YazataOct 14, 2020 07:24 PM (This post was last modified: Oct 14, 2020 08:15 PM by Yazata.)
A static fire is on tonight. Road closures for the purpose of a static fire have been announced for the night of the 14th, with the nights of the 15th and 16th as backup days. This upcoming static fire should be interesting, since it will be the first time ever that three Raptors have been fired at once. Many have been and are being tested at McGregor, but individually in one engine test stands.
YazataOct 15, 2020 09:03 AM (This post was last modified: Oct 15, 2020 10:04 AM by Yazata.)
Six hours into the test window and the roadblock still hasn't gone up.
But the police are out there. Nomadd reports that he received another warning notice for tomorrow night (Oct 15th), delivered by no fewer than three police cars!
I just noticed that the second back up day on Friday calls for daytime closures. So I'm guessing that the main static fire is scheduled for then. Probably a wet dry run tomorrow night, when they load propellant (methane and lox) then detank without lighting the engines, to test the plumbing and ground support arrangements. Explosive risk exists because live propellants are used instead of relatively inert nitrogen.
In other news, SN10 has begun stacking in the Midbay. SN9 is alongside it with its tank section complete except for flaps (and perhaps some less visible plumbing and electrical stuff). Structural parts (rings, barrels, domes) of several more Starships, up to SN14 I think, have started to emerge from the Giant Tents.
Elon's rapid prototyping is spectacle to see! If SN8 craters on its 15 km flight, SN9 will be ready a few weeks later. Then the next one and the next one... they are lined up ready to go. It's easy to see why this has the aerospace industry around the world so transfixed. Totally unlike SLS. If the single prototype SLS fails it would be a disaster and would set that project back years. So they spend billions and overengineer everything so that it hopefully works the first time. Not so for Elon, he expects failure and has a failure-tolerant plan. I don't think that even he thinks that SN8's 15 km flight has more than a 50% chance of succeeding. He just grins and says that it will be exciting either way. He treats failure as part of the learning process. Nobody else in the industry behaves like this. Many people insist that Elon is crazy. Maybe he is, but it's sure fun to watch. People will someday be writing books about the Boca Chica adventure. I'm glad that I get to see it.
YazataOct 16, 2020 04:49 AM (This post was last modified: Oct 16, 2020 11:22 AM by Yazata.)
Oct 15, SN9 is being fitted with its aft fin-roots. SN8's nose prepared for stacking.
October 15 10:46 PM CDT. Roadblock barricade is up. Pad is almost clear, except for several vehicles visible by the tank farm. Maybe more that aren't visible.
Not sure what is on tap for tonight. But those "overpressure" explosion warnings have gone out. Maybe a static fire, maybe just a tanking/detanking test.
Tomorrow's road closure is for daytime hours, so they may light the engines up then.
Edit: The vehicles near the tank farm were a LOX tanker truck apparently unloading. It just left.
Edit: 5:20 AM local. Things are getting interesting. Apparent venting from three thrust area vents probably corresponding to the three engines, suggesting that propellants are being flowed into them. Something likely to happen within 30 minutes.
They apparently did a wet dry run last night. Either that, or they wanted to conduct a preburner test and aborted it before it happened.
Today's all-day road closure has been cancelled.
One would think that if they simply fell behind their anticipated test schedule and need more time to complete all the objectives, they would keep today's closures open and add additional ones on Saturday or Sunday.
Since they didn't do that, my guess is that something wasn't right and they need to address the problem before they schedule more tests.
Whatever the problem was, it was easily resolved. New closure date for SN8 static fire have been announced for the nights of Sunday Oct 18, Monday Oct 19 and Tue Oct 20.
YazataOct 19, 2020 04:33 PM (This post was last modified: Oct 20, 2020 02:49 AM by Yazata.)
Not sure what happened last night.
First, the road closed and the pad cleared. Lots of venting from the tank farm and SN8. Then the warning siren sounded. Then there was lots of pressure relief venting and whatever they planned to do appeared to have been aborted.
It was 3:00 AM pacific/5:00 AM central and there was only one hour left in their test window which ended at 6, so I went to sleep. But they didn't. They appeared to have recycled, the sirens sounded again and about 6:01 AM local this happened.
I don't know whether it was preburners or a very short fraction of a second static fire. Which they might have done to get data on the engine start-up process. I'm guessing preburners since there appears to have been lots of uncombusted gasses around the vehicle suggesting engine turbopumps were fired up but not the main engine combustion chambers (but IANARS). Presumably the static fire is still to come and the road closures are still officially on for tonight.
Edit: Mary and Nomadd have received their "overpressure" warning notices for tonight. Plus new closures have been announced for Wednesday and Thursday, reason given was SN8 static fire. I'm speculating that they might not be happy with how things went last night if they feel that they might need tonight and three more days to wrap up this current test cycle.
Edit 2: Lab Padre thinks that the first event that we interpreted as an abort might have been a LOX preburner test, and the second fiery one was a methane preburner test. It's possible.
In other less ambiguous SpaceX Boca Chica news, the SN8 nosecone is being stacked atop its barrel as we speak, to complete the nose fairing.
Once the first static fire is complete, expect them to transport the nose to the launch site where it will be stacked and integrated (lots of plumbing and electrical to connect) with the tank/propulsion section on the pad. That's when the Texas Tank will start to look like a proper Space Ship. Then expect another static fire to test the engines feeding from the header tanks, one of which is in the nose. Then the long anticipated 15 km flight.
Here's a photo that Elon posted showing the view up SN8's skirt with the three engines installed
YazataOct 21, 2020 08:03 AM (This post was last modified: Oct 21, 2020 04:03 PM by Yazata.)
Mystery events in Boca. There aren't any road closures booked for tonight (Oct 20), but the sheriffs are out there anyway. Vapor is venting from the top of Sn8. Speculation is that they are testing the plumbing that is to connect to the LOX header in the nose by running liquid nitrogen through the lines.
Road closures are booked off-and-on all day tomorrow (Oct 21) for the nose installation. First the new huge crane looks like it will be moved by Roll Lift crawler to the launch site. Then the crawler will move the nose which the crane will place atop the Sn8 tank.
There's an all night closure for tomorrow night, but it will probably be too early for a header tank static fire, since the nose has to be welded on, the plumbing and electrical connected, no small task that will probably take a while.
In other news, Mary reports that they are painting the manufacturing pathfinder nose white. Speculation is that it will be stacked atop Sn5 to create a mockup of SpaceX's Starship lunar lander proposed for nasa. Elon's big Boca Chica presentation is coming up and that giant thing would make a great prop.
YazataOct 21, 2020 03:29 PM (This post was last modified: Oct 21, 2020 06:05 PM by Yazata.)
Drama at Boca!
They are trying to move the new Giant Crane. It's up on Roll Lift crawlers, it crawled past most of the build site, and now it's stuck. Perhaps (speculation) the road won't take the weight. Perhaps (speculation) the road's too narrow. Dunno. A little crowd of workers periodically forms in front of it and gesticulates. All the traffic going down to the launch area (lots of trucks) is backed up and can't get through.
One of the multiple cameras on Lab's streams.
Where somebody in chat said "I'm glad that there isn't a live cam and a thousand people in chat pointed at me when I'm at work!"
Edit: some guys have set up what looks like a surveyors thodolite in the foreground near Lab's cam. Dunno why.
Somebody called Maloig on nsf made this gif that seems to show the crane tilting and being righted. (The roll lift crawler can raise and lower wheel by wheel.) Problem might be (speculation) that the road can't take the weight.
Edit: Crane is now "speeding" (walking speed, the 'ludicrous package') down the road in its sporty Roll Lift Tesla.
Edit 2: Approaching launch area but stopped again. Roll Lift guys swarming around the crawlers
Edit 3: Moving very slowly
Edit 4: Parade stopped as the crane tries to negotiate the turn into the launch area. It's 11:30 local! They have to unclog the road soon so the taco truck can get through for lunch!
Edit 5: Crane is in and all is good! That Roll Lift crew deserve raises! Lots of respect for them.
Screenshot from the Lab Padre stream by Loekf on nsf.
Oct 14, 2020 07:24 PM
(This post was last modified: Oct 14, 2020 08:15 PM by Yazata.)
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