SN11 RIP? Launched in fog, SpaceX blew up rocket raining debris

Anybody shitting on SpaceX should go read the history of Project Mercury prior to Alan Shepard orbiting the earth.

Designing rockets isn’t easy. It’s as hard as, well, rocket science.

Starship go boom

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am currently reading

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When in Rome

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Are there lots of pictures? Cause I like to look at pictures.

Good morning, WiR.

Labpadre and Nasaspaceflight youtube live feeds are pretty good. Multiple cameras set up on labpadre site to see different angles.
Nasaspaceflight usually does a 10-12 minute video summary of the days events showing the going's on around the complex. Really interesting on most days as it shows different components being assembled.

there are some pictures, but a picture book it is not!

I have When Money Dies and The Downfall of Money queued up in my Audible account. They’re about hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic following WWI; might be good listens for lessons in this era of money printing. I usually have a couple of paper books and an audiobook running concurrently, with current events podcasts usually taking precedence over audiobooks, so it takes a while to get to each audiobook.

I have Liftoff in print. Certain books I need in print because a) I enjoy flipping pages, and b) I enjoy adding them to/seeing them on my bookshelves nerd alert

The sun setting on SN11 last night.

NASASpaceflight

This is a good article I saw shared by a lot of the space nerds I follow on Twitter a few weeks ago.

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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.

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This will be the fourth high altitude test flight of the prototype Starship, and while efforts continue to focus on refining the landing element of the flight profile, the vehicle has already achieved numerous milestones, including proving long-duration Raptor performance and controllability during ascent and the stable “bellyflop” return under the control of its aero surfaces – a huge test flight objective.

SpaceX Boca Chica, meanwhile, has pumped out Starships with such high cadence as to allow for fast turnarounds after each launch, implementing tweaks to the vehicle ahead of the next flight. SN8 achieved the flip maneuver before losing thrust due to the Methane (CH4) Header Tank losing pressure during the landing burn, SN9 did not complete the flip due to engine relight issues, and SN10 completed all the maneuvers before landing hard – eventually resulting in the vehicle exploding several minutes after touchdown. The mitigation path for these issues focuses on those final few seconds of flight.

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Post SN8, SpaceX opted to add helium pressurization to SN9’s CH4 Header Tank. After SN9’s engine relight issue, SpaceX opted to light all three engines during SN10’s flip and burn before deselecting the engine “with the least lever arm” in the event all three successfully relit. Indeed, all three engines did relight during SN10’s flip before the system deselected to land on just one engine. While the landing velocity looked visually acceptable, SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk soon confirmed it was still too high.

Additionally, a few of the landing legs did not lock into place, although Elon noted the high velocity landing would have seen them squashed regardless. Notably, Elon noted the hard landing was due to the Raptor – conducting the landing burn -ingesting helium that was pressurizing the CH4 Header Tank.

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It’s not clear what refinements are being made for SN11’s flight, other than Elon’s comment that multiple fixes are in work. One change likely during SN11’s landing is the use of two engines instead of down-selecting to just one as a way to counter potential loss of thrust and increase redundancy during the no-room-for-failure landing burn. Regardless of flight changes, SN11’s test campaign during its pad flow has so far been going mostly to plan, with proof testing already complete under both ambient and cryogenic conditions

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Looks like it could happen. Static fire is complete and the pad is still clear. South Texas coastal fog is still around.