SpaceX wants to launch its next Starship as soon as possible

Contrary to recent comments from CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX appears to be moving ahead at full speed with the goal of launching its next Starship as soon as possible.

Known as the Starship 10 (SN10) serial number, the prototype is the latest in a series of four spacecraft that SpaceX has ultimately set aside for low-altitude development testing. Starship SN8 – the first working prototype to reach full height – debuted on December 8, 2020, blowing expectations out of the water with failure just seconds before the end of a six-plus flight test. minutes. According to Musk, if a fuel tank had remained properly pressurized from start to finish, SN8 could very well have blocked the landing on the first try.

They don’t hang around with SN10. Static fire potential tomorrow, and that would mean a launch is possible in the next few days.

Here we are again with #wenhop https://t.co/1kO2oNnmNK

– Chris B – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) February 8, 2021

Two months later, after most of two weeks of licensing and static fire test delays, Starship SN9 attempted to carry the torch but suffered an unrelated failure a little earlier than SN8. One of the two Raptor engines failed to ignite for a high-risk rollover and landing burn, causing the Starship to hit the ground even harder than its predecessor. It’s unclear why the hapless Raptor failed to ignite or why the engine that ignited appeared to have a major failure soon after, but rocket propulsion is extremely difficult – and Raptor is near – or at – the end of this scale.

While SpaceX clearly did not turn around and fix a complex Starship propulsion problem in a matter of days, Musk ultimately revealed his opinion that he, his engineers, or a combination of the two “were too dumb” to exploit an obvious means of ‘alleviate the problem. risk of engine failure during rollover and landing. That “ obvious ” tweak: rekindle all three available Starship landing engines, not just two.

In theory, with a sufficiently fast response time, Starship could ignite all three Raptors, perform a supercharged rollover from a belly-to-tail down orientation, and selectively shut down one of the engines based on the data of what is essentially a flight in the air. static fire. In the event that all three engines are running nominally, Starship would shut down the less useful engine (i.e. the Raptor with the least leverage) for a slight burn on the two engine landing.

That said, burning on landing ships has a clear solution. My biggest concern is getting a good payload in orbit with fast and full reusability, without which we will be forever confined to Earth.

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2021

Impressively, Musk said SpaceX will implement these changes immediately, attempting the first three-engine re-ignition as soon as the Starship SN10 launches. Already on the launch pad when The SN9 spacecraft took off, SpaceX revealed plans to launch SN10 as early as February 2021 after the SN9 test flight webcast ended.

Days before SN9’s ill-fated test flight, Musk also said that Starship SN10 would perform a “cryogenic roof” test and then only its three Raptor engines would be installed. Instead, in an apparent change of plans, SpaceX installed the Starship SN10 Raptors – SN39, SN50 and an unknown third engine – from February 5-7.

Long-time area resident Mary (aka BocaChicaGal) on Sunday received an official security alert from SpaceX, signaling plans for an explosive test of the spacecraft as early as Monday, February 8. Historically, these overpressure safety warnings have only been issued when SpaceX is preparing for an attempted static launch of the Starship. In other words, there is a possibility that the very first Starship SN10 test will be a wet dress rehearsal (WDR) with flammable liquid oxygen and methane propellant. If that WDR goes well, SpaceX could go straight to a static single, two, or three-engine fire.

Of course, as SN9’s long testing period dragged on, Starship is still in the prototype stage and is far from a mature system, which means it’s always safer to expect delays than ‘a performance on time. To be clear, SpaceX is much more likely will perform a familiar “cryo proof” test with non-flammable liquid nitrogen – perhaps in the hope of completing a cryogenic roof and static fire in the same test window.

Either way, stay tuned for updates and follow the excellent live coverage from NASASpaceflight in case SpaceX is really ready to statically fire the Starship SN10 between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. CST (UTC-6 ) on Monday.