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

[Dr Mordrid]

1)

Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Replying to @TJ_Cooney

Wow, 2011 seems like eons ago! With fairing recovery, Falcon is ~80% reusable, but reflight takes several days & requires boats. Starship will be fully reusable with booster reflight possible every few hours & ship reflight every 8 hours. No boats needed.
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That said, most Starship spaceports will probably need to be ~20 miles / 30km offshore for acceptable noise levels, especially for frequent daily flights, as would occur for point to point flights on Earth

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1191496935250616321

2) cargo module fin installation (time lapse)

[Dr Mordrid]

I'd pay good money to see this...

Malcolm Head @malcolmmarsman
Starship's success revolves around the skydiver-and-flip manuver, which appears to be extremely complex. What gives you confidence that it will work?

https://twitter.com/malcolmmarsman/status/1192548482005053449

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Elon Musk @elonmusk
No problem. We could program Starship to perform Swan Lake in the sky. Minimizing landing burn propellant mass is what's hard.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1192549052170166272

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Charles A. Lurio @TheLurioReport
Replying to @elonmusk @Malcolmmarsman and @flcnhvy
Starship pull-up maneuver was conceived in '90s for never-built, incremental successors to DC-X. Old tech. Now, Swan Lake could probably use today's computing power.

https://twitter.com/TheLurioReport/status/1192626084535242752

DC-X Flight #8: "Swan Dive" maneuver

[Dr Mordrid]

Starship Mk1

Preps underway for the start of ground support equipment (GSE), pressure and fuelling tests, and a static fire, leading up Mk1 lifting off for its 20km test of the skydiver landing - hopefully in December.

The fun begins tomorrow, so fire up LabPadre's 24/7 live stream.

[KRSESQ]

That thing looks like they literally rolled it to the launchpad. I assume they expect those dents to pop out when they pressurize the tanks?

[Dr Mordrid]

Some will, but Mk1 doesn't need to be a high-qual finish structure. All it needs to do is go up 20km and prove the skydiver landing.

In skydiver Starship scrubs almost all horizontal speed during entry, then belly-flops vertically using the drag fins to maintain attitude. Then it rotates for a vertical landing.

Mk2's ring segments are also made of ~6 mm plates, but with a better finish. It'll fly from the pad they're co-siting at KSC LC-39A. It'll go to the launch site soon.

Mk2
EHldLliX4AETkK6.jpg

Mk3 (Boca Chica) and Mk4 (KSC) will use single-piece one-weld 2mm steel rings with a higher quality build. They are the next builds, followed by Super Heavy 1 and 2.

Mk4 or Mk5 will go to orbit.

Mk4 single-piece ring segments, some pre-stacked in pairs.
Mk4 rings-640.jpeg

[Dr Mordrid]

Cargo Starship, new image from the NASA lunar landers announcement - cropped & zoomed

Cargo Starship zoom 2048.jpg

[Dr Mordrid]

Oopsie!!

Mk1 popped its top during pressurization tests. Looked like a weld unzipped. Musk says they're moving on to Mk3.

When he says "quite different" one example seen on Mk2 is the upper dome was built an entirely different way.

Mk1 Starship Nov 20 pressure failure2.jpg

Everyday Astronaut @Erdayastronaut
Starship MK-1 appears to have blown its top off during a pressure test today. My guess... this will be a good time for @spacex to move onto their next, more refined and higher quality versions (MK-2/3) instead of reparing MK-1. @elonmusk, any chance you’ll just move onto MK-3?
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Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Absolutely, but to move to Mk3 design. This had some value as a manufacturing pathfinder, but flight design is quite different.
4:54 PM - Nov 20, 2019

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1197271943180771329

[Dr Mordrid]

Turns out they were moving on to the Mk3 builds for flight anyhow. Those use the single-piece ring segments and a different dome design.

SpaceX statement

The purpose of today's test was to pressurize systems to the max, so the outcome was not completely unexpected. There were no injuries, nor is this a serious setback. As Elon tweeted, Mk1 served as a valuable manufacturing pathfinder but flight design is quite different. The decision had already been made to not fly this test article and the team is focused on the Mk3 builds, which are designed for orbit.

Video of it letting go at the tweet

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1197306617760559104

[Dr Mordrid]

Apparently Boca's Mk3 is being built using an IMCAR Spa vertical tank rolling/welding machine. They have started.

IMCAR videos

https://youtu.be/VdX4IfsGY4Q

https://youtu.be/E7kamq_U8cI

Mk3 ring
Mk3 ring 2b.jpg

[Dr Mordrid]

New SpaceX Operations Area, south of the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC. This will be the new Florida main build site, starting with Starship Mk4.

Starship Mk3 is already being built at Boca Chica, TX.

@baserunner0723
New permit from SpaceX showing plans to clear more land at the Roberts Road site for further development. Not too much here to go on but SpaceX has proposed buying 0.54 forested wetland credits from NeoVerde Mitigation Bank to offset direct and secondary impacts to the wetlands

EKfeP16WwAADxN3.jpg

https://twitter.com/baserunner0723/status/1200172204421505024

[Dr Mordrid]

Moving built parts & jigs to Texas in order to speed up Mk3 could make sense...

@gregscott_photo
SPACEX STARSHIP: 2 Starship bases & a Bulkhead that had been removed from the Cocoa site have just been loaded onto Go Discovery in the Port. My guess is that they are on their way to Boca Chica, but thats just my guess. Care to
enlighten us @ElonMusk? #SpaceX #Space #Science

IMG_20191130_184243.jpg

https://twitter.com/gregscott_photo/status/1200880227209109504

[Dr Mordrid]

Confirmed: the Cocoa site build equipment is moving to the SpaceX Operations Area at KSC.

The KSC LC-39A Starship pad build is progressing nicely,

Julia @julia_bergeron
In all of the excitement about the goings on in port I forgot to post these from #39A this morning. Starship pad construction progresses despite the lack of launch vehicle. I bet photogs could get a sweet shot from this camera mound. #Starship

IMG_20191201_204446.jpg

IMG_20191201_204507.jpg

https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron/status/1200980563269734400

[Dr Mordrid]

39-A's coming along nicely,

Jared Frankle @realChefJared
A look at #starship launch pad process at 39A.#SpaceX

IMG_20191202_171121.jpg

https://twitter.com/realChefJared/status/1201578051982839809

[Dr Mordrid]

The SpaceX Operations Area at KSC and LC-39A Starship mods need finishing.

Michael Sheetz ✔ @thesheetztweetz
SpaceX says it paused, but has not fully stopped, Starships development in Florida while the company focuses on building Starship Mk3 in Texas.

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/...50783688761347

[Dr Mordrid]

KSC LC-39A Starship pad: whoa...what happened to Phase 2? Straight to Phase 3??

The Starship/Super Heavy mount doesn't use a flame trench - it's an elevated platform, or "milk stool," with a cooled flame diverter and a huge water deluge. Somewhat like Saturn 1B used.

@abernnyc
It's absolutely incredible to see the progress @SpaceX has made on the #Starship launch mount currently being constructed at LC-39A

https://twitter.com/abernnyc/status/1202406654844841984
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@13ericralph31
Off the top of my head, this looks at least as tall as the mount/stand shown in SpaceX's updated 2019 renders. So it's probably safe to say that 39A is going directly to a Super Heavy-capable pad, which would make a lot of sense after the pause on FL Starship production.

https://twitter.com/13ericralph31/st...45014808137730
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@13ericralph31
Based on these renders, the mount shown is 80-100 ft (25-30 m) tall. Based on Adam's photo, assuming the dude getting off the lift is an average ~6 feet, the steel skeleton is already ~70 ft (21 m) tall and clearly has some mounting points for another big addition on top of that.

https://twitter.com/13ericralph31/st...49363861041152
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@rdstrick777
Its at least 85 feet tall and the Starship Superheavy launchpad is around 100 feet, I think you got it.

https://twitter.com/rdstrick777/stat...48765405167616
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@13ericralph31
Yeah, I estimated 70 feet tall not including the mounting point protuberances, which are clearly designed to support something VERY heavy above them.

https://twitter.com/13ericralph31/st...49780451901440

LC-39A Starship/Super Heavy pad construction
IMG_20191205_040710.jpg

Super Heavy pad concept
Starship-Super-Heavy-2019-SpaceX-launch-mount-1-crop (1).jpg