Recent Posts

1

Engineering / Re: Interesting stuff about SpaceX Starship (hate the name)

« Last post by Nemesis on May 13, 2025, 06:03:51 pm »

IFT 9 is now listed as "May".  Rumours have it as ~21st.  Now the big thing is have the ironed out the cause of the last 2 RUDs? 

Parts are being seen with metal heat tiles with what looks like active cooling. 

A ring section was just scrapped with what is being speculated to be components to hook up a fuel tanker to a Starship (or fuel depot) in orbit for refuelling. 

Update:  Starship 35 has had a 60 second static fire and Super Heavy 14 has been (by now) moved to Launch Pad A presumably for its static fire.  14 is a previously flown booster with reused engines (1 twice flown). 

The mobile launch mount (all 1100 tons) was also taken to Pad B and installed.  Still a lot of work I'm sure to hook everything up. 

2

Engineering / Re: Interesting stuff about SpaceX Starship (hate the name)

« Last post by Nemesis on May 02, 2025, 01:38:27 pm »

Starship 35 has been moved to the testing site where it should be having a static fire.  This (if no issues) might mean IFT 9 in as little as two weeks.

Update:  The static fire had already happened when I posted that.  It apparently had "issues" though SpaceX does not seem to have released any info.  With any luck they learned something useful to prevent repeating the loss of Starship on the prior two flights.  Worst case delays caused by repairs or scraping Ship 35 for Ship 36.

Amazons launch of one batch of Project Kuiper satellites (ULA Atlas 5 - very few left) has resulted in claims that they have only built 45 so far.  They need a bit more than 1600 in orbit by the end of July 2026.  So far it looks like there is only 1 more launch of Kuiper satellites in 2025 (on a Falcon 9).  They need ~60 launches by that July 2026 date or they risk losing their license.  I don't see New Glenn + Vulcan + Ariane 6 contributing substantially to those launches.  So Falcon 9 would be needed, can it add enough flights?  Will Starship take over launching Starlink by then and allow Falcon 9 to do those launches?  Will Starship launches supplant Falcon 9 launches enough to block Falcon 9 from doing those launches?  All up in the air and speculative at present.

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Engineering / Re: Interesting stuff about SpaceX Starship (hate the name)

« Last post by Nemesis on April 11, 2025, 12:54:23 pm »

Part of the header tank for Starship 39 seems to be labelled "version 3".  So the question is, is that version 3 of that component or is Starship 39 the first Block 3 Starship? 

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Engineering / Re: Interesting stuff about SpaceX Starship (hate the name)

« Last post by Tus-XC on April 05, 2025, 01:45:25 pm »

A starship test would be great, but I don't think that is the case.  Likely they don't want to risk the platform with damage should something go wrong with reuse. 

5

Engineering / Re: Interesting stuff about SpaceX Starship (hate the name)

« Last post by Nemesis on April 05, 2025, 01:41:06 pm »

IFT 9 will reuse booster 14 and 29 engines (+4 new engines for 33 total). One of those engines has already flown twice.  Rumours have it that there will be no attempt to catch it but no reason is given.  Could it be they are going to try for a Starship catch?  Perhaps booster 14 has damage that prevents a catch but not a launch?  It has had a static fire done this last week.

Still no date for the launch.  Perhaps mid to late May. 

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Engineering / Re: Interesting stuff about SpaceX Starship (hate the name)

« Last post by Nemesis on March 28, 2025, 02:48:23 pm »

A Falcon 9 was relaunched only 9 days after landing, a new record speed.

7

Engineering / Re: Interesting stuff about SpaceX Starship (hate the name)

« Last post by Nemesis on March 06, 2025, 05:54:46 pm »

IFT 8 has flown.  Good news and bad news.

Booster - launched all 33 engines, perfect separation.  Re-ignition only 11 of the 13 engines ignited (last time it was 12 of 13).  Second re-ignition 12 of 13 engines ignited (last time it was all 13).  Final re-ignition all 3 ignited and it was a 3rd perfect catch.

Starship - Separation perfect all 6 engines.  At about 8 minutes and 5 seconds they quickly lost one of the vacuum raptors and all 3 sea level engines (needed for attitude control).  It spun out of control and lost the last 2 engines before explosion (detonated or breakup I don't know).  It was about 20 seconds from planned engine shut off.

This may be a failed fix of the IFT 7 issue (but still improved as it lasted longer) or it may be something new.

On to IFT 9.  Previous prediction was April, will it happen then????

8

Engineering / Re: Interesting stuff about SpaceX Starship (hate the name)

« Last post by Nemesis on March 03, 2025, 06:00:52 pm »

IFT 8

Wed • Feb 26th, 2025 6:30 PM - 8:09 PM EST

I expect at least some delays.

1st delay

Fri • Feb 28th, 2025 6:30 PM - 8:09 PM EST

2nd delay

Mon • Mar 3rd, 2025   6:30 PM - 8:09 PM EST

Last minute abort reason unknown.  So a later launch


Provisional new date:  Tue • Mar 4th, 2025 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM EST.  Depends on weather etc. 

Revised new date:  Wed • Mar 5th, 2025  6:30 PM - 7:30 PM EST

1st Delay Thu • Mar 6th, 2025 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM EST

9

Engineering / Re: Interesting stuff about SpaceX Starship (hate the name)

« Last post by Nemesis on March 01, 2025, 01:06:49 pm »

IFT 7 the cause of the 2nd stage failure has been announced as being resonances (caused by changes in the design for this 1st block 2 unit flown) resulted in components in the engine section breaking and that is what caused the leakage.  They did a long 6 engine static fire which included changes to those components (different changes on different engines to test multiple designs at once).  They also used different engine settings during the test to help isolate the problem and finding out which of the changes were best. 

Raptor 3 due to the integration of various components won't have this particular vulnerability. 

I recently heard that the head of ULA when the first pictures of Raptor 3 were released commented that SpaceX MUST have left off a lot of components to make the picture look better.  He apparently is wrong and the integration mentioned above has this resulting "clean" design. 

There are currently applications to the FAA for IFT9 which includes the option of achieving orbit and returning BOTH stages to Boca Chica for a catch with one of the stages to be caught at tower B.  April (likely late) is the target time frame.

New Glenn 2nd stage?  They planned to leave it in a "garbage" orbit (more space junk)  BUT it has broken up so it is even more junk.  Why?  First why was why not return it?  It should have had lots of fuel since it had minimal cargo so why not deorbit it?  Second why of course is why it broke up?

10

Engineering / Re: Interesting stuff about SpaceX Starship (hate the name)

« Last post by Nemesis on February 21, 2025, 06:22:13 pm »

IFT 8

Wed • Feb 26th, 2025 6:30 PM - 8:09 PM EST

I expect at least some delays.

1st delay

Fri • Feb 28th, 2025 6:30 PM - 8:09 PM EST

2nd delay

Mon • Mar 3rd, 2025   6:30 PM - 8:09 PM EST