FAQ
- 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.”
- Where can I find streams of the launch? SpaceX Full Livestream. NASASpaceFlight Channel. Lab Padre Channel. Everyday Astronaut Channel.
- 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.
- 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.”
- 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
- LabPadre Channel | NASASpaceFlight.com Channel
- NSF: Booster 7 + Ship X (likely 24) Updates Thread | Most Recent
- NSF: Boca Chica Production Updates Thread | Most recent
- NSF: Elon Starship tweet compilation | Most Recent
- SpaceX: Website Starship page | Starship Users Guide (2020, PDF)
- FAA: SpaceX Starship Project at the Boca Chica Launch Site
- FAA: Temporary Flight Restrictions NOTAM list
- FCC: Starship Orbital Demo detailed Exhibit - 0748-EX-ST-2021 application June 20 through December 20
- NASA: Starship Reentry Observation (Technical Report)
- Hwy 4 & Boca Chica Beach Closures (May not be available outside US)
- Production Progress Infographics by @RingWatchers
- Raptor 2 Tracker by @SpaceRhin0
- Acronym definitions by Decronym
- Everyday Astronaut: Starbase Tour with Elon Musk, Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
- Everyday Astronaut: 2022 Elon Musk Interviews, Starbase/Ship Updates | Launch Tower | Merlin Engine | Raptor Engine
I didn’t know we had these threads on here!
There’s a new (lord I hate the new name) thread from The Ringwatchers @Ringwatchers about the Hot Stage Load Head et al. Someone did an unroll and it’s here. I haven’t time at the moment to go over it in detail. It looks like two ring sections will be above and below, and they will be reinforced because they are irrelevant to the hot stage sieve. The Hot Stage Load Head has been reinforced in several ways; there are pictures. The assembly will go into the can crusher.
Starship Gazer @StarshipGazer 5:21 PM - Jul 20, 2023
New Booster Hot Staging section spotted earlier today. - 7/20/23 - https://starshipgazer.com
SpaceX made a prototype like this, with lots of vertical slits, and then scrapped it. It was suggested at the time that it might have been for hot staging. Well, that’s looking more likely. The current article has the outlines of the vertical slits but they haven’t been snipped out.
Potentially basic question: does anyone know if this section is structural and needs to hold all the weight (plus various forces during flight) of the second stage? As in, there’s no hidden scaffolding in the center of the engines?
I think once it’s done it will be structural. But it needs a lot more reinforcement.
Have we seen any sign that B9 has been/is being modified with the additional hot-stage ring and the new FTS ? Right now, to me this seems to be the long pole, more than the OLM.
Musk has said that he expected approval of a new FTS to be the long pole.
Yeah, there is approval. But I’m more talking about the retrofitting, which doesn’t even seem to have started.
Static fire!
Announcements on the webcast:
- Test duration 2.74 seconds, with 4 engines shutting down prematurely.
- Vehicle and pad look good. Preparing for propellant offload.
Plate seems to have survived this very well. Didn’t see any bits flying up either, and white cloud seems good, so very positive overall.
But 4 engines shut off and I think John mentioned they were aiming for 5 seconds, so I bet they’ll go for another run in the next few days.
If I remember correctly, they can launch with up to three engines missing. I guess the early shutdown of the fourth engine after ~2.74s triggered an abort of the static fire, which was supposed to last for 5 seconds?
SpaceTwitter 5:02 PM - Jul 27, 2023:
After initial activation, a full-pressure test of the new Starship flame deflector is planned for Friday
With it is a great picture, taken from a height, of the recent test.
I feel they’ve started communicating more, that’s great to see.
Tweets from Elon Musk @elonmusk.
7:51 PM - Jul 9, 2023: “3 more engines for the meaning of life.” Meaning 42 Raptor engines total for Super Heavy and Starship together. It’s with an upskirt photo of a Starship, though with 6 engines. I can’t quickly find an authoritative statement of the configuration, but since 2021, it seems that people have been stating 3 sea-level gimballing engines in the center, and 6 Rvacs (vacuum Raptors) inside the circumference (so one added between each existing pair of RVacs for a hex array). Everyday Astronaut tweeted a reply at 8:57 PM - Jul 9, 2023, “So 33 on booster, 9 on ship. Which will be the first 6 X Vac ship?”, so he seems to be thinking 6 RVacs.
The Ringwatchers @Ringwatchers have a 10-tweet thread (via threadreaderapp) analyzing it. They see a Hydraulic Power Unit: they say that, since S26 on and B9 on have the electric Thrust Vector Control system, this has to be a picture of S25. The engine shielding has been removed – for inspections? for redesign? The COPVs have been removed too. There are other details, like the interior camera, the static firing stiffeners on the RVac (vacuum Raptor) engine bells to prevent damage from sea-level flow separation, et cetera.
Two Elon tweets in sequence:
- 12:35 AM - Jul 10, 2023 “Looks like we can increase Raptor thrust by ~20% to reach 9000 tons (20 million lbs) of force at sea level”
- 12:43 AM - Jul 10, 2023 “And deliver over 200 tons of payload to a useful orbit with full & rapid reusability. 50 rockets flying every 3 days on average enables over a megaton of payload to orbit per year – enough to build a self-sustaining city on Mars.”
Edit for the record: Zack Golden @CSI_Starbase tweet on Jul 9 this picture. It showed Starship’s config as mentioned above. But the 3 center gimballing sea-level engines are lined up with 3 of the 6 RVacs on the rim, which I think would slightly reduce their range of motion.
Musk replied 10:29 PM - Jul 9, 2023
Inner engine gimbal angle is limited in some directions, due to impacting outer engine nozzle, but probably ok
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!
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.
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.
Well, Zack Golden did reply that he thinks they’re holding back, so maybe you’ll get your wish for more violence.
Zack Golden @CSI_Starbase added on 2:09 PM - Jul 17, 2023:
Interesting things to note about this test:
- In the near future this will have an even higher volume of water
- 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.”
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.
Booster 9 completed a successful spin prime: https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1687551185509888000
I hope we see a static fire and test of the deluge system soon!
Great progress!
NASASpaceflight video of OLM Deluge plate installation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6PXHqOErvs
NSF is live for today’s static fire test: https://www.youtube.com/live/UFKKFt1CQW0
SpaceX livestream for today’s static fire test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHxKhpFUOuo
Currently counting down to 2:08pm CT/19:08 UTC (17 minutes from now). Edit: Live stream is online now.
Not sure what to make of this crazy contraption: https://twitter.com/nasaspaceflight/status/1678949709661065217?s=46&t=Mj914Aam14loAYQOISZ9zQ
Huh, the tweet seems to be visible even without a login? If not, the underlying image is https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0zTpR6XwAAnVvl?format=jpg&name=4096x4096
The tweet says
Chris Bergin - NSF @NASASpaceflight 9:09 PM - Jul 11, 2023
Say hello to S24.2 at Starbase. You’re interesting!
Photo by Jack Beyer (@thejackbeyer) for NSF.
I think the naming convention of Snumber.number or Bnumber.number is for a test tank or other test subassembly.
One suggestion is that it’s a test of the lunar Human Landing System. S normally means it’s on Starship, and maybe the reinforced holes at the top of the tank are the landing thrusters, or the openings for the thrusters.
There’s also the suggestion that it’s a hot staging ring, but it was objected elsewhere that that would be on top of a booster, not in a Starship.
Another suggestion is that it’s a “Frankenbarrel”, combining two tests.
A dome above a payload door…???
It must be a test article. But what kind of tests?
I’d hazard a guess at in-orbit refuelling mechanism(s)
Perhaps. What would the holes around the dome be for? And why would there be a pez dispenser? What role would such a slot in the fuel tank serve?
So B9 is at the OLM ready to be lifted. Wonder if they’ll do so today or just let it stand there.
Nice picture from RGV Aerial Photography @RGVaerialphotos 1:45 PM - Jul 20, 2023:
New flyover!
Booster 9 ready for lift operations!
Also an unusual perspective from Mary @BocaChicaGal 7:51 AM - Jul 20, 2023:
It’s great to see Booster 9 rolling to the launch site this morning. 🚀🤩
@NASASpaceflight
And a glamor shot in transit by Starbase Surfer @cnunezimages 10:31 AM - Jul 20, 2023
WOW ! - Image Taken: July 20, 2023
Another glamor shot, this one from Jack Beyer @thejackbeyer 9:57 PM - Jul 20, 2023, of a NASA Space Flight picture.
Super Heavy Booster’s 33 Raptor engines. Looking so clean!
@NASAspaceflight
ANOTHER glamor shot, this one from SpaceX @SpaceX itself, 3:08 PM - Jul 21, 2023:
Booster 9 on the pad
Marcus House retweeted with, “Looks like something right out of your favourite sci-fi movie huh!?”.
New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:
Starbase live-
11:50pm- Lift that had been up at the chopsticks goes down
11:56pm- Lift goes back up to the chopsticks
12:00am- Lift goes back down
1:48am- Lift goes back up to the chopsticks
4:11am- Lift goes back down
6:29am- Basket up top of OLM
6:45am- 2nd segment of the 4th level of the new high bay lifted
7:01am- Basket down
7:30am- Basket up to the door at the top of the new stairs
7:31am- Large L shaped metal object (I think it’s a small diameter pipe) lowered into the pit
7:40am- Basket down
7:50am- Basket up top of OLM
8:19am- 2 lifts go up to the side of S25
8:33am- Basket down
8:53am- Basket up to the door
9:26am- Basket goes down
11:03am- Large L shape pipe that was lowered earlier is repositioned
11:55am- Lift goes back up to the chopsticks
12:21pm- Zoom in on the crew working on the chopsticks. Seem to be working on the hydraulics for the stabilizer arm
12:34pm- Looks like they removed the hydraulic ram
12:44pm- Lift moves over to the other side of the stabilizer arm
1:05pm- Lifts go down at S25. Access hatch is open and vent tube installed
2:25pm- Lift back up at S25
3:38pm- Square piece of metal lifted to the top of the OLM
4:35pm- Concrete pump truck seen in background. Checked Nerdle cam and it looks like it was pouring around the high pressure tanks for the deluge earlier and now it’s over by the old landing pad.
4:40pm- Another piece of metal lifted to the top of the OLM
5:33pm- Pumper truck folds up to leave
6:12pm- Lift goes up to top of chopsticks
6:33pm- 2nd lift goes up to the stabilizer arm
6:46pm- First lift goes down
7:03pm- 1 of the lifts at S25 goes down
7:07pm- Lift at the stabilizer arm goes down. No sign of a new hydraulic piston
7:16pm- Both lifts go back up
7:25pm- Top lift goes back down. Looks like they are just inspecting
7:51pm- Lift at the stabilizer arm goes down. Was working in the piston area but SBL zoomed out and went on a tour
9:18pm- Lift goes up to the side of the drawworks shed. Whoever was hoping that they would replace the shielding soon might be in luck.
10:03pm- Lift at the drawworks goes down. There was definitely sparks flying like they were starting to cut something.
10:46pm- Lift was back at the drawworks shed. Looks like they tried a different method of cutting and then went back down
11:00pm- Concrete pump truck arrives at the right side of the cryo pipe pit. Time to finally pour it’s lid?
11:05pm- Pump unfolds
12:07pm- First concrete truck is at the pump and the arm folds out towards the far side of the cryo pipe trench. The lid it is.
(This gets synced)
More stuff relating to the hot staging system.
TheSpaceEngineer @mcrs987 provided a
tweetXpulsion:Quick rendition of this new ring, it evidently has less material but has more space that could be used to incorporate stringers with the forward section of the booster
they could also do internal stringers and ribs inside the ring, similar to the ship aft skirt
They also provided an Xuding. I gather that the piece had been marked that:
so…that ‘B12 Hot Stage Load Head’ piece came back out of tent 2
THATS A LOT OF STRINGERS
Someone asked, “why are they different from the stringers above? did they put stringers on stringers?”. TheSpaceEngineer replied, “yes”, with a zoom in on the middle, where they really did put larger stringers on top of existing stringers.
A way to make it quite stiff would be to sandwich stringers between an inner and outer ring.
