Interstellar
on Royal Albert Hall Organ
By Hans
Zimmer
It's
a Whole New Outer Space Out There
Watch SpaceX Build and Fly
Starships
SpaceX
is developing a fully reusable, rapid
turnaround, two-stage launch system
that can place up to 150 tons of payload
into low earth orbit. The upper stage is
called Starship
and the first stage is the Super Heavy
Booster. At Boca Chica Beach near Brownsville,
Texas the company has built an extensive
factory and launch facility called Starbase.
After test flying a series of upper-stage
Starship prototypes to low altitudes in
2020-2021, the company started near-orbital
test flights of the full stage of booster
and upper-stage in 2023.
A Starship launches on Nov.18, 2023 for
the second orbital test
flight mission. Credits: SpaceX
The first
orbital flight test (OFT-1) of a full-stack
of booster and upper-stage took place on
April 20, 2023. The end goal was to reach
space altitude at near orbital speed but
reenter near Hawaii before completing a
full orbit. This would test all the major
subsystems of the booster and the upper-stage,
including the latter's thermal protection
system.
While the test demonstrated operation of
many systems of the launch pad and booster,
there were many problems encountered ranging
from severe damage to ground beneath the
launch mount, engine shutdowns and fires,
and failure to properly separate the booster
and upper-stage. Both stages were destroyed
by their flight termination system explosives.
The second
orbital test flight (OFT-2) on Nov.
18, 2023 made significant progress over
OFT-1. All 33 engines on the booster performed
well from takeoff to stage separation. A
new water deluge system and steel plates
successfully potected the launch pad from
damage. The booster separated successfully
from the upper stage with the new "hot
staging" technique in which the upper
stage engines start firing while the stages
are still attached to each other. The attempt
to land the booster softly onto the Gulf
of Mexico waters failed when something went
amiss with the engines and the vehicle exploded.
The six upper stage engines on the upper
stage appeared to perform well for 6 minutes
of the planned 6.5 minute burn. However,
the flight termination system at that point
determined something was wrong and it destroyed
the vehicle. A third test is now expected
sometime in early 2024.
..
Several groups now provide round the clock
coverage of the activities at Starbase.
They provide webcams with 24/7 viewing and
during special events such as engine tests,
there are live broadcasts with expert commentary.
Check out, for example, NASASpaceflight.com's
Youtube
Channel, which offers event coverage,
webcams, and reports on recent developments.
Here, for example, is history of the Boca
Chica Beach site for Starbase:
..
LabPadre
Youtube provides several continuous
webcam views of Boca Chica activites. Here
is their Starbase Live Multi Plex that shows
4 webcams simultaneously:
..
Weekly summary videos for Starbase developments
are posted at What
about it! and Marcus
House Youtube channels.
Cosmic
Perspective relases beautifully
made high-res videos with terrific soundtracks
that hightlight particular events at Starbase.
For example,
SpaceMissionsTM
3D Solar System & Space Missions Simulator from BINARY SPACE
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