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BFR Developments

Yazata Offline
That Coast Guard warning above didn't turn into a static fire. There was just what appeared to be some testing of the tank farm and the ground support plumbing. Presumably they want it working reliably before they run massive quantities of liquid methane thru it. But there are more road closures scheduled for the next two weeks so everyone is on the lookout for more notmars and notams and for the over-pressure notices.

Meanwhile, in just the last few minutes SpaceX posted some extraordinary photographs of the vehicles being pencilled in for the first orbital launch.

First, a view straight up at the business end of booster B7 (the first stage) sitting on the Orbital Launch Platform at the Launch Area. The engineer onlookers almost fell out of their chairs trying to identify every little feature. There are 20 fixed sea-level Raptors in the outer ring, an inner steerable ring of ten sea-level Raptors and the three middle steerable sea-level Raptors that the booster will use to land. For a total of 33 Raptors. There's lots of talk about things like thermal protection and blast shielding in case one of the engines explodes during ascent (so it doesn't take out adjacent engines). These engines are supposed to generate a total of 8,000 tons of thrust. The Saturn V Moon rocket generated about 4,000 tons, so at least on paper Starship is 2x as powerful.

(SpaceX photos)


[Image: FWrdyF4XoAMvpBk?format=jpg&name=large]
[Image: FWrdyF4XoAMvpBk?format=jpg&name=large]



And this one is the engines partially installed on Ship24 (the second stage) in the High Bay. The thermal protection is yet to come. (note the wooden plank walkways up above for technicians.) There are three steerable sea-level Raptors in the middle and three fixed big-belled vacuum raptor around the edge. It appears that each engine's powerhead will eventually be encased in a cylindrical steel shell. (If an engine blows, it's typically a turbopump or something like that and the shell should help contain it.)


[Image: FWrdyF4X0AIplxZ?format=jpg&name=large]
[Image: FWrdyF4X0AIplxZ?format=jpg&name=large]

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Yazata Offline
Excitement at Starbase today.

They appeared to be doing what might have been a preburner test of the booster engine turbo-pumps today. And this caused a sudden and totally unexpected explosion under the booster. The explosion caused a secondary fire near the pad but at this time it's unclear what other damage, if any, resulted.

Elon seems to think that it was a fuel-air explosion. The turbopumps were spewing methane out of the rocket engines where it formed an explosive combination with the air which was detonated by something.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1546639772621365248

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1546641991597006851


https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/05Yiw7_JTXY
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Yazata Offline
Elon says he was out there yesterday and damage appears to be minimal. But they want to examine the engines more closely and that can best be done in the High Bay at the build area. So Booster 7 will be removed from the Orbital Launch Platform and returned to its hanger.

That might take a bit of doing since the "chopstick" catcher-arms are receiving new hydraulic cylinders (long planned and nothing to do with the explosion) and might not be up to the task for a while. So it might be lifted off OLP and onto SPMTs with the SpaceX crane "Maarvin".

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1547094594466332672
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Yazata Offline
Here's Mauricio's latest Starbase flyover which he flew this last Monday. (And he did fly it since he's a student-pilot getting his pilots license and often flies the plane (with a licensed pilot's supervision). Aerial photographs are interspaced with ground shots (most also shot by Mauricio) that show items of interest from that different perspective. I particularly like the helpful labels on everything.

There aren't any exciting revelations of anything new on this one. (Sometimes there are.) B7 is in the Wide Bay having an unknown number of engines replaced after last week's explosion. It's believed that the suspect engines will go to McGregor for test firing to prove they are still good, while McGregor sends down new recently-tested replacements. Every day the livestreams catch engines coming out and going into the bay.

B7's followup, B8, continues to be assembled while parts for B9 are all over.

Ship S24 continues its testing regime down at the suborbital pads.

An interesting feature of this video is some aerial views of Massey's Gun Range about five miles west of Starbase (in the direction of Brownsville). It's right on the Rio Grande (which forms one edge of the site). Masseys was a long established shooting range that sold itself to SpaceX. SpaceX is currently using about half the area as a storage area, while Massey's shooting range occupies the other half. There's no sign the shooting range is going anywhere, besides their rifle range they are putting in a smaller outdoor shooting range, presumably for pistols. Massey's is expanding, not shrinking. But SpaceX occupies the other half and Mauricio gives us a view of what's happening there. The most notable Massey's development is that the nosecone testing cage (a torture device used to simulate aerodynamic stresses) has been moved there, suggesting that it won't be used again soon but that SpaceX doesn't want to scrap it.


https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/DJFzU4WpHlc
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Yazata Offline
They just conducted a single engine static fire of Booster 7 on the Orbital Launch Mount. (It impressed the hell out of me with its deep-throated roar.) When this thing eventually launches with all 33 engines, it will be a BEAST!!

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/stat...9619598338

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1557147770586144768

(SpaceX photo)


[Image: FZwZBv7VEAAL_Kc?format=jpg&name=4096x4096]
[Image: FZwZBv7VEAAL_Kc?format=jpg&name=4096x4096]




https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/8tH9qGhg7YM
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Yazata Offline
It wasn't just Tuesday. They conducted another successful single-engine B7 static fire today. It was sexy too, a full 20 second duration with beautiful Mach diamonds in the exhaust plume! Poor Elon, he just can't avoid temptation.

I think that the purpose of these static fires is to prove out the engine start system built into the launch platform. It injects high pressure gas into the engine to spin up the turbopumps to where they become self-sustaining, powered by the engines' own preburners. (Just starting a rocket engine is like, well, rocket science.)

(SpaceX photo)


[Image: FZ6Oht-UUAASmx2?format=jpg&name=small]
[Image: FZ6Oht-UUAASmx2?format=jpg&name=small]

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