Not necessarily - at least if the vapor is 'designed for'. The early Saturn V's had so-called 'ullage motors' to get the fuel to the tank fuel outlets for staging and in-flight restarts. However they gradually discovered the ullage motors were not really needed and got rid of them.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c397b4f8e9.png

Video74 days after it left the launch site, following its successful return from space, Starship B14 rolled back to Orbital Pad A, for what we expect to be the start of its testing campaign ahead of its second trip to space & back on flight 9.

"You can see that they kept most of the 13 centre engines from flight 7. Looks like they replaced a couple on the left or maybe it's just the lighting. I wonder if 314 is still there?"

Just astounding to me, who was glued to the television coverage of Alan Shepard's launch atop a Mercury-Redstone rocket! One of the rewards of old age: I have witnessed our species' conquest of low Earth orbit and voyages to the Moon. What shall our children and grandchildren see? Will they be as transfixed as we?

- Ed

VideoThe first static fire test of a flight proven Superheavy booster!
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Video of test firingSpaceX has just static fired Booster 14-2, a flight-proven booster.

It previously flew on Flight 7 and is now expected to fly on Flight 9. This is a major step towards booster reusability.

From what I'm hearing, all 33 engines fired. 28 engines are reused from the previous flight of this booster, only 5 are new.

​​​​​​​Great work by the Booster team!

Confirmation from SpaceX. Booster 14 will be the booster for upcoming Starship test flight 9. Let's Go!

Gives a real impression of the size of the booster that they already launched,caughht, and are about to launch again.....

News: SpaceX will reportedly use only 2 engines during the final phase of the Booster landing in Starship Flight 9 to simulate an engine-out scenario. It will be a crucial test of landing reliability and engine redundancy.

Another reason why they are going for a water landing….

VideoThe first of the two flame deflector halves rolling to the launch complex tonight for installation into the new tower 2 flame trench.
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You are referring to the second stage which was full of fuel at the point of ignition. The S-IVB stage needed ullage for the TLI re-light, using the APS motors. Re-lighting Musk's rather large rocket with only a few percent fuel will require a means of getting what little fuel there is to the bottom of the rather cavernous tanks.

S-IVB - Wikipedia

I thought the Starship had a seperate tank in the nose section to overcome that problem.

It does via header tanks in the nose, the first stage IIRC does not. The first stage as I understand it will now spend longer in the horizontal position before translating to the vertical. It will be interesting to see how they cope with the required pitch authority and getting the remaining fuel to the bottom of the tanks. I presume the tanks will be considerably warmer having absorbed more of the thermal energy on the way down, which will also make the fuel more of a challenge. I would not be surprised to see more venting to avoid over-pressure issues. They will have worked it all out but I do wonder if they have added a few more holes to the Swiss cheese. The turbopumps don't respond well to cavitation.

Booster V2 aft tank test item. Speculation the large holes are receptacles for more central rear grid fins, which would give the additional control required for a landing flip from a horizontal descent profile. Note the integral staging ring.

VideoTest Tank Aft (fan-named TT17, but is a next gen Booster Test Article) is making an appearance outside at the Production Site.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b57626b3d7.png

I'm not so sure those holes are for grid fins i.e. would they not be perpendicular to the sidewall? They also look rather large such as exhaust ports, possibly intended to use tank venting to give additional pitch / roll authority.

Exciting times.

Can't see how you'd have grid fins down there unless they're losing the common dome inside - the actuators would be in the cryogenics!

Alternate theory - ​​​​​​​
This is Test Tank Aft (TT16) being moved back in February, note absence of holes.


Video

BREAKING: Documentation from the @FAANews indicates the @SpaceX Starbase Giga Bay has been proposed.

Height is 117.3m (385ft), which is 5ft taller than the Florida Giga Bay determination (115.8m / 380ft).

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5f9cadc8bd.png
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Higher resolution snap of the @SpaceX v3 Raptor Vacuum!

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c7b50ec0f4.png
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