SpaceX Super Heavy and Starship updates

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So much for this taking 6 months to a year...the SpaceX PadRats are out in force,

 

 

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RAPTOR 3

Chamber pressure: 350 bar
Raptor 3 thrust: 590.9 klbf/269 tonne-force
Raptor 3 x 33: 19.5 mlbf/8877 tonne-force
 

 

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SpaceX hires former head of NASA human spaceflight

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/15/elon-musks-spacex-hires-former-nasa-official-kathy-lueders.html

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SpaceX hires former NASA human spaceflight official Kathy Lueders to help with Starship

KEY POINTS

• Kathy Lueders, the most recent top human spaceflight official at NASA, has joined Elon Musk’s SpaceX after retiring from the agency, CNBC has learned.

• Lueders will work out of the company’s “Starbase” facility in Texas, people familiar with the matter told CNBC, and report directly to SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell as General Manager.

• She represents a key hire for SpaceX as it aims to make its massive Starship rocket safe to fly people in the coming years.

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Lueders retired from NASA at the end of April, following a 31-year career with the agency. Before leading NASA’s human spaceflight program, she oversaw the culmination of its Commercial Crew program as manager, including the first SpaceX missions to carry NASA astronauts.

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Starship 25 spin-prime test stream

 

 

 

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Musk did a Twitter Spaces interview with writer/biographer Ashlee Vance. Talking about Starlink and Starship updates 

• A perforated interstage extension and thermal protection have been added to the top of Super Heavy so they can do hot-staging; 2 Super Heavy engines stay lit while Starship starts its engines and is released. 10% more mass to orbit.

• Engine failures during Flight 1 involved gas manifolds leaking hot gas where it didn't belong. Manifold redesigns and higher torque on bolts.

• Pad base is gettings 1,000 tons of reinforced concrete, and the water-cooled steel plate redesigned to provide "overkill"

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The Orbital Launch Mount concrete pour has begun.

1,000+ cubic meters

 

 

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Ship 25 static fire

Waiting for video...

 

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Six engine test right out of the box, and elsewhere more talk about a nine engine Starship.

 

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Starship Orbital Launch Mount progress

 

Full text

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Launch Pad Repairs progress (77 days after launch)

- Pad Cleaning: 90%
- General concrete cleanup: 90%
- OLM Raptor QD Pipes replacing:✅
- OLM Hold Down Clamps replacing:✅
- Tower Draw works shielding: 50%
- Concrete: 80%
- Tank Farm GSE Covers: 70%
- Tank Farm compressed tanks replacement:✅

Deluge System installation: 75%
Water Cooled Steel Plate installation: 40%

 

 

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Something tells me Starship will  be getting 9 engines, meaning a total of 42 in the stack.

 

 

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Iron plate deluge plumbing goes in

 

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Starship iron plate deluge test

 

 

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Multiple angles of the deluge test

 

 

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Ship 25 out for tests

 

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Booster 9 roll out starts in about 20 minutes

 

 

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https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/07/booster-9-rollout-static-fire/Quote

Booster 9 rolls to the upgraded Starbase pad ahead of Static Fire test

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With Booster 9 now on the pad, SpaceX is hoping for a full engine static fire test to be conducted before the end of the month. This would set the stage for the return of a Starship full stack in early August and followed by a launch by the middle of that month

 

Edited July 21, 2023 by DocM

[DocM]

Big Fracking Rocket

 

 

 

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Starship Booster 9 OLM tests are  beginning.

So much for the idea this would take a year