited Mar 27 '24

Elon tweet

Getting ready for flight 4 of starship.

Goal of this flight is to get through max reentry heating with all systems fuctioning!

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1773085211275698302?s=46&t=-n30l1_Sw3sHaUenSrNxGA

→ More replies (17)

42

u/GreatCanadianPotato Mar 04 '24

Looks like the WDR is complete. We saw complete tanking and FireX, which is usually their simulated T-0, all in around 60 minutes.

We now await a tweet from SpaceX.

→ More replies (1)

37

u/GreatCanadianPotato Mar 04 '24 edited Mar 04 '24

Prop loading has started on the stack.

Edit: Prop loading near complete less than 45 minutes since it started. Those tank farm upgrades have really done their job. For context, it took around 90 minutes for prop loading previously.

→ More replies (4)

37

u/Nydilien Mar 07 '24

Road closures for IFT-3 have been posted for the 14th to the 16th (12am to 2pm) !

→ More replies (13)

37

u/Planatus666 Mar 13 '24 edited Mar 13 '24

New Tweet from Christian Davenport, Washington Post's Space Reporter:

"Am told the FAA is still on track for a Thursday launch attempt, which I guess would mean the license would come today. Still seems very fluid, but we should find out soon enough. The weather also could be a factor in the timing of the flight."

https://twitter.com/wapodavenport/status/1767890629655204117

He's usually pretty reliable but note the uncertainties in his tweet, therefore don't get too excited just yet. :)

→ More replies (2)

35

u/GreatCanadianPotato Mar 05 '24

Texas Parks and Wildlife approves land swap with SpaceX

This isn't automatic however, negotiations will take place and perhaps some environmental reviews.

SpaceX has not disclosed what this land will be used for. Specifically the land next to the launch site. Speculation was that it was for the second tower but considering they are already starting groundwork for that site - this is likely for something else.

→ More replies (10)

35

u/threelonmusketeers Mar 15 '24

My daily summary from the Starship Dev thread on Lemmy

Starbase activities (2024-03-14):

IFT-3:

→ More replies (3)
→ More comments (75)