BFR Developments

[Yazata]

Here's something that you don't see every day! Starbase is 3-D printing a school!

Or at least a major expansion of the existing Ad-Astra School. It's located west of Starbase a few miles, across Hwy4 from Masseys. Ad Astra School is as innovative as any of the rest of Elon's projects, embodying his unorthodox educational ideas.

In the photograph below, we see the existing school in the upper left. In the lower left is a white pre-fabricated building that housed their control room for IFT-1, when Starbase was evacuated. (It may be used for that again.) In the lower right, we see three huge 3-D printers printing walls for new structures that look like activity spaces, grouped around a central common area. The curving walls (not a straight line to be seen) reminds me of some traditional African architecture.

(Photo by Jack Beyer of nasaspaceflight.com)

[Image: F5dKbUcX0AAYQEB?format=jpg&name=large]

[Yazata]

SpaceX just put out this statement (the highlighted text below):

https://www.spacex.com/updates/

Lots of information nuggets here. Starship reached an altitude of 39km/24 mi over the Gulf of Mexico. Loss of thrust vector control seems to have not been due to loss of hydraulic pressure units, but rather due to fuel leaks feeding engine fires eventually severing connection between the engines and the flight computer. SpaceX has responded by improving leak mitigations and testing of engine components. The engine bay fire suppression system has been strengthened. The Flight Termination System took too long to destroy the tumbling vehicle, so it has been improved and requalified. Along with a switch to electric thrust vector controls and the pad upgrades that we've all seen.

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023
UPGRADES AHEAD OF STARSHIP’S SECOND FLIGHT TEST

The first flight test of a fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy was a critical step in advancing the capabilities of the most powerful launch system ever developed.

Starship’s first flight test provided numerous lessons learned that are directly contributing to several upgrades being made to both the vehicle and ground infrastructure to improve the probability of success on future Starship flights.

This rapid iterative development approach has been the basis for all of SpaceX’s major innovative advancements, including Falcon, Dragon, and Starlink.

SpaceX has led the investigation efforts following the flight with oversight from the FAA and participation from NASA and the National Transportation and Safety Board.

Starship and Super Heavy successfully lifted off for the first time on April 20, 2023 at 8:33 a.m. CT (13:33:09 UTC) from the orbital launch pad at Starbase in Texas. Starship climbed to a maximum altitude of ~39 km (24 mi) over the Gulf of Mexico.

During ascent, the vehicle sustained fires from leaking propellant in the aft end of the Super Heavy booster, which eventually severed connection with the vehicle’s primary flight computer.

This led to a loss of communications to the majority of booster engines and, ultimately, control of the vehicle.

SpaceX has since implemented leak mitigations and improved testing on both engine and booster hardware.

As an additional corrective action, SpaceX has significantly expanded Super Heavy’s pre-existing fire suppression system in order to mitigate against future engine bay fires.

The Autonomous Flight Safety System (AFSS) automatically issued a destruct command, which fired all detonators as expected, after the vehicle deviated from the expected trajectory, lost altitude and began to tumble.

After an unexpected delay following AFSS activation, Starship ultimately broke up 237.474 seconds after engine ignition.

SpaceX has enhanced and requalified the AFSS to improve system reliability.

SpaceX is also implementing a full suite of system performance upgrades unrelated to any issues observed during the first flight test.

For example, SpaceX has built and tested a hot-stage separation system, in which Starship’s second stage engines will ignite to push the ship away from the booster.

Additionally, SpaceX has engineered a new electronic Thrust Vector Control (TVC) system for Super Heavy Raptor engines.

Using fully electric motors, the new system has fewer potential points of failure and is significantly more energy efficient than traditional hydraulic systems.

SpaceX also made significant upgrades to the orbital launch mount and pad system in order to prevent a recurrence of the pad foundation failure observed during the first flight test.

These upgrades include significant reinforcements to the pad foundation and the addition of a flame deflector, which SpaceX has successfully tested multiple times.

Testing development flight hardware in a flight environment is what enables our teams to quickly learn and execute design changes and hardware upgrades to improve the probability of success in the future.

We learned a tremendous amount about the vehicle and ground systems during Starship’s first flight test.

Recursive improvement is essential as we work to build a fully reusable launch system capable of carrying satellites, payloads, crew, and cargo to a variety of orbits and Earth, lunar, or Martian landing sites.
11:11 AM · Sep 8

---

And the FAA just put out this:

https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-closes-...estigation

The FAA has closed the SpaceX Starship Super Heavy mishap investigation.

"The final report cites multiple root causes of the April 20, 2023, mishap and 63 corrective actions SpaceX must take to prevent mishap reoccurrence.

"Corrective actions include redesigns of vehicle hardware to prevent leaks and fires, redesign of the launch pad to increase its robustness, incorporation of additional reviews in the design process, additional analysis and testing of safety critical systems and components including the Autonomous Flight Safety System, and the application of additional change control practices."

"The closure of the mishap investigation does not signal an immediate resumption of Starship launches at Boca Chica. SpaceX must implement all corrective actions that impact public safety and apply for and receive a license modification from the FAA that addresses all safety, environmental and other applicable regulatory requirements prior to the next Starship launch.

[Yazata]

The entire FAA incident report and all of its findings will not be made public because it contains both SpaceX proprietary information and information subject to ITAR export controls.

[Yazata]

The way it's being described by those more familiar with the process, SpaceX conducted the investigation of the IFT-1 test flight, they are the ones who identified what went wrong and originally produced the list of 63 corrective actions. What the FAA is supposedly doing now is verifying that those actions have been completed before a new launch license is issued. And supposedly almost all of them are already complete.

So a considerable body of opinion seems to think that IFT-2 might be just weeks away.

Elon is at Starbase.

Photo by Elon

[Image: F5mpqtibMAAl61F?format=jpg&name=4096x4096]

[C C]

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Pretty much negates the speediness of the "trial and error" approach if bureaucracy requires a lengthy halt every time even a test-stage rocket fails or blows up. SpaceX winds up being like NASA, having to avoid the possibility of failure by exhaustively simulating everything that could go wrong, and tediously overcompensating for those possibilities with time and cost consuming measures.

[Yazata]

Here's the list of 63 corrective actions and their current status, posted on X today by Elon. He says:

Congrats to SpaceX for completing & documented the 57 items required by the FAA for Flight 2 of Starship!

Worth noting that 6 of the 63 items refer to later flights.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1700789411279966339

[Image: F5pq9CsWgAA7T5V?format=jpg&name=large]

[Image: F5pq9CtXcAAvRWO?format=jpg&name=large]

[Yazata]

Here's Mauricio's latest update video

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/mg1EjwsNZHU

[Yazata]

The big event today was a bunch of buses delivering hundreds of SpaceX workers to the launch site where they posed in front of the fully-stacked spaceship for a group photo.

That suggests that the launch might be coming soon.

[Yazata]

And here's the photo

(SpaceX photo)

[Image: F566iVfaoAAlqD5?format=jpg&name=4096x4096]

Of interest is this circular logo visible on the drawworks housing towards the bottom of the OLIT tower. A GOAT goat with a SpaceX X logo.

[Image: F53MQQSWoAEOVcV?format=jpg&name=small]

Edit - rumor among the space-geeks is that the GOAT thing is the logo of the workers who work on the tower. There's another GOAT image up on the ship quick-disconnect.

[Yazata]

Here's an interesting photo that appears to have been taken by a contractor and leaked. It shows the crater under the OLM after IFT-1 during the massive repairs that were done under there, prior to filling the void with concrete and rebar and then installation of Elon's crazy water-cooled-steel-plate (the booster bidet). The column in the center is one of the legs of the OLM, piles/piers drilled deep into the earth and filled with concrete and rebar.

[Image: F66PFObb0AAMc4i?format=jpg&name=large]