SpaceX Starship page

FAQ

  1. When (first) orbital flight? First integrated flight test occurred April 20, 2023. “The vehicle cleared the pad and beach as Starship climbed to an apogee of ~39 km over the Gulf of Mexico – the highest of any Starship to-date. The vehicle experienced multiple engines out during the flight test, lost altitude, and began to tumble. The flight termination system was commanded on both the booster and ship.”
  2. Where can I find streams of the launch? SpaceX Full Livestream. NASASpaceFlight Channel. Lab Padre Channel. Everyday Astronaut Channel.
  3. What’s happening next? SpaceX has assessed damage to Stage 0 and is implementing fixes and changes including a water deluge/pad protection/“shower head” system. No major repairs to key structures appear to be necessary.
  4. When is the next flight test? Just after flight, Elon stated they “Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.” On April 29, he reiterated this estimate in a Twitter Spaces Q&A (summarized here), saying “I’m glad to report that the pad damage is actually quite small,” should “be repaired quickly,” and “From a pad standpoint, we are probably ready to launch in 6 to 8 weeks.” Requalifying the flight termination system (FTS) and the FAA post-incident review will likely require the longest time to complete. Musk reiterated the timeline on May 26, stating “Major launchpad upgrades should be complete in about a month, then another month of rocket testing on pad, then flight 2 of Starship.”
  5. Why no flame diverter/flame trench below the OLM? Musk tweeted on April 21: “3 months ago, we started building a massive water-cooled, steel plate to go under the launch mount. Wasn’t ready in time & we wrongly thought, based on static fire data, that Fondag would make it through 1 launch.” Regarding a trench, note that the Starship on the OLM sits 2.5x higher off the ground than the Saturn V sat above the base of its flame trench, and the OLM has 6 exits vs. 2 on the Saturn V trench.


Quick Links

RAPTOR ROOST | LAB CAM | SAPPHIRE CAM | SENTINEL CAM | ROVER CAM | ROVER 2.0 CAM | PLEX CAM | NSF STARBASE

Starship Dev 46 | Starship Dev 45 | Starship Dev 44 | Starship Dev 43

Official Starship Update | r/SpaceX Update Thread


Status

Road Closures

Type Start (UTC) End (UTC) Status
Primary 2023-08-04 13:00:00 2023-08-05 01:00:00 Possible
Alternative 2023-08-06 13:00:00 2023-08-07 01:00:00 Possible
Alternative 2023-08-07 13:00:00 2023-08-08 01:00:00 Possible

Up to date as of 2023-08-04

Vehicle Status

As of July 28th 2023

Follow Ring Watchers on Twitter and Discord for more.

Ship Location Status Comment
S15 Rocket Garden Scrapped
S20 Rocket Garden Retired
S24 Gulf of Mexico Destroyed Destroyed on during Flight Test 1
S25 Launch Site Testing Spin Prime and Static Fire
S26 Rocket Garden Resting No fins or heat shield, plus other changes.
S27 Rocket Garden Scrapped Common dome imploded
S28 Rocket Garden Pending Raptor install Previously tested at Masseys
S29 High Bay 1 Under construction
S30 Build Site Under construction
S31 Build Site Parts under construction Assorted parts spotted through S34.

 

Booster Location Status Comment
Pre-B7 & B8 Scrapped or Retired B4 is in the Rocket Garden, the rest are scrapped.
B7 Gulf of Mexico Destroyed Destroyed April 20th in Flight Test 1
B9 Mega bay Pending raptor swap and hot-stage ring install Static fire (August 5th)
B10 Masseys Testing Cryo testing
B11 Rocket Garden Resting
B12 Megabay Raceways installed
B13 Build Site Parts under construction
B14 Build Site Parts under construction
B15 Build Site Parts under construction


Resources

  • pigeonberry@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Chris Bergin - NSF @NASASpaceflight 1:24 PM - Jul 17, 2023

    WOW! OLM Water Deluge System conducts its first full test! That was super impressive. No more rock tornados, I’d say!

    http://nsf.live/starbase

    I wonder whether the MP4 will attach here? … edit: Nope, it seems not. See https://imgur.com/a/CQwvvl0 . Audio, but don’t turn it up.

    Edit 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgTqqGaU-Bg is a closer view from Starship Gazer @StarshipGazer, but with some unrelated chopstick stuff at the end apparently.

    Edit 3: DRAT! I hang out in this thread, not the main group, and didn’t see that @llamacoffee had posted “[Chris Bergin - NSF] WOW! OLM Water Deluge System conducts its first full test! That was super impressive. No more rock tornados, I’d say!” here.

    • LettuceTurnipTheBeet@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      Wow! Didn’t expect them to test so soon!

      Wonder what the next steps are, for some reason I expected this to be more violent.

      • pigeonberry@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Well, Zack Golden did reply that he thinks they’re holding back, so maybe you’ll get your wish for more violence.

    • pigeonberry@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Zack Golden @CSI_Starbase added on 2:09 PM - Jul 17, 2023:

      Interesting things to note about this test:

      1. In the near future this will have an even higher volume of water
      1. The system appears to be in the process of being expanded and might eventually have double the amount of high pressure gas tanks feeding it.

      On point 1, someone asserted (based on “Individuals on various discord servers”) that it was only the center manifold.

      Zack had a later tweet, 3:37 PM - Jul 17, 2023:

      The purpose of the water system is purely to keep the steel plates from melting.

      Without the water, the plates would be disintegrated, but the actual foundation would still survive as long as the booster cleared the pad fast enough.

      The upgraded foundation is the key to success here. Had the original foundation been constructed the way it is now, the pad would not have failed during the first launch attempt while using Fondag on the blast surface

      IMHO it’s impossible for that type of failure to occur again.

      He clarified in a later reply, “As I said, the water is not preventing mechanical forces from being transmitted through the plates and into the foundation. That’s not it’s job. It’s purely for thermal protection.”

    • John_Hasler@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      I think this test was done without the plates that close the top of the connection to the center section. If I’m correct the next test will look quite different.