![]() ![]() "If we knew what it was, we would actually fix it before launching," he said. The FAA will have to sign off on that system and any other safety-related upgrades before a launch license will be granted.Īsked how much SpaceX has invested in the Super Heavy/Starship program to date, Musk said he did not know the exact amount, "but it's over $2 billion" and could approach $3 billion by the end of this year.Īsked what he considers the biggest challenge facing the Super Heavy/Starship in terms of producing a commercially viable rocket, Musk said he does not yet know "because we have not yet reached orbit." One question that was not addressed in Saturday's discussion was the Super Heavy/Starship's self-destruct system, which took much longer than expected to activate after the rocket tumbled out of control in April. He said the modifications amount to "overkill" that should leave "the base of the pad in much better shape than last time." In addition, the rocket will take off at a higher throttle setting to get the vehicle away from the pad faster. heat, but also a massive amount of force." The booster is basically like the world's biggest cutting torch with a massive amount of. It's going to basically blast water upwards while the rocket is over the pad to counteract the massive amount of heat from the booster. "Think of it like a gigantic upside-down shower head. "On top of that, we have a sort of a steel sandwich, which is basically two thick plates of steel that are welded together with channels going through (with) perforations in the top so it will actually shoot a lot of water out," he said. Musk said the company is in the process of adding roughly 1,000 cubic meters of steel-reinforced high-strength concrete. The manifold itself has been redesigned, Musk said, and higher torque settings will be used to tighten bolts more securely and eliminate potential bolt-hole leak paths.Īnother major issue that's being addressed: Damage to the Super Heavy/Starship launch pad at SpaceX's Boca Chica, Texas, flight test facility.ĭuring the Super Heavy's maiden flight, the exhaust from the first stage Raptor engines severely eroded the pad's concrete footings. The high temperatures can create leak paths through bolt holes where the manifold is attached. So this is the most risky thing, I think, for the next flight."Īddressing engine problems seen during the rocket's first flight, Musk said engineers are implementing changes to the Raptor's hot gas manifold that directs super-heated methane-rich gas toward the combustion chamber. So that allows the upper engine plume to go through the vented extension of the booster and not just blow itself up. "So we're adding an extension to booster that is almost all vents, essentially. ![]() "In order to do this, you actually have to have vents, the super hot plasma from the upper stage engines has got to go somewhere. "There's a meaningful payload-to-orbit advantage with hot staging, that is conservatively about a 10 percent improvement if you basically just never stop thrusting," Musk said. SpaceX is building a variant of the Starship to serve as a lunar lander in NASA's Artemis program. The Starship then would separate and ignite its own engines to continue on to orbit. The original design called for the Super Heavy's engines to shut down after boosting the Starship out of the lower atmosphere. The reusable Super Heavy first stage is equipped with 33 methane-powered Raptor engines, while the Starship second stage features six. The fully-reusable two-stage rocket is the most powerful in the world. It depends on how well we do at stage separation." A SpaceX Super Heavy booster (silver) Starship upper stage (black) are seen atop their firing stand at the company's Boca Chica, Texas, flight test facility. In a Twitter Spaces discussion with author Ashlee Vance, Musk said SpaceX is implementing "well over a thousand" changes," and "I think the probability of this next flight working, getting to orbit, is much higher than the last one. That's assuming the Federal Aviation Administration allows clearance to fly in the wake of the Super Heavy's dramatic maiden launch April 20, in which the rocket blew itself up after multiple engine failures and the Starship upper stage failed to separate from the first stage booster. SpaceX will need another six weeks or so to finish implementing hundreds of changes to its Super Heavy/Starship rocket and the gargantuan booster's Texas launch pad before it will be ready for a second attempt to reach orbit, company founder Elon Musk said Saturday.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |