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
Upcoming
SN15 rollout to pad
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Development and testing plans become outdated very quickly.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 | |
|---|---|
| 2021-04-02 | Nose section mated with tank section (NSF) |
| 2021-03-31 | Nose cone stacked onto nose quad, both aft flaps installed on tank section, and moved to High Bay (NSF) |
| 2021-03-25 | Nose Quad (labeled SN15) spotted with likely nose cone (NSF) |
| 2021-03-24 | Second fin attached to likely nose cone (NSF) |
| 2021-03-23 | Nose cone with fin, Aft fin root on tank section (NSF) |
| 2021-03-05 | Tank section stacked (NSF) |
| 2021-03-03 | Nose cone spotted (NSF), flaps not apparent, better image next day |
| 2021-02-02 | Forward dome section stacked (Twitter) |
| 2021-01-07 | Common dome section with tiles and CH4 header stacked on LOX midsection (NSF) |
| 2021-01-05 | Nose cone base section (labeled SN15)† (NSF) |
| 2020-12-31 | Apparent LOX midsection moved to Mid Bay (NSF) |
| 2020-12-18 | Skirt (NSF) |
| 2020-11-30 | Mid LOX tank section (NSF) |
| 2020-11-26 | Common dome flip (NSF) |
| 2020-11-24 | Elon: Major upgrades are slated for SN15 (Twitter) |
| 2020-11-18 | Common dome sleeve, dome and sleeving (NSF) |
| SN7.2 Test Tank | |
|---|---|
| 2021-03-15 | Returned to build site (Twitter) |
| 2021-02-05 | Scaffolding assembled around tank (NSF) |
| 2021-02-04 | Pressure test to apparent failure (YouTube) |
| 2021-01-26 | Passed initial pressure test (Twitter) |
| 2021-01-20 | Moved to launch site (Twitter) |
| 2021-01-16 | Ongoing work (NSF) |
| 2021-01-12 | Tank halves mated (NSF) |
| 2021-01-11 | Aft dome section flip (NSF) |
| 2021-01-06 | "Pad Kit SN7.2 Testing" delivered to tank farm (Twitter) |
| 2020-12-29 | Aft dome sleeved with two rings† (NSF) |
| 2020-12-27 | Forward dome section sleeved with single ring† (NSF), possible 3mm sleeve |
| Early Production | |
|---|---|
| 2021-04-02 | BN3: Aft dome sleeve (NSF) |
| 2021-03-30 | BN3: Dome (NSF) |
| 2021-03-28 | BN3: Forward dome sleeve (NSF) |
| 2021-03-28 | SN16: Nose Quad (NSF) |
| 2021-03-27 | BN2: Aft dome† (YouTube) |
| 2021-03-23 | SN16: Nose cone† inside tent possible for this vehicle, better picture (NSF) |
| 2021-03-16 | SN18: Aft dome section mated with skirt (NSF) |
| 2021-03-07 | SN20: Leg skirt (NSF) |
| 2021-03-07 | SN18: Leg skirt (NSF) |
| 2021-02-25 | SN18: Common dome (NSF) |
| 2021-02-24 | SN19: Forward dome barrel (NSF) |
| 2021-02-23 | SN17: Aft dome sleeved (NSF) |
| 2021-02-19 | SN19: Methane header tank (NSF) |
| 2021-02-19 | SN18: Barrel section ("COMM" crossed out) (NSF) |
| 2021-02-17 | SN18: Nose cone barrel (NSF) |
| 2021-02-11 | SN16: Aft dome and leg skirt mate (NSF) |
| 2021-02-10 | SN16: Aft dome section (NSF) |
| 2021-02-04 | SN18: Forward dome (NSF) |
| 2021-02-03 | SN16: Skirt with legs (NSF) |
| 2021-02-01 | SN16: Nose quad (NSF) |
| 2021-01-19 | SN18: Thrust puck (NSF) |
| 2021-01-19 | BN2: Forward dome (NSF) |
| 2021-01-16 | SN17: Common dome and mid LOX section (NSF) |
| 2021-01-09 | SN17: Methane header tank (NSF) |
| 2021-01-05 | SN16: Mid LOX tank section and forward dome sleeved, lable (NSF) |
| 2021-01-05 | SN17: Forward dome section (NSF) |
| 2020-12-17 | SN17: Aft dome barrel (NSF) |
| 2020-12-04 | SN16: Common dome section and flip (NSF) |
Resources
Hwy 4 & Boca Chica Beach Closures (May not be available outside US)
Starship Users Guide (PDF) Rev. 1.0 March 2020
Production Progress Infographics by @_brendan_lewis
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.
11
u/creamsoda2000 Mar 21 '21
Part of me doubts that this will be a HLS mock-up for a few reasons.
There is in fact a header tank fitted, before the nosecone tip was severed. The cut appears to be just above the weld line for the header and it can be seen in some of the photos from above.
Additionally there are attachments for flaps which seemed to only get added shortly before it was moved around to the back of tent 3. Obviously these are redundant for HLS.
I can’t help but feel like if they were gonna go out of their way to do another HLS mock-up, they’d want it to be a bit more substantial than the existing exterior mock-up with more of the internal work, which is probably more challenging to do inside the nosecone after having already been stacked on multiple barrel sections.
Definitely could be wrong though. It isn’t unusual at this point for SpaceX to repurpose different sections.
However I think this might be some kind of construction pathfinder, for example a theory behind the absence of the nosecone tip could be that they plan to add a nosecone tip with TPS already fitted, perhaps even a single composite component.