SpaceX Tests Starship Water Deluge System That It Should ve Built in the First Place gizmodo.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gizmodo.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
On April 20, SpaceX wantonly launched its Starship megarocket without the benefit of a flame diverter or water deluge system, resulting in significant damage to the launch pad and hurtling dust and debris into the surrounding areas. Looking to prevent a recurrence, the company is building a powerful deluge system, which underwent its first test yesterday.
Starship SN11 prepares to fly as SpaceX pushes for Orbital flight this summer
March 15, 2021
Starship SN11 will re-attempt a Static Fire test Thursday – following a scrub on Monday – ahead of a potential flight as early as the weekend or the start of next week. Forever subject to change due to numerous considerations – ranging from weather, hardware parameters, and paperwork approval – SN11 will mark the final test of this iteration of Starship before the program moves into the next phase of testing.
Following SN11’s flight, SpaceX will move on to SN15, 16, and 17, alongside testing with Super Heavy prototypes BN1 and BN2, before shooting for an orbital launch with SN20 and BN3. In typical SpaceX-style, that orbital launch has an astonishing – and unlikely – “by July 1” target. At the very least, this target portrays SpaceX’s Starship drive to push the vehicle into operation.
Starship SN11 arrives at Pad B as SpaceX plans for the future
March 7, 2021
Just days after SN10 completed the first – albeit hard – Starship prototype landing, SN11 rolled out to the launch site for its own attempt. Incremental progress is being made with the test flights, with another tweak to the landing sequence set to be implemented, based on data gained from SN10. Meanwhile, the first Super Heavy prototype continues stacking operations while parts for up to Starship SN20 are being staged at the Production Site.
These future vehicles are set to take up residence at a launch site SpaceX plans to expand, per updated documentation.
February 7, 2021
The three Raptor engines tasked with Starship’s third high altitude test flight have been installed into the aft of SN10. Pending acceptable results from an upcoming Static Fire test, SN10 will be tasked with repeating the flight of her deceased sisters, SN8 and SN9, before a landing attempt that will utilize a slightly different approach to the flip ahead of landing – allowing for redundancy in the event one Raptor suffers an issue, as was the case with the loss of the previous two Starships.
Starship SN11 was moved to the High Bay for nosecone and aero surface installation, with production continuing unabated. At the same time, future vehicles up to at least SN18 are being prepared, along with the first two Super Heavy prototypes.