With Booster 15-2’s static fire out of the way and crews setting up Pad 1(A) to static fire Ship 38, the Starship program stands near the end of an era, with this being the last launch from Pad 1(A) and the final Block 2 to fly. There is also confirmation on the flight plans for Flight 11 and at least 12 other flights.
Booster 15-2
Booster 15-2 has completed its static fire after undergoing refurbishment work since Flight 8. This static fire was just 12 days after Flight 10, but not a record for Pad 1(A) turnaround; the record was set by Booster 16 after Flight 9 at nine days.
This static fire was also a full duration and 33 engines, which kept the streak alive of Block 1 and 2 boosters performing perfect static fires without needing a redo.
This streak started with Booster 10, and since then, boosters have completed nine straight static fires without needing a redo.
It shows how rock solid Super Heavy has been since the major issues were worked out with Booster 7 and 9.
Booster 15-2 With Battle Scars From its First Flight Rolling Back After its Second Static Fire (Credit: D Wise for NSF)
With Booster 15 back in Mega Bay 1, it will undergo final inspections before receiving its hotstage ring. This will be the last time a booster receives one for flight, as this is the final flight of Block 2 boosters. The next-generation booster will have an integrated hot-stage truss as part of the forward dome.
Ship 38
The last piece of testing before Flight 11 is Ship 38’s static fire on Pad 1(A). SpaceX started the modification for this pad as soon as Booster 15 left the launch mount. And SpaceX appears poised to test Ship 38 sooner rather than later; the static fire stand adapter is installed, along with the ship umbilical adapter.
SpaceX is likely to complete a single-engine static fire and a six-engine static fire, similar to the last five ships. Once this engine testing is completed, Ship 38 will roll back to Mega Bay 2 for final checks and Starlink sims installation.
For Flight 11, there are no regulatory holdups as long as SpaceX aligns with the current suborbital flight.
Further information came via Ars Technica, quoting Bill Gerstenmainer, a SpaceX executive in charge of Build and Flight Reliability, who gave a talk and answered questions at the American Astronautical Society’s Glenn Space Technology Symposium in Cleveland.
With this next flight, SpaceX aims to test measures to prevent burn-through similar to what was observed on Flight 10, while also addressing the white deposits on the nose cone.
Static Fire Adapter Being Installed Into Pad 1(A) For Ship 38 Testing (Credit: Gage (RoughRidersShow for NSF)
“We call it crunch wrap,” Gerstenmaier said. “It’s like a wrapping paper that goes around each tile, and then… these tiles are mechanically held in place. They’re snapped in by a robot. When we push the tile in, this little wrapping paper essentially sits around the sides of each one of the tiles, and then we cut it off on the surface.”
“This is kind of what we’re going to fly on this next flight, on Flight 11,” Gerstenmaier said. “When we fly here, we’re going to put, essentially, crunch wrap everywhere, and see if we can get better sealing and better tile performance moving forward. These are areas where we’re inventing things. We’re doing test experiments. We’re doing test envelope expansion. We’re doing aerodynamic things. All these things are critical.”
The crunch wrap Gerstenmaier referred to was something that SpaceX started using on Ship 36, its kawool or felt that has been cut into pieces resembling a crunch wrap. This should help seal the gaps between the tiles and prevent heat from escaping under them, causing damage.
Crunch Wrap Felt as Seen on one of Ship 39’s Forward Flaps (Credit: Max Evans for NSF)
Along with applying this setup on the entire primary bell part of the heat shield and likely the flaps, SpaceX isn’t going to push this flight as hard as the last few, as Gerstenmaier stated:
“I think this next flight, we won’t push quite so many different techniques in. We’re going to try to go more towards the configuration we want to go fly next year.”
This means that the heat shield on Ship 38 will resemble that on Ship 39, except for the new attachment pins debuting with Block 3’s heat shield.
The other issue that SpaceX had during Flight 10 was the engine chill lines seemingly bursting during reentry interface. This issue can likely be resolved by routing either the Liquid Oxygen (LOX) or Liquid Methane chill lines away from each other. Alternatively, find a software fix to prevent both from venting at the same time.
This pair of vehicles is the last to test on Pad 1(A) in this configuration. Once Flight 11 is completed, the booster test stand-turned-launch pad will be retired and dismantled to make way for an upgraded pad.
Flight 10 Lift off From Pad 1(A) (Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF)
Flight 12
Flight 12, which is slated to be Booster 18 and Ship 39, is Block 3/Version 3 of Starship and launching from Pad 2(B).
Currently, Booster 18 is an uncompleted LOX tank, awaiting completion of its aft section, which will then be stacked; the LCH4 tank hasn’t yet begun stacking. Ship 39 is essentially a nose cone stacked on a payload bay, but crews are working hard to finish the heat shield on these two sections.
During the same talk and in response to a question from Ars Technica, Bill Gerstenmaier stated:
“Next year, we step up to another version of both ship and booster, called V3 (Version 3),” Gerstenmaier said in response to a question from Ars. “It also has a new Raptor engine underneath, with more performance than the previous ones. So we’ll fly V3 (suborbital) first, and then if that’s successful, then we’ll probably go orbital after that with the next V3.”
B18.3 Forward Test Tank for Block 3 Booster (Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF)
This confirms that Block 3 won’t fly until next year, which was expected, given the current state of all the components. It also confirms that Flight 11 will be suborbital as well as Flight 12 to test the new designs.
If that goes well, they may proceed to orbit and attempt a catch as early as Flight 13. Either way, there is still a lot of work to be completed before Flight 12 can launch, and SpaceX is full steam ahead in testing.
Featured Image: Booster 15 Rolling Back After its Static Fire (Credit: D Wise for NSF). Every image, in downloadable hi-res, from all our photographers, added daily to L2 sections:
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