{"id":26206,"date":"2023-11-17T15:30:14","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T20:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=26206"},"modified":"2023-11-21T11:55:26","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T16:55:26","slug":"roundup-reusable-rocket-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=26206","title":{"rendered":"Roundup: Reusable rocket vehicles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Significant progress is being made towards space transportation systems that operate repeatedly rather than just fly once and then discarded. Reusable rocket powered vehicles will eventually lower the cost of access to space by orders of magnitude from expendables when the vehicles can fly\u00a0 hundreds of times with only brief refurbishment between flights.<\/p>\n

While the Space Shuttle program aimed for cost-effective reusablity, the extensive refurbishment, if not rebuilding, after each flight prevented the Shuttles from making any progress towards lower cost space access.<\/p>\n

The multiple recoveries and reuses of SpaceX Falcon 9 first stages have proven that lower cost launch can be attained even with partial reuse. The per kilogram to orbit cost is about $2000, which is roughly a factor of 10 lower than conventional expendables were when the program started.<\/p>\n

Below are updates on the SpaceX vehicles as well as several other reusable rocket systems in development including suborbital and long distance point-to-point vehicles.<\/p>\n

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Liftoff for the first test flight of a Starship with Booster B7 and upper stage SN24 on April 20, 2023. Credits: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

** SpaceX Starship<\/strong><\/a> – Second orbital flight test soon.<\/em><\/p>\n

[ Update Nov.21.2023<\/strong>: SpaceX released a statement summarizing the second flight tests: Starship’s Second Test Flight – SpaceX – Nov.21.2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The statement basically restates the same positive and negative aspects of the flight listed in the update below. However, one difference is that the destruction of the booster was due to “a rapid unscheduled disassembly<\/em>“, i.e. an explosion in the vehicle’s systems, rather than a deliberate detonation by the flight termination system. The upper stage, on the other hand,\u00a0 was definitely destroyed by the FTS:<\/p>\n

The flight test\u2019s conclusion came when telemetry was lost near the end of second stage burn prior to engine cutoff after more than eight minutes of flight. The team verified a safe command destruct was appropriately triggered based on available vehicle performance data.<\/em><\/p>\n

The statement provides no information or speculation on what might have led to the destruction of the stages.<\/p>\n

Update Nov.20.2023<\/strong>: The second flight test lifted off on Nov.18th within a tight 20 minute window. The test demonstrated that the major issues that afflicted the first flight in April had been resolved.<\/p>\n