Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

Elon, the man who has accepted the assignment to make Science Fiction real.

Check out Neopork's fabulous render of SN8 (hopefully) on its 15km flight in the tweet below. Looks like a photograph. (Click on it for the full size version.) Neopork says that he's Elon's wired up Neuralink pig and creates these renders with brain waves. (Probably isn't true.)

https://twitter.com/Neopork85/status/131...2585377792

The images below are from October 1948 and October 2020. 72 years, a long time coming...

Photo juxtaposition by AJW on Nasaspaceflight.com



Photo by RGV Aerial Photography of the new nearly-completed High Bay. Check out the tiny people standing on top for scale. Elon says that SuperHeavy stacking will start when it's completed, in a "few weeks". SuperHeavy domes and ring-barrels are accumulating and have been identified by Mary. But I think that most attention is currently on SN8 and its upcoming test campaign.

Speaking of aerial photographs, here's a photo of a NASA T-38 jet out of Houston (astronauts fly them to stay current as pilots) over SpaceX Boca Chica!

Photos by Farmer Bob (a NASA astronaut, I love his nickname) who I assume was in a similar jet.

Buzzing the build area.



The launch area by the beach

Today two Raptor engines were seen being transported from the build area to the launch area. They are being installed on SN8 as we speak. Mary's there with her camera getting closeups.

Given that SN8 is supposed to have three engines, I don't know what's up with these two. Will another one be coming to join them or has SpaceX decided to fly with just the two?

Photo a screenshot from Lab Padre's livestream

The Raptors appear to be SN 32 and SN 39. One has an obvious '39' stenciled on its bell. The other is more anonymous. But Mary has a really beautiful photograph where she put a tiny little red circle on the right side of the power head, so small that you wouldn't even see it unless you were looking for it like a hawk. Well, if you blow the photo up and blow it up some more, the red circle is above a tiny parts label with 'SN 32' on it.



Both engines went up under SN8's skirt this afternoon. But then one engine was lowered down again and was sitting next to SN8. Nobody knows why. It's been identified as SN 39. Maybe it didn't fit as expected or maybe they broke something lifting it. Or maybe they just found it difficult to attach two at once and decided to do them one at a time.

Lab Padre's live stream shows that it's disappeared again, either trucked off or installed after SN 32 was connected.

Which still leaves the third engine of the expected three. Engine intrigue! (For crazy Texas Tank Watchers at least.)

Instant article

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2020/10/...p-testing/

(Oct 12, 2020 01:58 AM)Yazata Wrote: [ -> ][...] It's been identified as SN 39. Maybe it didn't fit as expected or maybe they broke something lifting it. Or maybe they just found it difficult to attach two at once and decided to do them one at a time.

Lab Padre's live stream shows that it's disappeared again, either trucked off or installed after SN 32 was connected...

Uh-oh. Somebody stuck their gum in a sensitive part of the PZ35-W58 module of the less than one million dollar raptor engine.

Better than doing it with a $100 million-plus RS-25 engine of NASA's Space Launch System rocket.

A Raptor engine reappeared next to SN8, presumably the mysteriously missing SN 39. It's been raised up under SN8 where it's being installed.

Dunno where it was or why. Wasn't watching when they returned it from wherever.

And the anticipated third Raptor engine was transported from the Build Area to the Launch Area during the dead of night last night. (Except that nights aren't dead in Boca with its round-the-clock shifts.) It's being installed as we speak. No definitive identification of which one it was.

Screenshot from Lab Padre's 24/7 stream

(Oct 12, 2020 06:08 PM)Yazata Wrote: [ -> ]And the anticipated third Raptor engine was transported from the Build Area to the Launch Area during the dead of night last night. (Except that nights aren't dead in Boca with its round-the-clock shifts.) It's being installed as we speak. No definitive identification of which one it was.

Screenshot from Lab Padre's 24/7 stream: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index....9762;image

It didn't look like the initial truck bed was long enough and possibly weight-tolerant enough for comfortably transporting three at once. (Though one might wonder why they'd be constricted to trucks with limited flatbeds and loads.) Disaster or overcaution wise, perhaps not a good idea have all the eggs in one basket at the same time, too.

Mary got a look inside the third Giant Tent used for nosecone fabrication and got the first photos of SN8's nose with root fairings where the nose flaps will be attached.

In related news, the nosecone atop a barrel that was in the smallest triangular bay has been removed. It's assumed that it was a manufacturing pathfinder. Presumably it moved to make room for this new winged nosecone to be stacked atop a special barrel already waiting for it just outside the Giant Tent.

So SN8's nose is coming along.

In other news, concrete is being poured apparently to further expand the landing pad at the launch area. And there's lots of earthwork and grading underway next to the SuperHeavy launch pad, whose big concrete legs have been poured and are curing. Unknown what will go on the prepared area, given its proximity to the Superheavy launches.

The forward fins have been attached and SN8's new nose has been moved from the nosecone Giant Tent to the smallest of the three assembly bays (the triangular one).

https://twitter.com/BocaChicaGal/status/...2668773377

Photo (by Mary) below of the nose in the assembly bay with one folded flap visible. (The other one is obscured on the other side.) The 5-ring stringer-reinforced barrel to which it is to be mated to complete the nose is at the left edge of the photo below. The whole interior volume of the nosecone and barrel, apart from the LOX header and some machinery spaces, will be payload space on the Starship. It will be decks and cabins in the crew versions, additional propellant tanks in the tanker versions or a huge cargo hold in the cargo versions. Far more space to play with than in previous rockets.

If it seems like payload will take up a bigger percentage of Starship than other rockets, it's because the whole thing is a second stage that will fly to orbit atop a huge Superheavy booster. The proportions of the whole thing is more like rockets that we are used to.

Photo by Mary/Bocachicagal