One day StarShip will get a payload to orbit.
... One day.
Maybe some other day it will return without burning up or exploding!
this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
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Hopefully that day comes soon!
We probably won't see payloads fly on Starship until they demonstrate in-space Raptor relight capability. After that, I wouldn't be surprised if they prioritize ship-to-ship propellant transfer tests over delivering payloads.
What do you think the timeline will be?
As for returning the ship, S30 did better than S29, landed on target, but still experienced a bit of flap burnthrough. I'm looking forward to seeing how S33 fares with the new flap location.
I'll bet they deploy a bunch of starlink satellites basically as soon as they're able, if only for PR (and probably internal morale) reasons
Timeline for StarShip delivering a payload of at least 25 tons to orbit and returning from orbit intact, as in, it can be repaired in one to two months and then reflown again?
6 to 8 years, assuming Trump and Elon win the election and Elon just gets to throw infinite taxpayer money at SpaceX via NASA. And it won't be called StarShip, Elon will change its name a few times.
If Trump and Elon lose, probably never, Elon will end up in jail and/or have to greatly downsize SpaceX after NASA stops funding StarShip.
EDIT: You mention orbital fuel transfers.
AFAIK, that hasn't been even designed, at all.
All we've seen are 3D renders.
Oh sure lets mate the fuel booms together at the engines, and then... slosh... the fuel... into the other craft?
Wait, that's a really bad idea? For an astounding number of reasons?
Oh uh, just connect them side to side, sure.
Oh... ok...
Have any actual details of this been explained?
Would that require crew in EVA suits? A fully automatic docking system and fuel connection system?
EDIT: You mention orbital fuel transfers. AFAIK, that hasn’t been even designed, at all.
They did an in-craft fuel transfer during their last test. While it's certainly complex to pump fuel around without gravity, that's only the small first step in actually transferring fuel. Making a connection in orbit that's capable of fully refueling an entirely seperate craft is an order of magnitude harder.
Making a connection in orbit that's capable of fully refueling an entirely seperate craft is an order of magnitude harder.
They do have some experience in this area though. Dragon can autonomously dock to the ISS.
Yeah, they could just slap an PMA+IDA port on Starship like the ISS has, but that's just a hole with data and power ports. Those are pretty easy compared to fuel transfer, and they're specifically NOT suited to lateral forces. It also seems a bit unfit-for-purpose to make a big and heavy crew-transfer dock when you don't have to.
True, an IDA port is not well suited for fuel transfer. I was thinking more of the GNC software experience SpaceX have for rendezvous and docking in general. I suspect the ports themselves will look more like the ship and booster quick disconnects we see at the launch site.
General question.
NASA won't send crew up with Starship because it doesn't have a crew-abort system, like SLS, or basically any "conventional" rocket system.
But the shuttle didn't really have an emergency abort system either, other than dropping the shuttle off of the booster and fuel tank. Is the difference that Starship can't seperate from it's tank, because it's not like the shuttle could drop its internal tanks either.
Did NASA ever actually say that about Starship?
Shuttle had abort modes that mostly involve landing "normally". After jettisoning the SRBs, depending on how far it got and the target inclination, it could return to launch site, land in Europe or Africa, do one orbit then land back in the US, or abort to a lower than intended orbit, which actually happened once after an engine failure.
Starship can also do a pad abort, where the whole ship / upper stage separates from the 1st stage.
Until it learned about musk and putin. Musk must be separated from SpaceX immediately
dependancy on the whims of a corrupt billionaire is why NASA (and the US DoD, and the EU) are absolutely pushing for non-SpaceX spacetravel, even if it's more expensive. I'm also pretty sure it's why the Artemis program contracted a second lunar lander, despite having paid Musk over 3 billion for one already.