SpaceX Starship: Orbital Test Flight (launch: April 17, webcast link)

[Dr Mordrid]

Super Heavy Booster 3 static fire next week with a partial engine count (can't do a full set until the orbital launch pad is complete)

Everything SpaceX @spacex360
A second Raptor has arrived at the launch site ahead of installation onto Booster 3 (see far left)!

https://twitter.com/spacex360/status/1414130795049013248

[Dr Mordrid]

So much for the 29 Super Heavy engine arrangement; 32 or 33.

7,600 t-f is 17,024,000 lb-f, and a thrust/weight of 1.5 means it'll get off the pad in a sporty fashion.

500 million is clearly a typo - 500 thousand

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1411794332340740099

[Dr Mordrid]

Super Heavy Booster 3 rolls out for pressure & cryogenic testing

Height: 70 meters (229.66 feet)
Width: 9 meters (29.5 feet)
Engines;
Center cluster: 9 sea level Raptors
Outer ring: 20 RBoost Raptors (high thrust variant)
Liftoff thrust: 7,500 tonnes (16,534,670 lb-f)

Orbital Launch Pad Integration Tower gets segment #7 (of 8).

20210701_145036.jpg

20210701_145043.jpg

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1410670645948653568

[Dr Mordrid]

Raptor Vacuum (RVac) arrives at Starbase. 3 of these powerful engines power Starship into orbit, and beyond.

IMG_20210627_195856.jpg

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1409270313758728192

[Dr Mordrid]

TankWatchers @WatchersTank
Jun 24, 2021
BN2.1 ROLLBACK

BN2.1, SpaceX’s Super Heavy test tank, has been lifted from its testing mount stationed between Pad A and Pad B.

With today’s road closure canceled, a rollback is now expected in the coming days.
|
Elon Musk ✓ @elonmusk
We’re almost done with first prototype booster. This will go to test stand A. Next one will fly to orbit. Team has been crushing it many days & nights in a row!

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1408245758869086209

[Dr Mordrid]

New numbers on the launch tower. Big SOB...

I added the metric conversions...

FAA PDF...

https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external/letterViewer.jsp?letterID=474845306

** DETERMINATION OF NO HAZARD TO AIR NAVIGATION **
>
>
Structure: Launch Tower
Location: Brownsville, TX
Latitude: 25-59-45.95N NAD 83
Longitude: 97-09-16.94W

Heights:

9 feet site elevation (SE) (2.743m)

479 feet above ground level (AGL) (145.999m)

488 feet above mean sea level (AMSL) (148.742m)
>

[Dr Mordrid]

In preparation for the Orbital Test Flight the >469 foot/142 meter Integration Tower is going up in segments using the beastly Liebherr 11350 crawler crane.

Eventually this integration tower will have a booster catching system. This will "grab" a landing booster during a hover and insert it back in the launch mount.

The launch table platform and its legs are being prepared for joining after the tower is comp!ered. 3D concept on Twitter,

https://twitter.com/Bl3D_Eccentric/status/1384105273397190656

Construction progress

Brady Kenniston @TheFavoritist
That’s going to be one tall tower.

The full Starship stack is going to be ridiculous.

https://twitter.com/TheFavoritist/status/1405909669135142915

IMG_20210618_193750.jpg

[Dr Mordrid]

Starship Orbital Test Flight

NET June 20th, 2021

On March 16, 2021 Elon Musk expressed the goal of performing a Starship orbital test flight in July, 2021.

Rob Dickinson @Rjdlandscapes
Mar 16, 2021
Replying to @elonmusk @Erdayastronaut and @SpaceX
Crazy! Full stack flight July?
|
Elon Musk ✓ @elonmusk
That’s our goal

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1371995012825763842

On November 20, 2020 SpaceX and NASA entered into an agreement for tracking Starship during re-entry,

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/new-nasa-partnerships-to-mature-commercial-space-technologies-capabilities

SpaceX will partner with NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, to capture imagery and thermal measurements of its Starship vehicle during orbital re-entry over the Pacific Ocean. With the data, the company plans to advance a reusable thermal protection system, which protects the vehicle from aerodynamic heating, for missions returning from low-Earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars.

There will also be observers at the Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands.

Now there's an FCC filing for the Starship orbital test flight (PDF)

https://apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.html?id=273481&x=

Flight Profile

The Starship Orbital test flight will originate from Starbase, TX. The Booster stage will separate approximately 170 seconds into flight. The Booster will then perform a partial return and land in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 20 miles from the shore. The Orbital Starship will continue on flying between the Florida Straits. It will achieve orbit until performing a powered, targeted landing approximately 100km (~62 miles) off the northwest coast of Kauai in a soft ocean landing.

Objectives

SpaceX intends to collect as much data as possible during flight to quantify entry dynamics and*better understand what the vehicle experiences in a flight regime that is extremely difficult to*accurately predict or replicate computationally. This data will anchor any changes in vehicle design*or CONOPs after the first flight and build better models for us to use in our internal simulations