We are getting closer to a starship orbital launch:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/13/science/spacex-starship-faa-review.html


Alain Fournier

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Does anyone have information about when SpaceX will attempt a full
Starship launch? Where are they with those 75 actions needed to get
their launch licence? In July, Musk was saying that a launch vehicle was
to be ready within a few weeks. So is there a Starship ready just
waiting for its launch licence?

I know that SKY Perfect JSAT Holdings Inc has a contract with SpaceX for delivery of its Superbird-9 satellite on a Starship launcher in 2024.
But there should be some earlier test launches.


Alain Fournier

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 2022-09-18 10:03, Alain Fournier wrote:

Does anyone have information about when SpaceX will attempt a full
Starship launch?

My impression is that they have gone from cowboy "iterative RUD" tests
to being at a point where they can't afford that anymore, in part dur to complexity of launch tower. So they are more careful now and less and disposable prototype stage and more at building real rocket stage.

During a recent interview with a youtuber where he shows some Raptor
engines, he explained that the big challenge was engine start and it was
very challenging. This would explain why so many tests last for only a
few seconds because that is what they are testing.


So my guess is that they don't know when launch will happen, they likely
have a schedule of tests to be done succesfully before they will
consider planning a launch.

Question: when doing engine test, is there a reaosn why they coudln't
light up say 7 engines on the booster, turn them off, then light up the
next 7, turn them off, then light up the next 7 etc ? This would
involve single tanking of the vehicle and reduce time that roads etc are
closed and allow more time to do construction work on site since it
would reduce need for evacuations?

Or is this a case of only a limited number of engines have had a bug
fix/tweak so they can only test those before rolling out the fix to the
other engines?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Just this Sunday, Alain Fournier puzzled about:

Does anyone have information about when SpaceX will attempt a full Starship launch? Where are they with those 75 actions needed to get their launch licence? In July, Musk was saying that a launch vehicle was to be ready within a few weeks. So is there a Starship ready just waiting for its launch licence?

No. Starship 24 has done a static fire of all 6 engines. Booster 7
has done a static fire of at least 3 engines (1 in all 3 rings) and
spin prime tests of at least 7 engines. End of October for a launch
test is thought to be possible but only if no hiccups occur in the rest
of the ground testing.

I know that SKY Perfect JSAT Holdings Inc has a contract with SpaceX for delivery of its Superbird-9 satellite on a Starship launcher in 2024. But there should be some earlier test launches.

I expect to see several launches in 2023. Ships 25 and 26 will be
ready by January, and Booster 8 before then, and McGregor is being kept
busy testing Raptor 2's. Rings to build more Starships and more
Boosters are plentiful.

Expect to see more design changes. Starship flaps will likely be a
visible change to be seen sometime after 26.

/dps

--
We’ve learned way more than we wanted to know about the early history
of American professional basketball, like that you could have once
watched a game between teams named the Indianapolis Kautskys and the
Akron Firestone Non-Skids. -- fivethirtyeight.com

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Sep/19/2022 at 04:27, Snidely wrote :

Just this Sunday, Alain Fournier puzzled about:

Does anyone have information about when SpaceX will attempt a full
Starship launch? Where are they with those 75 actions needed to get
their launch licence? In July, Musk was saying that a launch vehicle
was to be ready within a few weeks. So is there a Starship ready just
waiting for its launch licence?

No.  Starship 24 has done a static fire of all 6 engines.  Booster 7 has done a static fire of at least 3 engines (1 in all 3 rings) and spin
prime tests of at least 7 engines.  End of October for a launch test is thought to be possible but only if no hiccups occur in the rest of the
ground testing.

I know that SKY Perfect JSAT Holdings Inc has a contract with SpaceX
for delivery of its Superbird-9 satellite on a Starship launcher in
2024. But there should be some earlier test launches.

I expect to see several launches in 2023.  Ships 25 and 26 will be ready
by January, and Booster 8 before then, and McGregor is being kept busy testing Raptor 2's.   Rings to build more Starships and more Boosters
are plentiful.

Expect to see more design changes.  Starship flaps will likely be a
visible change to be seen sometime after 26.

Teslarati has an interesting article about this. Elon says November is
highly likely, possibly late October.

www.teslarati.com/spacex-starship-orbital-launch-date-elon-musk-2022/

But of course, we all know that Elon's schedules can slip. The author of
the teslarati article says before end of 2022 is implausible.


Alain Fournier

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

It seems likely that SpaceX will have an orbital launch of Starship
within a few months.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/elon-musk-says-attempt-starship-launch-march-2023-02-04/

or in tinyurl: https://tinyurl.com/yckpf4be


Alain Fournier

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)