FAQ
- When (first) orbital flight? First integrated flight test occurred April 20, 2023. "The vehicle cleared the pad and beach as Starship climbed to an apogee of ~39 km over the Gulf of Mexico – the highest of any Starship to-date. The vehicle experienced multiple engines out during the flight test, lost altitude, and began to tumble. The flight termination system was commanded on both the booster and ship."
- Where can I find streams of the launch? SpaceX Full Livestream. NASASpaceFlight Channel. Lab Padre Channel. Everyday Astronaut Channel.
- What's happening next? SpaceX has assessed damage to Stage 0 and is implementing fixes and changes including a water deluge/pad protection/"shower head" system. No major repairs to key structures appear to be necessary.
- When is the next flight test? Just after flight, Elon stated they "Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months." On April 29, he reiterated this estimate in a Twitter Spaces Q&A (summarized here), saying "I'm glad to report that the pad damage is actually quite small," should "be repaired quickly," and "From a pad standpoint, we are probably ready to launch in 6 to 8 weeks." Requalifying the flight termination system (FTS) and the FAA post-incident review will likely require the longest time to complete. Musk reiterated the timeline on May 26, stating "Major launchpad upgrades should be complete in about a month, then another month of rocket testing on pad, then flight 2 of Starship."
- Why no flame diverter/flame trench below the OLM? Musk tweeted on April 21: "3 months ago, we started building a massive water-cooled, steel plate to go under the launch mount. Wasn’t ready in time & we wrongly thought, based on static fire data, that Fondag would make it through 1 launch." Regarding a trench, note that the Starship on the OLM sits 2.5x higher off the ground than the Saturn V sat above the base of its flame trench, and the OLM has 6 exits vs. 2 on the Saturn V trench.
Quick Links
RAPTOR ROOST | LAB CAM | SAPPHIRE CAM | SENTINEL CAM | ROVER CAM | ROVER 2.0 CAM | PLEX CAM | NSF STARBASE
Relevant Reddit threads (though these likely won't be accessible during the blackout).
Starship Dev 46 | Starship Dev 45 | Starship Dev 44 | Starship Dev 43 | Starship Thread List
Official Starship Update | r/SpaceX Update Thread
Status
Road Closures
No road closures currently scheduled
No transportation delays currently scheduled
Up to date as of 2023-07-09
Resources
- LabPadre Channel | NASASpaceFlight.com Channel
- NSF: Booster 7 + Ship X (likely 24) Updates Thread | Most Recent
- NSF: Boca Chica Production Updates Thread | Most recent
- NSF: Elon Starship tweet compilation | Most Recent
- SpaceX: Website Starship page | Starship Users Guide (2020, PDF)
- FAA: SpaceX Starship Project at the Boca Chica Launch Site
- FAA: Temporary Flight Restrictions NOTAM list
- FCC: Starship Orbital Demo detailed Exhibit - 0748-EX-ST-2021 application June 20 through December 20
- NASA: Starship Reentry Observation (Technical Report)
- Hwy 4 & Boca Chica Beach Closures (May not be available outside US)
- Production Progress Infographics by @RingWatchers
- Raptor 2 Tracker by @SpaceRhin0
- Acronym definitions by Decronym
- Everyday Astronaut: Starbase Tour with Elon Musk, Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
- Everyday Astronaut: 2022 Elon Musk Interviews, Starbase/Ship Updates | Launch Tower | Merlin Engine | Raptor Engine
I'll attempt to keep this post current with links and major updates, but would be greatly helped by information supplied by the community. I hope this can be an alternate place to discuss Starship development. While the Starship Development Threads on Reddit are not party threads, Lemmy is still small enough that I don't imagine that strict moderation will be needed in the short term.
New comment from /u/santacfan on Reddit:
Starbase Live-
7:11am- Grover starts to wake up
7:13am- Dance floor drives under OLM
7:22am- Dance floor wings unfolded
7:23am- Grover delivers a cryo pipe over to the doghouse area
7:24am- Dance floor raised into position
7:38am- LR11000 looks like it’s hooked to a manifold
8:23am- Grover delivers another cryo pipe. This time partly up the leg where the cryo pipes run. Looks like they are replacing them through the access holes
9:15am- Lots of concrete being broke up and hauled away by a front end loader
9:39am- The extended reach excavator that had been working in the area where the deluge pipes will go, left.
9:55am- Grover lifts the yellow basket normally used to take down scaffolding to the top of the OLM.
10:33am- Yellow basket brought down
12:00pm- All is quiet on the southern front. Pretty slow day after the last couple.
1:01pm- Grover lifts the yellow basket back up to the OLM
1:31pm- Basket comes down
1:43pm- Basket goes back up
1:46pm- Basket comes back down
1:56pm- Basket goes up
2:02pm- Basket go down
2:07pm- Basket go up
2:15pm- Basket go down
2:30pm- First piece of level 4 for the new mega bay is lifted
2:47pm- Basket go up
2:55pm- Basket go down
3:09pm- Grover lifts a load of something metal up to the top of the OLM
3:25pm- Grover lifts a 2nd load to the top of the OLM
3:42pm- Grover lifts a 3rd load to the top of the OLM
4:07pm- Long reach excavator returns
5:50pm- The LR11000 took tension on the lifting straps that have been connected to the manifold piece all day.
6:24pm- Manifold is lifted
6:25pm- Crane starts swinging towards the OLM
6:29pm- Goes flying over the OLM
6:31pm- Starts lowering
6:34pm- Starts swinging towards bottom of OLM
6:48pm- When looking head on from SBL, it looks like it’s going to the left side of the BQD. So this is the middle manifold. Which based on Ryan’s renders makes sense because the pipe for the far right manifold will run over the pipe for this one
7:06pm- Holding about 10ft above the pad
7:10pm- Starting to tilt the backside down into place
7:30pm- Level it back out and holding around 10ft
7:50pm- Lowered down some more but behind stuff now. Still tension on the straps
7:51pm- B10 starts rolling from the rocket garden
8:16pm- Manifold is raised back up
8:18pm- B10 staged at the end of Remidos
8:21pm- Manifold lowered back down and swung in closer to the pad
8:25pm- Grinding by the doghouse area
8:50pm- Lifting straps on the manifold went slack for a second before they went taunt again. So the plate may be close to/all the way down but the LR11000 still has the weight. If only those tarps weren’t there.
9:00pm- Speaking of the tarps, that area of the plate is where one section of the plugs were. Ryan theorized that they’ll be adding extensions on to these areas.. So that might be what’s happening on the other side. We can definitely see some welding going on
9:20pm- 2 small excavators are working on digging a trench for a small pipe
10:27pm- B10 is rolling.
10:33pm- Turns on to hwy 4
10:40pm- They see me rollin, down highway 4, I know they’re all jealous, because I’m off to get all white and frosty. I’m going to get all white and frosty, I’m going to get all white and frosty, wait until you see me all white and frosty, going to look really cold all white and frosty. (Weird Al I am not but Hey it’s been a long day, I’ve got to entertain myself somehow)
11:10pm- 128 wheels tonight. So they added 1 section to each line of SPMT’s after delivering the manifolds.
11:19pm- Time for a break. (Someone read it my version of White and Nerdy and now it refuses to go any further until I delete it)
11:22pm- While we were watching the big shiny thing drive down the road, the LR11000 was unhooked from the manifold section. (It happened at 23:19 on Rover 2)
11:32pm- Straps being hooked to the next manifold piece
11:39pm- B10 is rolling again
11:40pm- Someone didn’t make sure their swing path was clear. Grover swings into one of the cages holding the high pressure gas bottles nearly knocking 2 cages over.
11:47pm- Forklift arrives to move the cages
11:48pm- And just what was Grover doing while this was happening, that’s right,
Basket go down
(This gets synced)