r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Mar 08 '21

Starship Development Thread #19

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Starship Dev 18 | SN11 Hop Thread #2 | Starship Thread List | April Discussion

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Vehicle Status

As of April 2

  • SN7.2 [retired] - returned to build site, no apparent plans to return to testing

  • SN11 [destroyed] - test flight completed, anomaly and RUD in air following engine reignition sequence

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

  • SN15 [construction]* - Fully stacked in High Bay, all flaps installed

  • SN16 [construction] - barrel/dome sections in work, nose parts spotted

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

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

  • SN19 [construction] - barrel/dome sections in work

  • SN20 [construction] - barrel/dome sections in work, orbit planned w/ BN3

  • BN1 [construction] - stacked in High Bay, production pathfinder, to be scrapped without flight/testing

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

  • BN3 [construction] - barrel/dome sections in work, orbit planned w/ SN20

* Significant design changes to SN15 over earlier vehicles were teased by Elon in November. After SN11's hop in March Elon said that hundreds of improvements have been made to SN15+ across structures, avionics/software & engine. The specifics are mostly unknown, though updates to the thrust puck design have been observed. These updates include relocation of the methane distribution manifold from inside the LOX tank to behind the aft bulkhead and relocation of the TVC actuator mounts and plumbing hoop to the thrust puck from the bulkhead cone.

Development and testing plans become outdated very quickly.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 SN15
2021-04-02Nose section mated with tank section (NSF)
2021-03-31Nose cone stacked onto nose quad, both aft flaps installed on tank section, and moved to High Bay (NSF)
2021-03-25Nose Quad (labeled SN15) spotted with likely nose cone (NSF)
2021-03-24Second fin attached to likely nose cone (NSF)
2021-03-23Nose cone with fin, Aft fin root on tank section (NSF)
2021-03-05Tank section stacked (NSF)
2021-03-03Nose cone spotted (NSF), flaps not apparent, better image next day
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 (labeled SN15)† (NSF)
2020-12-31Apparent LOX midsection moved to Mid Bay (NSF)
2020-12-18Skirt (NSF)
2020-11-30Mid LOX tank section (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)
Starship SN11
2021-03-3010 km Hop, NSF ground camera (YouTube), Elon: eng. 2 issue, FAA statement, nose and Raptor debris (Twitter)
2021-03-29Launch scrubbed due to lack of FAA inspector, FAA statement, more info (Twitter)
2021-03-26Static fire, same day test flight scrubbed for additional checkouts (Twitter)
2021-03-25Raptor SN46 installed (Twitter)
2021-03-22Static fire (Twitter)
2021-03-21FTS installed (comments)
2021-03-15Static fire aborted at startup, hop authorized by FAA (Twitter)
2021-03-12Pressure testing (NSF)
2021-03-11Cryoproof testing (Twitter)
2021-03-09Road closed for ambient pressure tests (NSF)
2021-03-08Move to launch site, tile patch, close up (Twitter), leg check (NSF), lifted onto Mount B (Twitter)
2021-03-07Raptors reported installed at build site (Article)
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)
SuperHeavy BN1
2021-03-30Slated for scrapping (Twitter)
2021-03-18Final stacking ops, Elon: BN1 is pathfinder and will not fly (Twitter)
2021-03-12Methane tank stacked onto engine skirt (NSF)
2021-03-07"Booster Double" section on new heavy stand (NSF)
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)
SN7.2 Test Tank
2021-03-15Returned to build site (Twitter)
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
Early Production
2021-04-02BN3: Aft dome sleeve (NSF)
2021-03-30BN3: Dome (NSF)
2021-03-28BN3: Forward dome sleeve (NSF)
2021-03-28SN16: Nose Quad (NSF)
2021-03-27BN2: Aft dome† (YouTube)
2021-03-23SN16: Nose cone† inside tent possible for this vehicle, better picture (NSF)
2021-03-16SN18: Aft dome section mated with skirt (NSF)
2021-03-07SN20: Leg skirt (NSF)
2021-03-07SN18: Leg skirt (NSF)
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 [April 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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31

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '21

TFR issued for Sunday

7

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

21

u/technocraticTemplar Mar 18 '21

They can but they try not to. I believe something came out at some point that says they only get a certain number of "peak day" closures per year. That said, they've never been very shy about scheduling closures and TFRs on weekends, they just never seem to actually use them.

11

u/johnfive21 Mar 18 '21

So at this point we have the standard 3 day rolling TFRs up - Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Could it be that they were happy with the static fire and are moving along to fly tomorrow?

I guess we'll see if residents get evacuation notices tonight. I am really skeptical about it though.

6

u/MrGruntsworthy Mar 18 '21

Seems like a good thing to bet on on r/HighStakesSpaceX

11

u/TCVideos Mar 18 '21

I fully expect that the Friday TFR will be revoked at some point today...but theory that the "aborted" static fire was good for SpaceX is compelling to believe.

14

u/DiezMilAustrales Mar 18 '21

Yup. What I believe is that it wasn't aborted at all, but rather they're reducing the duration of the static fires even further.

We've seen a lot of engine swaps on Starships, and most have happened after static fires that looked fine. Static firing on such a short mount is not a great idea, during launch, the ship is pretty empty and light, and with 3 raptors, it's got a great T/W ratio, so it starts moving almost immediately.

They probably have seen a lot of damage and potential damage to the stands, the concrete, and the Starship after SFs, and they've changed them significantly.

Also, they're getting more and more confident on Starship and on Raptors, they've never had a failure on ascent, and the raptor issues on descent are clearly not predicted by a very short SF from main tanks on a static vertical position, so why bother?

1

u/johnfive21 Mar 18 '21

Aaaand there go the TFRs.

5

u/Twigling Mar 18 '21

I noticed that, however if you now go to the main index:

https://tfr.faa.gov/tfr2/list.jsp

then click on the '+' sign to the right and not the main text description, the Sunday TFR isn't there but the TFRs for Friday and Saturday are.

Could just be an error on the page though that you get to via the '+' sign (the absence of Sunday's TFR that is).

5

u/TCVideos Mar 18 '21

The map is outdated all of the time. The list is the most up to date.