SpaceX - Starship (Unofficial) patch.
Feb. 4, 2021
Image above: A cloud of dust forms as SpaceX’s Starship SN10 test article prepares to land in Boca Chica, Texas, March 3, 2021. Credits: Nicholas D’Alessandro / Spaceflight Insider.
SpaceX finally completed a key milestone in its Starship test program after three tries—successfully landing a Starship after a high-altitude flight and subsequent landing flip maneuver.
At 6:13 p.m. EST (23:13 UTC) March 3, 2021, SpaceX Starship SN10 took to the Texas skies in the third of its kind high-altitude test flight of the vehicle type’s development program. The flight occurred as part of the second attempt for the day, with the launch computers automatically aborting the first attempt with less than a second before liftoff, because of an overly-conservative engine parameter. Thee was a work period of approximately 3 hours between attempts.
Image above: At the completion of SN10’s free fall phase, 3 Raptor engines were ignited in preparation for the landing flip maneuver and what appeared to be a successful landing. Credits: Nicholas D’Alessandro / Spaceflight Insider.
The experimental test vehicle lifted off and slowly ascended to its target height of about 10 kilometers with every aspect of the test appearing nominal. However, at 6:29 p.m., a number of minutes after successfully landing on the target concrete pad, an explosion at the vehicle’s base lifted the entire structure into the air more than 50 meters before it came crashing back down in flames.
The test flight featured the second revision of the landing burn procedure, optimized following the hard landings of SN8 and SN9.
Image above: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes after seemingly successful landing. Image Credit: Space.com.
After SN8, it was determined that a mid-flight fuel transfer to the header tank with landing propellant was required to maintain adequate pressure levels, and after SN9 it was determined that all three Raptor engines would need to reignite during the landing flip procedure followed by shutdown of the least desirable one to create redundancy in the event of the failed ignition on one of the Raptors; this is what led to the demise of SN9.
On previous landing attempts, only two engines were reignited for the flip, meaning loss of power in either one would all but guarantee the vehicle’s destruction.
That landing today appeared nominal, but after the smoke settled, Starship SN10 could be seen to be leaning slightly, with a fire near the base of the vehicle. Minutes later, a large explosion at the base of the test article created a fireball cloud and blew the rocket almost fully intact high into the Texas sky, prior to crashing back down seconds later.
Despite the post-landing explosion, Starship SN10 was able to accomplish what SN8 and SN9 could not, proving out that the aforementioned landing burn revisions were indeed successful.
SpaceX Starship First Landing
This comes as a strong validation of SpaceX’s pioneering testing procedures, which allow for (and to some extent, even requires that) some test vehicles be permitted to crash in order to collect data and implement new procedures to avoid future ones.
“Starship SN10 landed in one piece!” said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in a series of tweets following landing. “SpaceX team is doing great work! One day, the true measure of success will be that Starship flights are commonplace.”
He later tweeted “RIP SN10, honorable discharge.”
This would have been one of the most rapid turnarounds for a Starship “hop”, had mother nature not made other plans with the winter storm that slammed the state and halted Starship testing for some time.
Starship SN10 featured the quickest turnaround time for an engine swap of any Starship prototype, coming in at 48 hours, with previous ones causing weeks of delays for SN8 and SN9. This is proof postive that SpaceX is quickly maturing their process for the swaps.
Musk and team appear ready to continue the rapid pace of testing with a rollout of the next Starship in line, SN11, expected to happen soon with all components on test vehicle believed to now be installed.
The test tank SN7.2, with new, thinner stainless steel construction (which will save weight on future iterations), has also completed testing and now stands at the test site.
Image above: Reflections of Starship SN10 at the Boca Chica SpaceX test flight facility, prior its largely successful test flight on March 3, 2021. Credits: Nicholas D’Alessandro / Spaceflight Insider.
It appears confirmed at this point that with those successful material tests in hand, SpaceX is now scrapping their plans for Starships SN12-SN14. Sections of those iterations have already been observed to be undergoing disassembly and scrapping procedures, while SN15 underwent stacking in the Mid Bay and now sits in a position to roll into the High Bay once SN11 vacates that location.
Related articles & link:
SpaceX Starship SN9 High-Altitude Flight Test
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2021/02/spacex-starship-sn9-high-altitude.html
Starship SN9 High-Altitude Flight Test
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2021/01/starship-sn9-high-altitude-flight-test.html
Starship SN9 prototype fires engines to prep for high-altitude test flight
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2021/01/starship-sn9-prototype-fires-engines-to.html
SpaceX: https://www.spacex.com/
Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: SpaceFlight Insider by Nicholas D'alessandro/SpaceX/SciNews.
Best regards, Orbiter.ch
