Giant Stainless Steel Rocket Part Three

[glhs837]

So, when you have these things stacked up in the build pattern, blowing one up isn't a huge deal. And as far as we know there are hundreds of rocket engines waiting to be installed. They might have as many as 300 or more by now.

Anyway, here's the booster for the next flight getting its static fire. The seconds stage Starship got its second static fire just a few hours before.



Most folks expect this next flight to take place in between mid-Jan to mid-Feb. Maybe this next one will make orbital altitude. It has a payload dispenser door and a "pez dispenser" Starlink sat launcher.

 

[stgislander]

So, when you have these things stacked up in the build pattern, blowing one up isn't a huge deal. And as far as we know there are hundreds of rocket engines waiting to be installed. They might have as many as 300 or more by now.

Anyway, here's the booster for the next flight getting its static fire. The seconds stage Starship got its second static fire just a few hours before.



Most folks expect this next flight to take place in between mid-Jan to mid-Feb. Maybe this next one will make orbital altitude. It has a payload dispenser door and a "pez dispenser" Starlink sat launcher.

When I went back to watch, there were questions of whether Starship fired all of her Raptors or not. Has there been any official word from SpaceX?

 

[glhs837]

When I went back to watch, there were questions of whether Starship fired all of her Raptors or not. Has there been any official word from SpaceX?

Other than SpaceX saying so in the tweet, no.

That "booster bidet" deluge system works great though. And this static fire was almosts twice as long as the one they did for Booster 9.

 

[glhs837]

When I went back to watch, there were questions of whether Starship fired all of her Raptors or not. Has there been any official word from SpaceX?

This is a cool split screen showing this boosters 33 engine test next to the previous boosters test.

 

[glhs837]

So Musk held an all hands last night for SpaceX. He explained why the second stage had to be destroyed on this second flight. Seems that without any payload, they had excess LOX which they vented. Which caught fire and sufficient damage that triggering the FTS was warranted.

Which is good because that seems like an easy fix. Less Lox or a payload, or software only allowing venting when the engines are not firing.