Commercial flights
 

When will the commercial flights start and where can I find out how to book them?

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-sta...sting-round-3/

SpaceX preps Starship, Super Heavy for another week of Raptor testing

Starship 24 test burn…

https://www.space.com/spacex-starshi...ine-test-video

SpaceX's Starship Super Heavy rocket just fired up 7 engines for the 1st time (video)

Booster 7 is off the pad and back in the high bay. Inspections or actual damage after the hot tests?

Always planned to be moved back in inspection as they had to make room for Booster 8 to be rolled out to the pad…

https://www.teslaoracle.com/2022/09/...e-launch-site/

For those who have access to CNBC, there is a really good bit on Elon Musk, Space X, Starship, and the Raptor engine on a recent "Jay Leno's Garage" - season 7, episode 3.

It does a good job of explaining what Elon has planned for the Starship.

Money quote from Elon "I don't care about patents", "patents are for the week".

Sometimes they last longer :-)

Here it is. Full episode.

Ossicle full 33 engine test today….

Booster 7 lifted onto the launch mount prior to full 33 engine test - and possible full stack with Starship 24.

Starship on the pad at Starbase


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....07ba3f861.jpeg

It’s about to get hot in here!🔥 New Marine Safety Information Bulletin (MSIB)/ Notice to Mariners (NOTMAR) issued for possible #Starship testing 21-28 Oct 2022! Testing window from 6a.m. - 8p.m.


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....4375c8703.jpeg

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-sta...arlink-launch/

SpaceX rolls out Starship, stacks world’s largest rocket, and aces Starlink launch hours apart

….Back in Texas, SpaceX is scheduled to begin thoroughly testing a fully-stacked Starship rocket for the first time as early as Monday, October 24th. Ship 24 was reinstalled on Booster 7 for that purpose after SpaceX disassembled the pair for several days, possibly due to forecasts of high winds. The test campaign is expected to begin with the first full wet dress rehearsal (WDR) of a two-stage Starship, meaning that the rocket will be fully loaded with thousands of tons of liquid methane and oxygen propellant and run through a simulated launch countdown that ends just before engine ignition.

If successful, SpaceX will likely restart Booster 7 static fire testing and continue to work its way up to the first simultaneous ignition of all 33 of its Raptor 2 engines. If the pair survive WDR and static fire testing, SpaceX could begin preparing the same rocket for Starship’s orbital launch debut.

If significant issues arise during testing, SpaceX could choose to retire Ship 24 and/or Booster 7 and move on to a new and improved pair: likely Ship 25 and Booster 8 or 9. Already complete, Super Heavy Booster 8 has been sitting untouched at Starbase’s launch site for weeks, making it uncertain whether SpaceX actually intends to test or use the prototype. Booster 9 is just one stack away from completion, at which point it will be ready to begin proof testing. According to CEO Elon Musk, B9 features significant improvements that will make it more resilient to mid-flight Raptor engine failures. It could also be the first Super Heavy booster with no hydraulic system, thanks to a new version of Raptor that replaces hydraulic thrust vectoring with a battery powered alternative.

NASA's Mark Kirasich has told a NASA advisory committee that the first flight of SpaceX Starship with Super Heavy booster is now scheduled for early December.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022...day-nasa-says/

….On Raptor

The Raptor rocket engine is crucial to Starship's success. Thirty-three of these Raptor 2 engines power the Super Heavy booster that serves as the vehicle's first stage, and six more are used by the Starship upper stage……

"SpaceX has moved very quickly on development," Kirasich said about Raptor. "We've seen them manufacture what was called Raptor 1.0. They have since upgraded to Raptor 2.0 that first of all increases performance and thrust and secondly reduces the amount of parts, reducing the amount of time to manufacture and test. They build these things very fast.”

“Their goal was seven engines a week, and they hit that about a quarter ago. So they are now building seven engines a week."

To put this into perspective, the Raptor 2 rocket engine produces approximately 510,000 pounds of thrust. This is almost identical to the amount of thrust produced by the RS-25 engine that will be used to power NASA's Space Launch System rocket. This engine was designed and developed by Rocketdyne in the 1970s for the space shuttle program, and the company has decades of experience manufacturing them.

In 2015, NASA gave Aerojet Rocketdyne a contract worth $1.16 billion to "restart the production line" for the RS-25 engine. Again, that was money just to reestablish manufacturing facilities, not actually build the engines. NASA is paying more than $100 million for each of those.

With this startup funding, the goal was for Aerojet Rocketdyne to produce four of these engines per year.…

Here is a glitzy video SpaceX just released. Horrible music but a few cool shots.
One engine per day vs four per year, pretty eye opening.

Pending official confirmation, SpaceX likely just conducted the most powerful rocket engine firing in history.

Each Raptor has approximately the thrust of three Merlin engines. Falcon Heavy has 27 engines. This was a full engine test of 14 engines.

Even if they ran at slightly lower thrust, I think it is safe to say the above is now confirmed.

Thats about 4000T of thrust, Saturn 5 was around 3,500T.

I think this 14 engine SF was also a test of the hold down clamps. There was little to no methane in the forward tank and only a small amount of LOX.

With the LOX tank full, 33 engines should be no problem….As far as the clamps are concerned.