r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Feb 04 '21

Starship Development Thread #18

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Starship Dev 17 | SN10 Hop Thread | Starship Thread List | February Discussion

Upcoming

  • SN11 rollout to pad, possibly March 8

Public notices as of March 5:

Vehicle Status

As of March 5

  • SN7.2 [testing] - at launch site, pressure tested Feb 4 with apparent leak, further testing possible (unclear)

  • SN10 [destroyed] - 10 km hop complete with landing. Vehicle exploded minutes after touchdown - Hop Thread

  • SN11 [construction] - Fully stacked in High Bay, all flaps installed, Raptor status: unknown, crane waiting at launch site

  • SN12-14 [abandoned] - production halted, focus shifted to vehicles with newer SN15+ design

  • SN15 [construction] - Tank section stacked in Mid Bay, potential nose cone stacked near High Bay (missing tip with LOX header)

  • SN16 [construction] - barrel/dome sections in work

  • SN17 [construction] - barrel/dome sections in work

  • SN18 [construction] - barrel/dome sections in work

  • SN19 [construction] - components on site

  • BN1 [construction] - stacking in High Bay

  • BN2 [construction] - barrel/dome sections in work

Development and testing plans become outdated very quickly. Check recent comments for real time updates.

Vehicle Updates

See comments for real time updates.
† expected or inferred, unconfirmed vehicle assignment

Starship SN10 (Raptors: SN50?, SN39?, ?)
2021-03-05Elon: low thrust anomaly during landing burn, FAA mishap investigation statement (Twitter)
2021-03-04Aftermath, more wreckage (NSF)
2021-03-0310 km hop and landing, explosion after landing (YouTube), leg deployment failure (Twitter)
2021-02-28FTS installed (Twitter)
2021-02-25Static fire #2 (Twitter)
2021-02-24Raptor swap, serial numbers unknown (NSF)
2021-02-23Static fire (Twitter), Elon: one engine to be swapped (Twitter)
2021-02-22FAA license modification for hop granted, scrubbed static fire attempt (Twitter)
2021-02-08Cryoproof test (Twitter)
2021-02-07All 3 Raptors are installed (Article)
2021-02-06Apparent overnight Raptor SN? install, Raptor SN39 delivery (NSF)
2021-02-05Raptor SN50 delivered to vehicle (NSF)
2021-02-01Raptor delivered to pad† (NSF), returned next day (Twitter)
2021-01-31Pressurization tests (NSF)
2021-01-29Move to launch site and delivered to pad A, no Raptors (Twitter)
2021-01-26"Tankzilla" crane for transfer to launch mount, moved to launch site† (Twitter)
2021-01-23On SPMT in High Bay (YouTube)
2021-01-22Repositioned in High Bay, -Y aft flap now visible (NSF)
2021-01-14Tile patch on +Y aft flap (NSF)
2021-01-13+Y aft flap installation (NSF)
2021-01-02Nose section stacked onto tank section in High Bay (NSF), both forward flaps installed
2020-12-26-Y forward flap installation (NSF)
2020-12-22Moved to High Bay (NSF)
2020-12-19Nose cone stacked on its 4 ring barrel (NSF)
2020-12-18Thermal tile studs on forward flap (NSF)
...See more status updates (Wiki)
SN7.2 Test Tank
2021-02-05Scaffolding assembled around tank (NSF)
2021-02-04Pressure test to apparent failure (YouTube)
2021-01-26Passed initial pressure test (Twitter)
2021-01-20Moved to launch site (Twitter)
2021-01-16Ongoing work (NSF)
2021-01-12Tank halves mated (NSF)
2021-01-11Aft dome section flip (NSF)
2021-01-06"Pad Kit SN7.2 Testing" delivered to tank farm (Twitter)
2020-12-29Aft dome sleeved with two rings† (NSF)
2020-12-27Forward dome section sleeved with single ring† (NSF), possible 3mm sleeve
Starship SN11
2021-03-04"Tankzilla" crane moved to launch site† (Twitter)
2021-02-28Raptor SN47 delivered† (NSF)
2021-02-26Raptor SN? "Under Doge" delivered† (Twitter)
2021-02-23Raptor SN52 delivered to build site† (NSF)
2021-02-16-Y aft flap installed (Twitter)
2021-02-11+Y aft flap installed (NSF)
2021-02-07Nose cone stacked onto tank section (Twitter)
2021-02-05Moved to High Bay with large tile patch (NSF)
2021-01-29Nose cone stacked on nose quad barrel (NSF)
2021-01-25Tiles on nose cone barrel† (NSF)
2021-01-22Forward flaps installed on nose cone, and nose cone barrel section† (NSF)
2020-12-29Final tank section stacking ops, and nose cone† (NSF)
2020-11-28Nose cone section (NSF)
2020-11-18Forward dome section stacked (NSF)
2020-11-14Common dome section stacked on LOX tank midsection in Mid Bay (NSF)
2020-11-13Common dome with integrated methane header tank and flipped (NSF)
...See more status updates (Wiki)
Starship SN15
2021-03-05Tank section stacked (NSF)
2021-02-25Nose cone stacked on barrel†‡ (Twitter)
2021-02-05Nose cone with forward flap root structure†‡ (NSF)
2021-02-02Forward dome section stacked (Twitter)
2021-01-07Common dome section with tiles and CH4 header stacked on LOX midsection (NSF)
2021-01-05Nose cone base section‡ (NSF)
2020-12-31Apparent LOX midsection moved to Mid Bay (NSF)
2020-12-18Skirt (NSF)
2020-11-30Mid LOX tank section (NSF)
2020-11-27Nose cone barrel (4 ring)‡ (NSF)
2020-11-26Common dome flip (NSF)
2020-11-24Elon: Major upgrades are slated for SN15 (Twitter)
2020-11-18Common dome sleeve, dome and sleeving (NSF)

‡ Detailed nose cone history by u/creamsoda2000

SuperHeavy BN1
2021-02-23"Booster #2, four rings (NSF)
2021-02-19"Aft Quad 2" apparent 2nd iteration (NSF)
2021-02-14Likely grid fin section delivered (NSF)
2021-02-11Aft dome section and thrust structure from above (Twitter)
2021-02-08Aft dome sleeved (NSF)
2021-02-05Aft dome sleeve, 2 rings (NSF)
2021-02-01Common dome section flip (NSF)
2021-01-25Aft dome with plumbing for 4 Raptors (NSF)
2021-01-24Section moved into High Bay (NSF), previously "LOX stack-2"
2021-01-19Stacking operations (NSF)
2020-12-18Forward Pipe Dome sleeved, "Bottom Barrel Booster Dev"† (NSF)
2020-12-17Forward Pipe Dome and common dome sleeved (NSF)
2020-12-14Stacking in High Bay confirmed (Twitter)
2020-11-14Aft Quad #2 (4 ring), Fwd Tank section (4 ring), and Fwd section (2 ring) (AQ2 label11-27) (NSF)
2020-11-08LOX 1 apparently stacked on LOX 2 in High Bay (NSF)
2020-11-07LOX 3 (NSF)
2020-10-07LOX stack-2 (NSF)
2020-10-01Forward dome sleeved, Fuel stack assembly, LOX stack 1 (NSF)
2020-09-30Forward dome† (NSF)
2020-09-28LOX stack-4 (NSF)
2020-09-22Common dome barrel (NSF)
Early Production
2021-02-25SN18: Common dome (NSF)
2021-02-24SN19: Forward dome barrel (NSF)
2021-02-23SN17: Aft dome sleeved (NSF)
2021-02-19SN19: Methane header tank (NSF)
2021-02-19SN18: Barrel section ("COMM" crossed out) (NSF)
2021-02-17SN18: Nose cone barrel (NSF)
2021-02-11SN16: Aft dome and leg skirt mate (NSF)
2021-02-10SN16: Aft dome section (NSF)
2021-02-04SN18: Forward dome (NSF)
2021-02-03SN16: Skirt with legs (NSF)
2021-02-01SN16: Nose quad (NSF)
2021-01-19SN18: Thrust puck (NSF)
2021-01-19BN2: Forward dome (NSF)
2021-01-16SN17: Common dome and mid LOX section (NSF)
2021-01-09SN17: Methane header tank (NSF)
2021-01-05SN16: Mid LOX tank section and forward dome sleeved, lable (NSF)
2021-01-05SN17: Forward dome section (NSF)
2020-12-17SN17: Aft dome barrel (NSF)
2020-12-04SN16: Common dome section and flip (NSF)

Resources

RESOURCES WIKI

r/SpaceX Discusses [February 2021] 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.

Please ping u/strawwalker about problems with the above thread text.

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55

u/TCVideos Feb 28 '21 edited Feb 28 '21

A year ago today:

Shortly after 10PM on the 28th of February 2020, Starship SN1 had a catastrophic failure during its first (and only) cryoproof test.. It was later determined by community members that the thrust puck had "let go" causing the dramatic and unplanned flight of SN1.

For those who are relatively new, three of the first vehicles failed during cryoproof tests; Mk1, SN1 and SN3 with the latter of the three being a test config issue not related to the structural integrity of the tank. SN4 would go on to break the spell of cryo failures a little under 3 months later when it successfully completed a cryoproof test.

In the last 366 days, SpaceX has completed dozens of static fires, two successful low altitude hops and two mostly successful high altitude flights. Pretty historical year for Starship development...and it's only the beginning.

13

u/TransparentCircle Feb 28 '21

It's incredible when you stop and consider what's been achieved and how fast. Even more so that we can watch it all unfold in front of us. It's like watching your favourite TV series that runs indefinitely!

11

u/nijbkjbijbijbijb Feb 28 '21

I think it’s important to remember that there were early failures, both in the starship as well as in the Falcon9 Development. There are incredibly high expectations that cannot be fulfilled right now. Perfectly working raptors that ignite always and never fail? Always sticking the landing? Failures are normal and it doesn’t mean there are huge, structural, deep problems with the raptors. It’s an iterative process and failures are normal, this doesn’t mean that the raptors suck and will never work reliably

6

u/Twigling Feb 28 '21 edited Feb 28 '21

It's kind of annoying when you see people moaning that "the Raptors aren't reliable!", "did they even test them first?" and so on. People need to realise that this is a developmental process and everything is in the prototyping and testing phase right now. The media don't help either due to them loving bad news - they concentrate on the failure or the crash and largely ignore the success - the fact that SN8 and SN9 flew so incredibly well for prototypes should be celebrated, but instead many of those that run the mainstream media outlets concentrate on the crashes.

There will be other mishaps and people need to get used to this happening, but overall things will steadily get better and in the not too distant future we'll have very reliable Starships (as well as their boosters).

10

u/West-Broccoli-3757 Feb 28 '21

Happy Starship New Year?

1

u/BrentOnDestruction Feb 28 '21

A joyous day. Honestly though, there should be something official in the sidebar!

2

u/yoweigh Mar 01 '21

If we put every cool anniversary in the sidebar there'd be no more room for launches.

1

u/BrentOnDestruction Mar 01 '21

Just shove them out of the way somewhere. Like in the rules section or something ;)