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Starship Flight Test Launch

The Wee Bear

ULTIMATE Member
Screenshot_20230417_080104_BBC News.webp


SpaceX is targeting as soon as Monday, April 17 at 8:00 a.m. CT for the first flight test of a fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy rocket from Starbase in Texas. Starship is a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, help humanity return to the Moon and travel to Mars and beyond.

With a test such as this, success is measured by how much we can learn, which will inform and improve the probability of success in the future as SpaceX rapidly advances development of Starship.

To date, the SpaceX team has completed multiple sub-orbital flight tests of Starship’s upper stage from Starbase, successfully demonstrating an unprecedented approach to controlled flight.

These flight tests helped validate the vehicle’s design, proving Starship can fly through the subsonic phase of entry before re-lighting its engines and flipping itself to a vertical configuration for landing.

In addition to the testing of Starship’s upper stage, the team has conducted numerous tests of the Super Heavy rocket, which include the increasingly complex static fires that led to a full-duration 31 Raptor engine test – the largest number of simultaneous rocket engine ignitions in history.

The team has also constructed the world’s tallest rocket launch and catch tower. At 146 meters, or nearly 500 feet tall, the launch and catch tower is designed to support vehicle integration, launch, and catch of the Super Heavy rocket booster. For the first flight test, the team will not attempt a vertical landing of Starship or a catch of the Super Heavy booster.


Just sneaking this in here as a once off folks, it's a biggie in more ways than one.

Best of luck SpaceX. (y) 🤞

Launch stream starts at 13.15 today folks. (Monday).:)
 
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Looks like they’re standing down.
Yes what a bummer. Stopping at 10 seconds. :(
Trying again in a couple of days. (y)
Due to a frozen valve apparently.
 
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SpaceX is targeting as soon as Thursday, April 20 for the first flight test of a fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy rocket from Starbase in Texas. The 62 minute launch window opens at 8:28 a.m. CT and closes at 9:30 a.m. CT. Starship is a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, help humanity return to the Moon and travel to Mars and beyond.

With a test such as this, success is measured by how much we can learn, which will inform and improve the probability of success in the future as SpaceX rapidly advances development of Starship. To date, the SpaceX team has completed multiple sub-orbital flight tests of Starship’s upper stage from Starbase, successfully demonstrating an unprecedented approach to controlled flight.

These flight tests helped validate the vehicle’s design, proving Starship can fly through the subsonic phase of entry before re-lighting its engines and flipping itself to a vertical configuration for landing.

In addition to the testing of Starship’s upper stage, the team has conducted numerous tests of the Super Heavy rocket, which include the increasingly complex static fires that led to a full-duration 31 Raptor engine test – the largest number of simultaneous rocket engine ignitions in history.

The team has also constructed the world’s tallest rocket launch and catch tower. At 146 meters, or nearly 500 feet tall, the launch and catch tower is designed to support vehicle integration, launch, and catch of the Super Heavy rocket booster. For the first flight test, the team will not attempt a vertical landing of Starship or a catch of the Super Heavy booster.


Just posting the live stream link for the next launch attempt folks.

Hope they have a little more luck this time.

Scheduled for Thursday at 13.45 but as usual things could change. :giggle:
 
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Just a wee reminder that the launch is in 30 minutes folks. :) (14.25)
 
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Aw no a hold at 40 seconds, too exciting. 😊
 
Well that was exciting, what a pity they had no separation though, but it went a lot further than I expected, they done well for a first try.

Onwards and upwards. (y)
 
A very good first attempt, shame about the rolling but yeah I'm surprised it didn't just go boom right away.
 
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A very good first attempt, shame about the rolling but yeah I'm surprised it didn't just go boom right away.
I know, I was expecting the worst too Andy.
 
I know SpaceX like to break things, fix it and try again.. but there's a catch this time. It costs so much to build the full rocket, that the reality is they can only afford to have that kind of outcome maybe once or twice more. After that, you're into big financial problems - Musk's pocket is not without limits. I'm a little curious why they didn't abort when so many Raptors failed to ignite (looked like about 5 or 6.. far too many).
 
I know SpaceX like to break things, fix it and try again.. but there's a catch this time. It costs so much to build the full rocket, that the reality is they can only afford to have that kind of outcome maybe once or twice more. After that, you're into big financial problems - Musk's pocket is not without limits. I'm a little curious why they didn't abort when so many Raptors failed to ignite (looked like about 5 or 6.. far too many).
I was surprised about the raptors too Mark. :(
 
I suppose they like to prototype, they've already made improvements to their next booster. Yes they can't keep blowing up rockets for every little thing but I think they'll have learned lots and the next launch will be better. For this first one the goal was just to clear the tower and it did that and more so yeah 6 engines not firing isn't the best but for the first try at lighting all 33 together I'm surprised only a few had issues. It also did look like a few were trying to reignite during flight but to no avail.
 
They seemed to have quite a few issues with Raptor ignitions during the earlier SN series testing of just the Starship segment, too.

Still, it's clearly quite a solidly built rocket, all those cartwheels it was doing.. the stresses on its structure would be immense. But it held together until they blew it remotely.
 
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Cor blimey! glad I wasn't there, I think that car might be needing a little colour magic attention here and there. :giggle:
 
I'm a little curious why they didn't abort when so many Raptors failed to ignite (looked like about 5 or 6.. far too many).
That might have been a deliberate ploy to see how it faired on partial engines (pretty darn well as it turned out…save the small separation problem)

With the sheer number of raptors on that thing, I’m sure this won’t be the first or last time all of them don’t ignite on launch. So if anything you want to ideally still be able to safely launch in this scenario
 
I think they have tolerance for the loss of around 2-3 raptors on launch and should still be able to achieve orbit. But looking at what happened to the pad post-launch, it seems like it might take them longer to build a safer pad than to field the next test rocket :).

There's a reason NASA builds those huge flame redirection chambers under their biggest rockets, and I did wonder how Starship would fair..

 
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