SpaceX Starship & Super Heavy booster [Raptor Vacuum breathes fire]

[Dr Mordrid]

Uhm, wow!

So a BFR wil do the inital lift and the hopper do the 2nd stage and propulsion in space and to land again? Where is the cargo/crew? In it or on top of it?

StarHopper is a subscale engine & systems test vehicle, now retired.

The full system:

Super Heavy: a 63 meters tall, 9 meters tank diameter, booster with 20-37 Raptor engines - depending on the mission. 2x - 3x as much thrust as Saturn V.

Starship: a 55 meters tall, 9 meters tank diameter, multi-purpose (crew, cargo, tanker & satellite deployer) combination upper stage/spacecraft with 3-10 Raptor engines. Capable of intercontinental or interplanetary crew/cargo missions.

DeltaV upper stage: disposable, stripped-down much like the StarHopper but without legs. For delivering the maximum impulse for large or multiple outer solar system probes.

Two Starships are under construction, and the first Super Heavys will be started when they vacate the build areas.

StarHopper, Starship, Super Heavy and the 118 meter tall full stack.

spacex-starship-super-heavy-stainless-steel-rocket-booster-spaceship-illustration-copyright-of-k.jpg

Starship vs Space Shuttle

Starship v Shuttle.jpg

[Dr Mordrid]

Enough at McGregor to fit 3 engines in Starship Mk1, and start work on a set for Mk2.

Viv @flcnhvy
Replying to @elonmusk and 2 others
How close is the current iteration of Raptor to orbital readiness?
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Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Probably 2 to 3 months. Were about to ship Raptor SN 10
7:37 PM - Aug 28, 2019

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1166857467214667776

[Dr Mordrid]

YAY!!!

Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo
@JaneidyEve
Replying to @elonmusk and 3 others
When will the first Starship Mk1 test flight be?
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Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Aiming for 20km flight in Oct & orbit attempt shortly thereafter. Starship update will be on Sept 28th, anniversary of SpaceX reaching orbit. Starship Mk 1 will be fully assembled by that time.
7:48 PM - Aug 28, 2019

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1166860032052539392

[Dr Mordrid]

Cocoa Starship Mk-2 site post hurricane Dorian. No visible damage

[Evildead666]

"We're all going to Mars, we're all going to Mars, E I E ad y oh, we're all going to Mars"
And Beyooooooooooooond!

This is so much faster than Nasa nowadays.

28th, eh ?
Will have to put a reminder on my calendar.

[Dr Mordrid]

"We're all going to Mars, we're all going to Mars, E I E ad y oh, we're all going to Mars"
And Beyooooooooooooond!

This is so much faster than Nasa nowadays.

28th, eh ?
Will have to put a reminder on my calendar.

He's doing the update at the Boca Chica facility in Texas, and the Starship Mk-1 test vehicle should be finished by then. The nose airfoil/drag brakes are on site, and the leg/airfoil/drag brakes should arrive soon.

These two early ships won't be as pretty as the next generation, Mk-3+, which will built using one-piece rings instead of rings made of welded up curved panels. The new tooling is at both sites, and a supply of rings is already being fabbed at Cocoa Florida.

First destination will be the Moon, demoing it for NADA's Artemis program, then a commercial passenger free-return loop around the Moon like Apollo 8, then Mars.

[Dr Mordrid]

Viv @flcnhvy
Replying to @elonmusk @tarimnazmi
After Mars, what’s next? Moons of Jupiter?
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Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Ceres, Callisto, Ganymede & Titan
4:53 AM - Sep 9, 2019

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1170983609492103168

[Dr Mordrid]

Starship Mk1: test flight 1

Full size vehicle: 55+ meters tall, 9 meter fuselage + legs & fins

FCC STA (temp. radio frequency allocations)

FAA license pending

Date: NET October 13, 2019 (ends April 13, 2020)
Altitude: 22.5km (74,000ft)

https://fcc.report/ELS/Space-Explora...631-EX-ST-2019

This STA is necessary to authorize Starship suborbital test vehicle communications for SpaceX Mission 1569 from the Boca Chica launch pad, and the experimental recovery following the suborbital launch. Recovery is limited to 2 functions: (1) prelaunch checkout test of the TC uplink from the ground station at Boca Chica (less than five minutes in duration) and (2) experimental uplink testing from the ground station at Boca Chica during descent. Trajectory data will be provided directly to NTIA, USAF, and NASA. All downrange Earth stations are receive-only. Launch licensing authority is FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation.
>
Operation Start Date: 10/13/2019
Operation End Date: 04/13/2020
>

[Dr Mordrid]

TESLARATI @Teslarati
SpaceX tests ceramic Starship heat shield tiles on Starhoppers final flight test
https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-tes...on-starhopper/
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SpaceX tests ceramic Starship heat shield tiles on Starhopper's final flight test

Although it flew under the radar in the heat of the moment, SpaceXs final Starhopper test flight completed on August 27th happened to include an unusual bit of test hardware eight (give or...
teslarati.com
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Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
The hex tiles are actually mechanically attached, which is important to allow for very high temp on back side of tile that would destroy any adhesive. Marshmellow-looking thing is a rope seal

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1171308928476385281



Cropped & processed from BocaChicaGal's image

https://twitter.com/BocaChicaGal/status/1161821652864438272

[Dr Mordrid]

Viv @flcnhvy
Replying to @elonmusk @tarimnazmi
After Mars, whats next? Moons of Jupiter?
|
Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Ceres, Callisto, Ganymede & Titan
4:53 AM - Sep 9, 2019

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1170983609492103168

[Dr Mordrid]

Boca Chica

The first of 3 new Starship/Super Heavy ringwalls (build stands) is almost ready to pour, targeting a total of 5.

This really is starting to look like a shipyard.

https://twitt.com/BocachicaMaria1/status/1171622362539798528

[Dr Mordrid]

Boca Chica:

Propulsion module almost done, need to finish x-ray weld inspections, so they should be mounting the canard fins to the cargo module & fin/legs to the propulsion module very soon. Then they can stack them.

Austin Barnard @austinbarnard45
SpaceX crews are hard at work today, with the completion of the StarShip main body stack. In the photos down below, you can see crew members inspecting the welds, porthole, and the final bulkhead. Congratulations to SpaceX and Elon musk, to another step closer to Mars.

IMG_20190915_125930.jpg

IMG_20190915_130055.jpg

IMG_20190915_130120.jpg

https://twitter.com/austinbarnard45/status/1172963152339898369

[Dr Mordrid]

From Ars Technica, who is now at Boca Chica...

Eric Berger @SciGuySpace
T-8 days until the Starship event in South Texas. This is a monstrous space ship - hard to believe it is just a rocket's second stage. But it will fly. And, my Lone Star friends, it was built right here, beneath the blue skies, hard by the Rio Grande.
9:04 PM · Sep 20, 2019·

https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1175214110570700800

[Dr Mordrid]

And from the Cocoa Florida build site, they're almost ready to top off the propulsion module with the LOX upper dome and support ring.

The cargo nose cone is almost done, preps for adding landing leg/fins and canards are underway etc.

The extra 9 meter rings laying about are likely for building the first Super Heavy booster - all 63+ meters of it.

They've also moved away from using multiple curved panels to make a ring, now using a single long strip of stainless steel with one weld. New tooling.

Cocoa

[Dr Mordrid]

We have a FIN!

LabPadre @LabPadre
Looks like a wing is being installed on Orby this morning. #SpaceX #BocaChica #Texas @spaceXcentric @BocachicaMaria1 https://t.co/PmCDtIuNR5

IMG_20190921_103901.jpg

https://twitter.com/LabPadre/status/1175402374980079617