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We believe these new vents on the side of Booster 9 are designed to purge each of the engine compartments and prevent explosions/fires like the ones that occurred during the first IFT.
@elonmusk mentioned this was a huge problem during the post launch discussion |
Originally Posted by ORAC
(Post 11475963)
The only part that will launch from the moon or Mars is the Starship upper stage, the booster is only used to escape Earth’s gravity.
Main engines will only be used for trans lunar boost and orbit insertion. |
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Static fire!
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Great video footage…
[RAW] SpaceX Starship IFT-1 NASA WB-57 Footage from Cam 0 and Cam 4 Released to @TLPN_Official through a FOIA request. |
Starship IFT-2 will utilize a new method called "Hot Staging" to separate S25 from #B9 in flight.
This process includes igniting several engines on S25 while the 3 remaining engines on B9 are deep throttled. This allows S25 to pull away from B9 without acceleration losses. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b1d00d7b6.jpeg |
Originally Posted by ORAC
(Post 11485031)
This process includes igniting several engines on S25 while the 3 remaining engines on B9 are deep throttled.
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Deep throttled = throttled back.
In rocket engines it refers to those designed to be able to be throttled back to 20% and even stopped and restarted multiple times. Something done routinely, of course, by Falcon and Starship engines. In this case the other 30 have been shut down and three centre throttle back to 50% to maintain fthe speed achieved until separation and will then be used (in the planned design, for the burn back and landing. |
Wow! 🤯First indications that we truly are in the endgame of preparations for the second Starship flight have just appeared! It seems that currently a very tentative target is around August 31st. 😮
We've just mapped some of the coords. White is for the launch area, green for the potential debris area. More here - https://www.dco.uscg.mil/Featured-Co...-8-Gulf-Coast/ https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....77ab1c8502.png |
Vented interstage and heat shield installed atop Booster 9. Starship and Super Heavy are being upgraded to use a separation method called hot-staging, where Starship’s second stage engines will ignite to push the ship away from the booster
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....bb80972d72.png https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7fbb91fdf6.png |
Wow, that worker sitting on top in the second picture really helps put the size of that thing into perspective!
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Full pressure test of the deluge system overnight…
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The massively upgraded Booster 9 is making its way to the Launch Complex for the final time before IFT-2
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7a6afb984.jpeg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c19a97cd4.jpeg |
Wow! Just WOW!
Hoping for a successful separation and orbital insertion on the coming attempt. - Ed |
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Test at 2:22:30
Booster 9 Spin Prime test! Should that have gone well, next up will be the Static Fire test - potentially the last time the engines fire up before launch! |
STATIC FIRE! Booster 9 fires up 33 engines (pending confirmation). Potentially for the final time before launch day!
Super smooth count and that looked great! Full duration confirmed by SpaceX. 33 lit, but 2 shut down early, that's the best numbers yet. This overhead view of Booster 9’s static fire test! 🔥 |
Here is the YouTube version:
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Booster 7 vs Booster 9
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SpaceX workers moving to deploy the Ship lifting pins on Mechazilla's Chopsticks (also, human for scale)!
This is in preparation for Ship 25's arrival and full-stack operations…. |
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