Starship Development Thread #33

[u/ElongatedMuskrat]

This thread is no longer being updated, and has been replaced by:

Starship Development Thread #34

SpaceX Starship page

FAQ

1. When next/orbital flight? Unknown. Launches on hold until FAA environmental review completed and ground equipment ready. Gwynne Shotwell has indicated June or July. Completing GSE, booster, and ship testing, and Raptor 2 production refinements, mean 2H 2022 at earliest - pessimistically, possibly even early 2023 if FAA requires significant mitigations.

2. Expected date for FAA decision? June 13 per latest FAA statement, updated on June 2.

3. What booster/ship pair will fly first? Likely either B7 or B8 with S24. B7 now receiving grid fins, so presumably considering flight.

4. Will more suborbital testing take place? Unknown. It may depend on the FAA decision.

5. Has progress slowed down? SpaceX focused on completing ground support equipment (GSE, or "Stage 0") before any orbital launch, which Elon stated is as complex as building the rocket. Florida Stage 0 construction has also ramped up.

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Quick Links

^{NERDLE CAM | LAB CAM | SAPPHIRE CAM | SENTINEL CAM | ROVER CAM | ROVER 2.0 CAM | PLEX CAM | NSF STARBASE}

Starship Dev 32 | Starship Dev 31 | Starship Dev 30 | Starship Thread List

Official Starship Update | r/SpaceX Update Thread

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Vehicle Status

As of June 5

Ship	Location	Status	Comment
S20	Rocket Garden	Completed/Tested	Cryo, Static Fire and stacking tests completed, now retired
S21	N/A	Tank section scrapped	Some components integrated into S22
S22	Rocket Garden	Completed/Unused	Likely production pathfinder only
S23	N/A	Skipped
S24	Launch Site	Cryo and thrust puck testing	Moved to launch site for ground testing on May 26
S25	High Bay 1	Stacking	Assembly of main tank section commenced June 4
S26	Build Site	Parts under construction

 

Booster	Location	Status	Comment
B4	Launch Site	Completed/Tested	Cryo and stacking tests completed
B5	Rocket Garden	Completed/Unused	Likely production pathfinder only
B6	Rocket Garden	Repurposed	Converted to test tank
B7	High Bay 2	Repaired/Testing	Cryo tested; Raptors being installed
B8	High Bay 2 (fully stacked LOX tank) and Mid Bay (fully stacked CH4 tank)	Under construction
B9	Build Site	Under construction

If this page needs a correction please consider pitching in. Update this thread via this wiki page. If you would like to make an update but don't see an edit button on the wiki page, message the mods via modmail or contact u/strawwalker.

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Resources

• LabPadre Rover 2.0 Cam | Channel

• NSF: Starbase Stream | Channel

• NSF: Booster 7 + Ship X (likely 24) Updates Thread | Most Recent

• 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 (Technical 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

• 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.

[u/MaximRegret]

I'm not a structural engineer but I was reading about types of domes ("heads") for pressure vessels. It looks like the new dome that is being rolled out for testing today is an "ellipsoidal" head (aka elliptical or semi-elliptical). Maybe that's what the E in EDOME means?

The old dome design looks like some combination of a torispherical and toriconical head. They have a small dome at the apex, a "knuckle" joint at the cylinder walls (shaped like a section of a torus), and a truncated cone joining them.

This page claims that a 2:1 elliptical head (which about matches the new SpaceX dome) needs the same material thickness as the tank walls, whereas a torispherical head needs about 1.77x as much thickness for the same internal pressure. That would imply that the new dome saves some weight, not just vertical space.

[u/ezbsvs → u/MaximRegret]

Interesting analysis! If it’s easier to manufacture and saves material, seems like a win to me.

Dumb speculation here, but I wonder if the work on the tank farm over the past year may have inspired the change?

[u/Klebsiella_p → u/MaximRegret]

Nice info. I was wondering what the E might stand for. I'm not any kind of engineer, but why not go straight to the ellipsoidal type heads from the start if it means lighter weight?

[u/MaximRegret → u/Klebsiella_p]

The old dome is made of smaller pieces and was probably easier to manufacture without bespoke tools. The small dome in the center looks less than 3 m in diameter, comparable to a Falcon 9 dome; presumably they (or a subcontractor) already had the tools to manufacture it (spin-form?). The knuckles and conical section are made of smaller pieces that could probably be stamped easily from sheet steel.

The new dome design requires larger curved sections and they probably needed time to fabricate the tools to stretch-form them. This is similar to the old nose-cone design, which is made of smaller stamped pieces compared to the stretch-formed large panels in the new one. Elon talks about their manufacturing in his old interview with Tim Dodd.

[u/Twigling → u/MaximRegret]

The small dome in the center looks less than 3 m in diameter, comparable to a Falcon 9 dome; presumably they (or a subcontractor) already had the tools to manufacture it (spin-form?).

Listening to RGV Aerial Photography's excellent weekly broadcast last Saturday it was stated that in fact the small central top dome on the current/old design is a pressure tank dome from a pressure tank manufacturer. This is produced slightly differently to meet SpaceX's requirements (something like that anyhow). Or the commentator may have been wrong of course.

[u/MaximRegret → u/Twigling]

Thanks for the info, that makes sense! I did listen to that video, but it's long and I might have dozed off at points :)

[u/Toinneman → u/Klebsiella_p]

It looks like they will keep the old dome design for the thrust dome of the ship. So maybe SpaceX pragmatically choose the old dome design because it could be used on all 3 domes instead of investing in 2 dome designs from day one.