BFR Developments

The recovery ship Hos Ridgewind is back out in the Gulf of Mexico, this time trying to recover Flight 5's hot-staging-ring, which was separated from the booster near apogee and fell from space into the sea.

Hos Ridgewind has the Hot Staging Ring.

(The "Hos" in the ship's name is for Hornbeck Offshore Services, the company that owns Ridgewind and a fleet of similar ships that normally serve the offshore oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico.)

(Extraordinary photograph by Starship Gazer)

Rumors are swirling that Flight 6 might happen as soon as the middle of November. (The rumors are totally unconfirmed.)

It's not totally outlandish. The latest FAA launch license allows multiple launches, provided that they all fly the same flight plan as Flight 5.

On one hand, reflying something they have already successfully done would be very unlike SpaceX, especially given how successful Flght 5 was. The company typically moves on to the next big challenge. But unfortunately, each new thing they try will require a newly amended launch license the way things are currently set up. And these take many months.

So it's possible that they will request a new amended launch license for a more ambitious flight, perhaps testing a deorbit burn, which they need to do before they can attempt orbital refueling tests next year (which would require their own amended launch license). The new amended launch license will predictably take months. So while they are waiting for that, launching more flights using the Flight 5 flight plan might make sense. SpaceX has multiple ships and boosters already constructed and waiting. The choice is either fly them or scrap them. And there's definitely value in collecting more data and perfecting the launch procedures.

Whatever they are planning, B13, the Flight 6 booster rolled to the Orbital Launch Mount today for a round of testing up to and possibly including a static fire, starting tomorrow. S31, the Flight 6 ship, has already completed its static fires at Massey's.

(SpaceX photo of B13 on the move this afternoon)

And here is a good enjoyable Flight 5 video made by a British guy named James Cooke. Check it out, it's worth watching.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/HLNCXVcdZH8

nsNS

Today they conducted a successful static fire of B13, the projected Flight 6 booster. The static fire took place right at sunset and was extraordinarily beautiful. Video by Anthony Gomez of Rocket Ranch here:

https://x.com/AnthonyFGomez/status/1849607530093150678

Photo by Starship Gazer

A great Human for Scale photo by Max Evans

Compare that with the entire build site five years ago, when poor Hoppy still had a nose...

Ship 32, the first of the version.2 ships, is being cryo tested by filling it with liquid nitrogen at the Massey's test site at Starbase.

Several changes from version.1 are obvious. The forward flaps are smaller and have different shapes. And the forward flaps are relocated away from the midline of the ship towards the more protected leeward side away from the tiled side. This will hopefully take the flap hinges out of the worst of the hypersonic airstream during reentry.

Another change in the version.2 ships is larger propellant tanks. This should increase mass to orbit, while it simultaneously makes the cargo bay smaller. The future version 3 ships will be stretched so as to restore the cargo bay volume.

(Photo by the great Carlos Nunez)

In this photo, a version.1 ship is on the left, the first version.2 ship on the right. The white area is the propellant tanks covered in frost. The unfrosted area above that is the cargo bay, which is much smaller in the version.2 ship.

SpaceflightNow interviewed the deputy manager of NASA's Human Landing System who provided lots of information nuggets.

Summarized into bullet points by Mauricio of RGV Aerial Photography

- Ship to Ship prop transfer campaign planned to start in March 2025
- Ship to Ship prop transfer test planned to be completed over the summer
- NASA is looking for a bi-weekly cadence with only the Boca pads at first and then later getting 39a online
- NASA helped SpaceX test their MMOD (Micro Meteoroids & Orbital Debris) tiles which will be used in space
- NASA helped SpaceX improve cryogenic valves and other internal cryogenic cooling components
- SpaceX uses testing capabilities at Glenn and Marshall and expanded that relationship
- Design update in November, critical design review next year
- Astronauts have a meeting with SpaceX once a month to improve the HLS design
- There are HLS crew cabin, sleeping quarters, and laboratory mock ups at Boca Chica

Watch here:

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/VyjYETLJjHs

(Oct 23, 2024 04:49 AM)Yazata Wrote: Rumors are swirling that Flight 6 might happen as soon as the middle of November. (The rumors are totally unconfirmed.)

It's not totally outlandish. The latest FAA launch license allows multiple launches, provided that they all fly the same flight plan as Flight 5.

And the FAA has just issued a NOTAM for November 18, 2024 (through the 26th as backup days) for Flight 6 of Starship.

An immanent Flight 6 is getting more Real!

https://x.com/Teslaconomics/status/1854232271533859217

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/hI9HQfCAw64

(Nov 6, 2024 07:30 PM)Yazata Wrote: [...] And the FAA has just issued a NOTAM for November 18, 2024 (through the 26th as backup days) for Flight 6 of Starship. An immanent Flight 6 is getting more Real! [...]

Finally, some speed -- even before Trump takes office. All this bureaucratic dawdling has consequences...

China reveals a new heavy lift rocket that is a clone of SpaceX’s Starship
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/11/ch...-starship/

SpaceX has verified that they are indeed shooting for Flight 6 on Monday November 18 (a week from this coming Monday)!

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/...p-flight-6

They say:

The sixth flight test of Starship is targeted to launch as early as Monday, November 18.

A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app. The 30-minute launch window will open at 4:00 p.m. CT. As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so be sure to check in here and stay tuned to our X account for updates.

Starship’s fifth flight test was a seminal moment in iterating towards a fully and rapidly reusable launch system. On the first attempt, the Super Heavy booster successfully returned to the launch site and was caught by the chopstick arms of the launch and catch tower at Starbase. Starship’s upper stage went on to demonstrate several improvements, resulting in a controlled entry and high accuracy splashdown at the targeted area in the Indian Ocean.

The next Starship flight test aims to expand the envelope on ship and booster capabilities and get closer to bringing reuse of the entire system online. Objectives include the booster once again returning to the launch site for catch, reigniting a ship Raptor engine while in space, and testing a suite of heatshield experiments and maneuvering changes for ship reentry and descent over the Indian Ocean.

The success of the first catch attempt demonstrated the design feasibility while providing valuable data to continue improving hardware and software performance. Hardware upgrades for this flight add additional redundancy to booster propulsion systems, increase structural strength at key areas, and shorten the timeline to offload propellants from the booster following a successful catch. Mission designers also updated software controls and commit criteria for the booster’s launch and return.

Analogous to the fifth flight test, distinct vehicle and pad criteria must be met prior to a return and catch of the Super Heavy booster, which will require healthy systems on the booster and tower and a final manual command from the mission’s Flight Director. If this command is not sent prior to the completion of the boostback burn, or if automated health checks show unacceptable conditions with Super Heavy or the tower, the booster will default to a trajectory that takes it to a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. We accept no compromises when it comes to ensuring the safety of the public and our team, and the return will only take place if conditions are right.

The returning booster will slow down from supersonic speeds, resulting in audible sonic booms in the area around the landing zone. Generally, the only impact to those in the surrounding area of a sonic boom is the brief thunder-like noise with variables like weather and distance from the return site determining the magnitude experienced by observers.

Starship’s upper stage will fly the same suborbital trajectory as the previous flight test, with splashdown targeted in the Indian Ocean. An additional objective for this flight will be attempting an in-space burn using a single Raptor engine, further demonstrating the capabilities required to conduct a ship deorbit burn prior to orbital missions.

They rather blithely toss in the words "Mission designers also updated software controls and commit criteria for the booster’s launch and return." There's context for that. Elon himself leaked the fact that the flight controllers were just one second away from aborting the Flight 5 tower catch. The issue was that the raptor engine turbopumps took longer to spin up to flight speed than had been programmed into the software. So when the time came for a go/no-go decision on the booster catch, there were red lights on the board. B12 was fully healthy though and luckily the situation resolved itself in the nick of time as the turbopumps spun up. And we know the rest.

Unlike Flight 5, which launched at dawn (Central time), Flight 6 is slated to launch at 4PM, late afternoon. This change mean that Ship 31's landing in the Indian Ocean west of Australia should occur during daytime. Everyone is looking forward to better visibility of the landing.

And S31 (the Flight 6 ship) has gone completely bananas.

(I'm guessing that this is a reference to a running joke of ULA's Tory Bruno, to measure the size of things in "standard bananas"...)

(Photo by Shaun Gisler)

(Photo by Mary (bocachicagal)