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Much news, first things first
Because of wanting to lean out the company, new launch system design reviews noted below (materials changes), and a culling of personnel with low annual review scores, SpaceX is laying off about 10% of their 7,000 employees. 577 are from Hawthorne and the rest are scattered. OTOH, there about 400 positions on their Careers page, many at KSC and in Seattle (the StarLink internet/data satellite centers.)
Names (old:new) & schedules
Big F'ing Rocket/BFR: Super Heavy (SH)
Big F'ing Spaceship/BFS: Starship (SS)
Landing test vehicle: Hopper, which is almost complete
Orbital test vehicle: Starship Mk-1 under construction, due in June
Super Heavy test vehicle: construction bgins spring 2019
Major changes due to PDR have actually accelerated the schedule by several months, with the first Hopper test flights coming in a few weeks. Maiden flight of the full stack 2020-ish.
OUT:
composite structures,
passive ablative main heat shield,
vacuum version of Raptor CH4/LOX engine.
IN:
cryogenically formed 300 series stainless steel and superalloy structures,
active main heat shield cooled by liquid methane,
uprated Raptor engine using a dual-bell altitude compensating nozzle,
Hopper will use 3 of the uprated Raptor engines.
These material changes mean most people hired to build large composite structures are no longer needed.
Caveats:
the vacuum Raptor engine may return later,
heat shields for hot spots; canard and fin leading edges, tips etc., look to be NASA's Toughened Uni-piece Fibrous Reinforced Oxidation-Resistant Composite (TUFROC.)
SpaceX says the stainless steel & superalloy structures, and active liquid methane main heat shield, will make both SH and SS look like "liquid silver"
The Hopper, a very retro KISS testbed for the Raptor engines and new landing software, has been built in the open air at SpaceX's under construction Boca Chica launch center - 20+ miles east of Brownsville Texas. To build the tank-like engine bay they called in Caldwell, a company which builds high strength water towers. Watching it be built has been quite a show.
When construction started before Christmas everyone thought Hopper was a water tower,
Then it became clear this wasn't a water tower,
Now, things are getting very real...
Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
This is for suborbital VTOL tests. Orbital version is taller, has thicker skins (won't wrinkle) & a smoothly curving nose section.
These renderings show numeric and relative vehicle sizes,
Space Shuttle, Hopper and Starship
Saturn V, Super Heavy/Starship, Falcon 9
Because of wanting to lean out the company, new launch system design reviews noted below (materials changes), and a culling of personnel with low annual review scores, SpaceX is laying off about 10% of their 7,000 employees. 577 are from Hawthorne and the rest are scattered. OTOH, there about 400 positions on their Careers page, many at KSC and in Seattle (the StarLink internet/data satellite centers.)
Names (old:new) & schedules
Big F'ing Rocket/BFR: Super Heavy (SH)
Big F'ing Spaceship/BFS: Starship (SS)
Landing test vehicle: Hopper, which is almost complete
Orbital test vehicle: Starship Mk-1 under construction, due in June
Super Heavy test vehicle: construction bgins spring 2019
Major changes due to PDR have actually accelerated the schedule by several months, with the first Hopper test flights coming in a few weeks. Maiden flight of the full stack 2020-ish.
OUT:
composite structures,
passive ablative main heat shield,
vacuum version of Raptor CH4/LOX engine.
IN:
cryogenically formed 300 series stainless steel and superalloy structures,
active main heat shield cooled by liquid methane,
uprated Raptor engine using a dual-bell altitude compensating nozzle,
Hopper will use 3 of the uprated Raptor engines.
These material changes mean most people hired to build large composite structures are no longer needed.
Caveats:
the vacuum Raptor engine may return later,
heat shields for hot spots; canard and fin leading edges, tips etc., look to be NASA's Toughened Uni-piece Fibrous Reinforced Oxidation-Resistant Composite (TUFROC.)
SpaceX says the stainless steel & superalloy structures, and active liquid methane main heat shield, will make both SH and SS look like "liquid silver"
The Hopper, a very retro KISS testbed for the Raptor engines and new landing software, has been built in the open air at SpaceX's under construction Boca Chica launch center - 20+ miles east of Brownsville Texas. To build the tank-like engine bay they called in Caldwell, a company which builds high strength water towers. Watching it be built has been quite a show.
When construction started before Christmas everyone thought Hopper was a water tower,
Then it became clear this wasn't a water tower,
Now, things are getting very real...
Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
This is for suborbital VTOL tests. Orbital version is taller, has thicker skins (won't wrinkle) & a smoothly curving nose section.
These renderings show numeric and relative vehicle sizes,
Space Shuttle, Hopper and Starship
Saturn V, Super Heavy/Starship, Falcon 9
Can you say how many tests have been performed thus far? I doubt it can speak much to the long-term longevity of Raptor, but I feel like 3-5+ static fires in the first 7 freaking days of integrated hot-fires is a damn good sign.
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