After last week’s testing of Booster 9, the water deluge system, and other vital activity at Starbase, the Starship program is now moving right into a critical testing phase where Booster 9 will begin static test firings of the Raptor engines with the water deluge in use.
Large test windows have been posted, starting Friday – likely pointing to the twin events on separate days, from the Spin Prime test requirement, ahead of a Static Fire test with an unknown variety of engines.
Booster 9 was lifted onto the Orbital Launch Mount (OLM) on Thursday, July 20, after it was rolled out to the orbital launch pad from the production area of Starbase. A considerable amount of work was done on the OLM and launch pad area prior to the proof test on the booster, which is slated to fly on the subsequent Starship launch.
On Sunday, July 23, Booster 9 was crammed with liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen – within the methane tank – for what SpaceX billed as a propellant loading test. Each tanks reached full capability as a booster was tested on the OLM for the primary time for the reason that eventful Starship first flight on April 20.
The test appeared to have an prolonged hold where the cryogenic fluids were left within the tanks, before the booster was detanked over several hours. After the testing was accomplished, an access door was opened at the bottom of the liquid oxygen tank, and employees inspected the realm. It will not be known what was done, but the realm is closed off again.
While employees were checking the liquid oxygen tank on Booster 9, SpaceX also began preparing for the subsequent major step within the booster’s test campaign. The water deluge system that had been installed under the OLM had been tested at partial pressure earlier within the month, but now needed a full pressure test.
The total pressure deluge test on July 28 gave the impression to be successful, with large jets of water coming out from the steel plates under the OLM. The water was angled in order that it will miss the Raptor nozzles.
The flow of water lasted for eight to 10 seconds, and was followed by a loud release of pressure from the deluge water tank farm behind the launch tower.
The within holes are arranged in the form of a hexagon, while the outer holes match the locations of the outer 20 Raptor engines on the booster.
Meanwhile, at the previous Massey’s gun range now converted to a SpaceX test site, Ship 28 was moved there for proof testing with cryogenic fluids on Friday, July 21. On the identical date, Booster 10 was moved out of Massey’s, arriving on the “rocket garden” by the production site after midnight on Saturday, July 22.
Ship 28 is rolling to Masseys for its opening cryo testing.https://t.co/e3xbqPnwZ5 pic.twitter.com/H68A7DwBtY
— Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) July 21, 2023
Ship 28 was seen with frost lines on its liquid oxygen and methane tanks, after having been loaded with cryogenic fluids on Friday, July 28. The ship, equipped with fins, tiles, and a payload bay, is now expected to roll back to the production site to have its Raptor engines installed, assuming the test was successful. This ship is predicted for use with Booster 10 on the third Starship test launch.
Besides the ships and boosters which were built at Starbase over the previous few years, smaller test articles have been used to check various features and tolerances of the vehicle. Ship 24.2 is amongst the most recent of those, and appears to be intended to check the payload bay system prior to its use to deploy Starlink v2 full sized satellites.
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The new staging ring test article at Starbase. (Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF/L2)
One other recent test article is one with a hot staging ring in between an aft ring for the ship and a top section of a booster. This was rolled out to Massey’s on Sunday, July 30 for structural testing.
A hot staging ring will likely be added to Booster 9 and future vehicles to simplify the stage separation procedure during flight.
While Ship 28 has been undergoing its own preparations for flight, Ship 25 has had missing tiles installed and has been connected to a crane for a future lift.
Ship 25 is being prepared to fly atop Booster 9 for the upcoming second Starship test flight.
While Ships 25 and 28 are being prepared for future flights, other ships have been dismantled to make room as vehicles like Ship 30 have began construction. Ship 27 was cut up earlier this month, and now Ship 15 has joined Ship 27 in being taken apart. Ship 15, the Starship vehicle that was the primary full vehicle with fins to successfully complete a landing, was broken apart on Wednesday, July 26.
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The brand new high bay under construction is shown to the upper right of the image. (Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF/L2)
Although the ships, boosters, and orbital launch site get essentially the most publicity, the facilities on the production site are also being upgraded. The ultimate sections of a brand new processing “high bay” are being lifted and assembled onto the skeleton of the constructing. It is feasible that vehicles might be processed in that latest bay relatively soon.
As well as, the Starfactory under construction is being expanded. The Starfactory is about to interchange factory tents for the production of ships and boosters. One other constructing on site has been seen to have stacks of full size Starlink v2 satellites waiting for launch. It stays to be seen whether Ship 28 will likely be the primary one to launch a few of these spacecraft.
Preparations are underway for a static fire of Booster 9 in the approaching days or perhaps weeks. This static fire potentially is about to make use of all 33 engines and can stress test the deluge system and steel plates in addition to the reworked OLM itself. A spin prime test before the static fire can also be a possibility.
SpaceX is attempting to guard the launch pad and Starship from a future “rock tornado” without the advantage of a flame trench, so the “the wrong way up shower head”, as Elon Musk described it, is an integral part of constructing the launch pad rapidly reusable. Rapid reusability is the important thing to creating the Starship system work for Starlink v2, Artemis lunar missions, Mars missions, and other applications.
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