BFR Developments

[Yazata]

Ship 30 has left the Masseys static-fire test stand and made its way back to the vertical bays.

And SpaceX has posted extraordinary slow-motion video looking up 30's skirt at the SF, showing the start-up sequence and then all six engines running smoothly.

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1817312715758862485

---

Really good compilation video by Nasaspaceflight.com's Jack Beyer showing all the recent events from many different angles, some super-crane action and various ships and parts of the new upgraded Version.2 ship spotted moving around.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/88MiFAxNM00

nsNS

[Yazata]

Ship 30 on its way from Masseys back to the build site.

Starbase Texas has traffic jams like nowhere else on Earth.

(Photo by @NickyXPhoto )

[Image: GThJGg5XEAIyuKF?format=jpg&name=small]

[Syne]

That's crazy. Not only the size, but that the moving platform would have to account for the slope of the road.

[Yazata]

That's crazy. Not only the size, but that the moving platform would have to account for the slope of the road.

Yeah, the SPMTs (Self-Propelled Modular Transporters) that they use can raise and lower in response to road slope, so as to keep the load vertical. The SpaceX SPMT crews are among the best in the world at what they do.

One of the things that I absolutely love about watching Starbase is how it demonstrates the best of all kinds of skilled trades that we rarely think about. Ironworkers, welders, plumbers, concrete and foundation guys, and the crane operators towering above it all. Starbase isn't all aerospace engineers with their computer models, it's an absolute triumph of countless varieties of hard-hats.

At SpaceX there's no class distinction between white-collar and blue-collar. Everyone is made to feel part of a single team, dedicated to getting humanity up off Earth and out into the wider Solar System. The engineers design things, but it still takes the trades guys to translate their designs into physical reality.

[C C]

[...] At SpaceX there's no class distinction between white-collar and blue-collar. Everyone is made to feel part of a single team, dedicated to getting humanity up off Earth and out into the wider Solar System. The engineers design things, but it still takes the trades guys to translate their designs into physical reality.

Can't wait for left crusaders to infiltrate and mess up that locally-solved harmony with centralized government agenda. Raising awareness of social class, ethnic, and gender/sexual distinctions -- and appending grievances and ratings for each population group's level of oppression.

[Yazata]

Elon says that he expects Flight 5 to be around the end of August or the beginning of September. It all depends on how quickly the FAA issues a new license.

Despite Flight 4's success, I'm guessing that the idea of trying to catch the Flight 5 booster in the loving arms of the tower has the FAA spooked. So many things could go wrong, they probably want SpaceX to account for every eventuality.

Actually, I don't see a lot of danger to human life since a radius of ~5 miles is largely evacuated. There is a very real possibility of property damage though, but it would be SpaceX property at the launch site, which would be totally evacuated. The chances of the booster hitting South Padre Island or another populated place is about nil. None of this is totally new, since SpaceX already lands Falcon-9 boosters at Cape Canaveral. But it is new for the FAA, since they have never had to license rocket landings before. (The Cape Canaveral landings are under NASA/Space Force jurisdiction.) The FAA is learning just like SpaceX and is being forced to create new policies on the fly.

https://x.com/spacesudoer/status/1817658845063459317

[Yazata]

For the last couple of days Starbase has been invaded by hordes of weird alien creatures

[Image: GTvUIfyXQAAoXHY?format=jpg&name=large]

Update

It's no joke, they are everywhere!

(I believe that they swarm like this during their mating season. They are just looking for a little love, just like the rest of us.)

https://x.com/NASASpaceflight/status/181...6195033267

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/5vwC90DrPD8

[Yazata]

The fifth segment of Tower 2 has been stacked.

(Photo by Basecamp Zero)

[Image: GT-6kkzWIAAEjQq?format=jpg&name=large]

[Yazata]

Something new was revealed yesterday at McGregor:

The first Raptor.3 engine!

It's a real work of engineering art, simple on the outside and cutting-edge advanced on the inside.

Here it is next to a Raptor.1 and Raptor.2. The progressive refinement between 1,2 and 3 is obvious.

Two of the challenges were excessive heating and propellant leaks. These two issues were related, since tight seals were hellishly difficult at the exceedingly high temperatures and pressures inside a rocket engine. So Elon and his engineers went on a crusade to eliminate as many bolts, flanges and seals as they could. They also eliminated all the external cooling lines and moved the cooling channels internally, inside the walls of the 3-D printed engine structure itself.

The result is an engine much lighter than earlier versions, more robust, with significantly improved thrust.

A very elegant piece of engineering.

"An engineer has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but nothing left to take away.”

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

[Image: GUEhFjla8AANpDp?format=jpg&name=small]

Comparison stats:

Raptor 1 (sea level variant)
Thrust: 185tf
Specific impulse: 350s
Engine mass: 2080kg
Engine + vehicle-side commodities and hardware mass: 3630kg

Raptor 2 (sea level variant)
Thrust: 230tf
Specific impulse: 347s
Engine mass: 1630kg
Engine + vehicle-side commodities and hardware mass: 2875kg

Raptor 3 (sea level variant)
Thrust: 280tf
Specific impulse: 350s
Engine mass: 1525kg
Engine + vehicle-side commodities and hardware mass : 1720kg

50% more thrust with 25% less engine mass. 50% less mass if you count stuff that's no longer necessary like heat shielding for the power head and fire-suppression for fuel leaks (like we saw on Flight 1).

nsNS

[Yazata]

Nasaspaceflight.com parses the latest 143 page Starbase environmental assessment. Hidden within all the government speak are a bunch of information nuggets.

SpaceX is proposing a launch cadence of up to 25 launches a year from Starbase. (Every two weeks.) Various details about changes to the tank farm, including a new air-separation plant to make liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen right there at the launch site. They will still have to truck in liquid methane, but it happens that a big LNG export terminal is currently under construction at the nearby Port of Brownsville, so maybe the LCH4 could be sourced relatively close by.

Landings on offshore platforms is still under consideration. So is barge transport of Starships manufactured at Starbase to Cape Canaveral for launch there. To enable those things, they are exploring moving pressurized Starships horizontally, instead of vertically like they are moved now.

Written text discussion:

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2024/08/...ssessment/

Video version:

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/CxhQGNKnv1g