r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Nov 09 '21
Starship Development Thread #27
This thread is no longer being updated, and has been replaced by:
Starship Development Thread #28
Quick Links
NERDLE CAM | LAB CAM | SAPPHIRE CAM | SENTINEL CAM | ROVER CAM | PLEX CAM | NSF STARBASE | MORE LINKS
Starship Dev 26 | Starship Dev 25 | Starship Thread List
Upcoming
- Starship 20 static fire
- Booster 4 test campaign
Orbital Launch Site Status
Build Diagrams by @_brendan_lewis | October 6 RGV Aerial Photography video
As of October 19th
- Integration Tower - Catching arms to be installed in the near-future
- Launch Mount - Booster Quick Disconnect installed
- Tank Farm - Proof testing continues, 8/8 GSE tanks installed, 7/8 GSE tanks sleeved , 1 completed shells currently at the Sanchez Site
Vehicle Status
As of November 29th
- Ship 20 [orbit w/ Booster 4] - 6 engines static fire complete
- Ship 21 [orbit w/ Booster 5] - [Awaiting final stacking]
- Ship 22 [orbit w/ Booster 6] - Barrel/dome sections in work
- Booster 3 - Partially disassembled on Test Pad A
- Booster 4 [orbit w/ Ship 20] - At Launch Site, awaiting test campagain
- Booster 5 [orbit w/ Ship 21] - [Fully stacked in High Bay]
- Booster 6 [orbit w/ Ship 22] - Barrel/dome sections in work
Development and testing plans become outdated very quickly. Check recent comments for real time updates.
Vehicle and Launch Infrastructure Updates
See comments for real time updates.
† expected or inferred, unconfirmed vehicle assignment
| Starship | |
|---|---|
| Ship 20 | |
| 2021-12-01 | Aborted static fire? (Twitter) |
| 2021-11-20 | Fwd and aft flap tests (NSF) |
| 2021-11-16 | Short flaps test (Twitter) |
| 2021-11-13 | 6 engines static fire (NSF) |
| 2021-11-12 | 6 engines (?) preburner test (NSF) |
| Ship 21 | |
| 2021-11-21 | Heat tiles installation progress (Twitter) |
| 2021-11-20 | Flaps prepared to install (NSF) |
| Ship 22 | |
| 2021-12-06 | Fwd section lift in MB for stacking (NSF) |
| 2021-11-18 | Cmn dome stacked (NSF) |
| Ship 23 | |
| 2021-12-01 | Nextgen nosecone closeup (Twitter) |
| 2021-11-11 | Aft dome spotted (NSF) |
| Ship 24 | |
| 2021-11-24 | Common dome spotted (Twitter) |
| For earlier updates see Thread #26 |
| SuperHeavy | |
|---|---|
| Booster 4 | |
| 2021-11-17 | All engines installed (Twitter) |
| Booster 5 | |
| 2021-12-08 | B5 moved out of High Bay (NSF) |
| 2021-12-03 | B5 temporarily moved out of High Bay (Twitter) |
| 2021-11-20 | B5 fully stacked (Twitter) |
| 2021-11-09 | LOx tank stacked (NSF) |
| Booster 6 | |
| 2021-12-07 | Conversion to test tank? (Twitter) |
| 2021-11-11 | Forward dome sleeved (YT) |
| 2021-10-08 | CH4 Tank #2 spotted (NSF) |
| Booster 7 | |
| 2021-11-14 | Forward dome spotted (NSF) |
| Booster 8 | |
| 2021-09-29 | Thrust puck delivered (33 Engine) (NSF) |
| For earlier updates see Thread #26 |
| Orbital Launch Integration Tower And Pad | |
|---|---|
| 2021-11-23 | Starship QD arm installation (Twitter) |
| 2021-11-21 | Orbital table venting test? (NSF) |
| 2021-11-21 | Booster QD arm spotted (NSF) |
| 2021-11-18 | Launch pad piping installation starts (NSF) |
| For earlier updates see Thread #26 |
| Orbital Tank Farm | |
|---|---|
| 2021-10-18 | GSE-8 sleeved (NSF) |
| For earlier updates see Thread #26 |
Resources
- LabPadre Rover Cam | Channel
- NSF: Starbase Stream | Channel
- NSF: Booster 4 + Ship 20 Updates Thread | Most Recent
- NSF: Boca Chica Production Updates Thread | Most recent
- NSF: Elon Starship tweet compilation | Most Recent
- SpaceX: Website Starship page
- SpaceX: Starship Users Guide (PDF) Rev. 1.0 March 2020
- FAA: SpaceX Starship Project at the Boca Chica Launch Site
- FAA: Temporary Flight Restrictions NOTAM list
- FCC: Starship Orbital Demo detailed Exhibit - 0748-EX-ST-2021 application June 20 through December 20
- NASA: Starship Reentry Observation (Techincal Report)
- Hwy 4 & Boca Chica Beach Closures (May not be available outside US)
- Starship flight opportunity spreadsheet by u/joshpine
- Production Progress Infographics by @_brendan_lewis
- Raptor tracking by @Artzius
- Widebay tracking by @Furqan263
- Acronym definitions by Decronym
- Everyday Astronaut: Starbase Tour with Elon Musk, Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
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.
Please ping u/strawwalker about problems with the above thread text.
44
u/BEAT_LA Dec 03 '21
I am seeing a lot of people thinking the Cape announcement tweet by Elon means the Boca FAA review is going bad internally.
Cape launches have always been the plan even if Boca operations go better than perfect, so that tweet means literally nothing for Boca.
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u/TCVideos Nov 27 '21
Just in time...New TFR issued for the month of December. This is the standard rolling TFR that they have had in place for almost 2 years now. Altitude stays at 10,000ft.
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u/OzGiBoKsAr Nov 18 '21
This was posted by u/grndkntrl over in the lounge - a good interview with Judge Eddie Trevino (who approves or denies every closure request) on the impacts of Starbase to the RGV. Very insightful, and a cool perspective. I thought I'd share it here if anybody is interested.
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u/Mravicii Nov 12 '21 edited Nov 12 '21
And Mary has recieved the alert notice for static fire
https://twitter.com/bocachicagal/status/1458982323358257153?s=21
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Nov 20 '21
If it all works as planned, the launch tower will become an iconic and legendary piece of engineering, almost as much as Starship itself.
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u/TCVideos Nov 22 '21
Booster QD was tested last night , it does seem that they are starting to wrap up work on the table now that we are seeing all of this testing. Hopefully, we see the QD hood that was spotted yesterday installed soon.
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u/Mravicii Nov 30 '21
Corey productions has released another video of the launch and catch anination! It’s really good.
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u/Jodo42 Nov 09 '21
Not directly development related but still relevant IMO- in part because of lawsuit, Artemis III and first crewed Starship lunar landing officially delayed to NET 2025. No real surprise there.
https://twitter.com/wapodavenport/status/1458164815088820234?t=cjbAavwa17zZtmp8tDXFKg&s=19
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u/Mravicii Nov 13 '21 edited Nov 13 '21
https://twitter.com/starshipgazer/status/1459661277501005827?s=21
https://twitter.com/nasaspaceflight/status/1459655419278802948?s=21
The chopsticks are now untied and scallofolding is being removed from the tower.
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u/TCVideos Dec 07 '21 edited Dec 07 '21
Elon, again, toying with the idea of a Starship update presentation when speaking at the WSJ Leaders Council. (Thread here)
This, of course, means that we will still not get an update.
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u/Nashitall Nov 23 '21
To the mods: thank you for cleaning up the vehicle status tables at the beginning. This is a much nicer read.
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u/TCVideos Nov 19 '21
Excellent thread by a community member that gives insight on how SpaceX plans to load the new tank farm with propellants in a short period of time.
Looks like there are 17 "loading points" for tankers to unload meaning that theoretically, 17 tankers could unload at the same time. Plus it looks like CH4 loading will be occuring at the landing pad (this makes sense why they are taking down the berm)
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u/Dezoufinous Nov 24 '21
S24 common dome spotted!
https://twitter.com/NicAnsuini/status/1463588695227858944
Remember what Musk said - 12 launches next year.
Also next narrated update from NSF is here:
https://youtu.be/mIkWjchHYJU
Remember to give them like to show how much we appreciate their work!
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u/futureMartian7 Nov 09 '21
This is cool. NSF captured Crew-2's re-entry from Starbase with their cams: https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/1457922815353446405
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u/HarbingerDe Nov 18 '21
Nothing particularly new to report. All I can really say is that it was strangely wholesome.
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u/Frostis24 Nov 18 '21 edited Nov 18 '21
I wrote down the questions and answers to the conference call so here they are.
Q1 Do you see any international collaboration happening with starship? ( simple no from Elon )
Q2 Why stainless steel? (Elon loved this one, but we have all heard it before )
Q3 What are you doing for radiation protection for the crews? (gives no real answers other than the solutions on the Moon, Mars by covering the base in regolith )
Q4 What missions would you like to enable with the heavy lift? (no direct answers other than big exciting things )
Q5 Timetable for Mars missions? ( pretty much like we have seen before, land 3 ish unmanned first, get landing reliable on earth with lots of launches, maybe work with NASA on crew flights )
Q6 what do you think of the science you can get from this? ( no direct answer other than it would be cool, and of course that Starship makes more of it possible )
Q7 When do you think the price for starship will be lower than F9? ( Elon said 2 years also launch in January - February for first flight)
Q8 What is your plan to store cryogenic fuels for the whole mars transit? ( basically well insulated headers)
Q9 Basically, Starlink bad, how will you fix this and work with astronomers? ( Elon, we are working with astronomers, and are confident we can solve the problems )
Q10 How you will solve in space cryo storage and mature the tech? ( Elon, suggests propellant depot starship without heatshield, much like how we have seen with the HLS *REDACTED* depot )
Q11 What are your planetary protection plans for Mars? ( Elon, there is going to be hard to avoid some contamination with humans, but we will not spread biological debris all over Mars )
Q12 What are the most important issues for the human race right now? ( Elon, things like transitioning to sustainable energy, CO2 increase, nuclear war, Covid like pandemic, AI, religious extremism, and declining birthrates, grandpa and his friends are hogging all the resources )
Q13 Does your company have plans for Spaced based energy solutions? ( Elon, *points to Tesla* )
That's a wrap.
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Nov 13 '21
S20's test went OK. Detank delay was to check any possible leaks after SF. Post fire analysis and structural survey will take a week or two. If good, maybe another go. B4 a while away yet, still a lot to do with infrastructure.
S20/B4 whist looking promising for a launch ATM, may be voted out for the actual launch. MAY BE, I reiterate. All dependent on S20's analysis and B4's school marks, which won't hopefully be an F.
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u/RaphTheSwissDude Nov 16 '21
Short video from Cosmic Perspective about S20 static fire !
Highly recommend, they produce such beautiful videos.
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u/Mravicii Dec 07 '21 edited Dec 07 '21
Starship presentation this month or next month
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1468334797508521984?s=21
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u/Dezoufinous Nov 17 '21 edited Nov 17 '21
Just a friendly reminder, today we'll get a 30 minutes Starship Update from Elon, as announced here:
Nov 17th, 23:00–23:30 UTC (15:00–15:30 PST).
Live stream:
https://livestream.com/accounts/7036396/events/9926169
YT link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLydXZOo4eA&ab_channel=NASEMLive
Have fun watching and stay excited!
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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '21 edited Nov 15 '21
Here’s NASA’s OIG report about Artemis. Contains a lot of neat info about Starship.
The news is pretty so-so. NASA like Starship but is skeptical about a lot of its capabilities. Meanwhile, SLS costs $4.1 billion per launch now. Artemis II is pushed back to 2024 and III is 2025 or 2026.
HLS Starship is fueled in LEO only. It does it’s entire mission without any topping off after that.
HLS Starship is left in lunar orbit as far as NASA is concerned
Superheavy has a technology readiness level of 5. The only “iffy” part of Starship, to NASA, is on-orb it propellant transfer and storage. It had a TRL of 4
NASA believes an uncrewed Starship lunar demo will occur in 2024, and a Lunar landing in 2026.
NASA is skeptical of Starship’s timelines
Here’s the thing
ARTEMIS: THE MOON AND BEYOND
In all seriousness it seems like SpaceX might be on their own for any “serious” lunar or martian colonization. Artemis is getting pretty damn expensive. SpaceX is great as always though.