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

Relevant Reddit threads (though these likely won’t be accessible during the blackout).

Starship Dev 46 | Starship Dev 45 | Starship Dev 44 | Starship Dev 43 | Starship Thread List

Official Starship Update | r/SpaceX Update Thread


Status

Road Closures

No road closures currently scheduled

No transportation delays currently scheduled

Up to date as of 2023-07-09


Resources

I’ll attempt to keep this post current with links and major updates, but would be greatly helped by information supplied by the community. I hope this can be an alternate place to discuss Starship development. While the Starship Development Threads on Reddit are not party threads, Lemmy is still small enough that I don’t imagine that strict moderation will be needed in the short term.

  • LettuceTurnipTheBeet@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:

    Starbase live-

    11:56pm- 2nd manifold is lifted off it’s stand (Who needs sleep anyways)

    12:12am- Manifold is going up after some weight was added to balance the load

    12:14:40am- Starts to swing over

    12:18am- Lowering. This should go to the left of the plate installed earlier

    12:23am- Trying to get it aligned

    12:25am- Starting to bring it in closer to the OLM

    12:31am- Lowered a bit more. (Looks like they’re at the 10ft mark where they paused for quite a while earlier. So I’m off to bed)

    12:45am- Lowered into place.

    1:21am- Raised again

    1:50am- B10 turns into Massey’s

    2:01am- Manifold is lowered again

    2:20am- Manifold go up, Basket go down

    2:25am- Manifold goes down

    2:36am- Basket goes up

    2:59am- Basket goes down

    3:35am- Small crane swings what may have been the 3rd manifold into place under the OLM

    3:51am- Grover moves a piece of small diameter pipe over to the left side of the OLM where the excavators are working

    5:30am- LR11000 is disconnected from the manifold section

    8:10am- Day shift off to a slow start

    9:25am- White pipe is lifted by a small crane over by the berm. RGV’s pictures show that they might be running a new water line from the current vertical tank over to the OLM.

    9:32am- LR11000 lifts the counterweight that was used to keep the last manifold level during the lift

    11:04am- Basket goes up

    11:21am- Retaining wall goes up where they’ve been excavating

    11:24am- Basket goes down

    11:36am- 2 workers carry a plastic pipe over to the pit being dug by the long reach excavator (if it’s metal, enter those guys in a body building competition)

    11:55am- 2 dump truck loads of gravel dumped on the other side of the excavator

    12:00pm- Nic is leaving NSF

    12:53pm- Basket goes up

    1:06pm- Basket goes down

    1:24pm- Grover lifts a couple pieces of metal off of the top of the OLM

    1:40pm- LR11000 moves another counterweight away from the OLM

    2:11pm- LR11000 lifts another counterweight

    2:17pm- Small crane lifts a piece of metal out of the excavation pit

    2:53pm- In todays adventure of what’s stuck at Starbase. We have a small bulldozer hanging off the side of a low boy trailer.

    2:53:54- Random kid says hi

    2:58pm- The excavator wins again. Bulldozer is on the trailer.

    3:34pm- Grover moves what looks like a long straight piece of rebar over to the cryo pit area

    3:49pm- Grover lifts a triangular piece of metal to the top of the OLM.

    4:13pm- Grover lifts another triangular piece of metal to the top of the OLM.

    4:30pm- Grover lifts more rebar over for the cryo pit lid

    4:50pm- Basket goes up (to the door on the side of the OLM)

    5:02pm- Rocket cows hack the stream

    5:03pm- Basket goes down

    5:37pm- Basket goes up

    5:44pm- Basket goes down

    6:32pm- LR11000 picks up a deluge pipe

    6:51pm- Grover swings out of the way

    6:57pm- LR11000 Starts swinging deluge pipe over. Straight pipe with a curve on the end closest to the OLM.

    6:59pm- Starts lowering pipe to the back left side OLM

    7:47pm- Small crane lifts a short piece of pipe next to the bigger piece the LR11000 lifted over

    7:51pm- Short piece swung back away

    9:00pm- Looks like some work on the lid for the cryo pipe vault. Some people going in and out of the ring around the OLM. They’re hiding what we really want to see behind the tarps though.

    9:15pm- LR11000 moves to pick up Y pipe

    9:41pm- Lifting straps connected to the crane

    9:56pm- Y pipe lifted

    9:58pm- Swung around the OLM

    10:06pm- Lowered to just above the OLM

    10:08pm- Guide rope got stuck on smaller crane. Had to go back up.

    10:09pm- Going back down

    10:12pm- Sat on the ground right outside the pit.

    10:14pm- Lifted Up slightly and rotated

    10:15pm- Lowered into the pit

    10:25pm- For those wanting to keep track, In Ryan’s renders, we’ve seen the bottom pipe that goes to the middle manifold and the Y section that goes over it lifted in so far. There should be 2 short pieces next to connect the Y to the other 2 manifolds.

    (This gets synced)