Gary W. Johnson: Starship capture a resounding success for SpaceX
- by wacotrib
- Oct 15, 2024
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SPACEX
The 400ft rocket blasted off at sunrise, completing its fight, and separated its first stage booster, which was caught back on the pad to applause from the team.
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The Starship upper stage successfully made the same kind of almost-an-orbit suborbital trajectory to come down in the ocean on the other side of the world. There is no need for a deorbit burn on this trajectory â entry is automatic. The video was astonishingly good. I saw no visible plasma effects at the nominal entry interface altitude of 140 kilometers. Speed was somewhere around 27,000 km/hr (7.5 km/s) at this point, although I did not recover the speed data on the screen.
I saw a visible plasma glow under the tail and portside aft flap, starting at about 102 kilometers altitude and at a speed of about 26,727 km/hr (7.43 km/s). The announcer said the flaps were in control of vehicle attitude at about 85 kilometers altitude and 26,720 km/hr (7.42 km/s). I started to see the speed readout begin dropping at a noticeable rate (indicating significant deceleration beginning) at about 75 kilometers altitude and 26,350 km/hr (7.32 km/s). The vehicle is generating lift at about 60 degrees angle of attack, which shallows the descent angle and makes the entry process longer in time.
When the announcer said peak heating occurred, the ship was at about 70 kilometers altitude and about 25,500 km/hr speed (7.08 km/s). This always occurs before the âmax dynamic pressureâ (or max deceleration Gâs) point. I never heard the announcer say where max dynamic pressure occurred. But I saw one of the flaps develop a hinge line burn-through! Iâm not sure which one â there were four views of four flaps, and the other three were unlabeled as to which they were. That was at roughly 45 kilometers altitude and 9,500 km/hr (2.64 km/s), probably substantially after the max dynamic pressure point. There is still very significant heating going on, just not the maximum amount.
According to the announcer, the ship was down to about Mach 2, which I read off the screen as about 25 kilometers altitude and 1,400 km/hr speed (0.39 km/s). He indicated the ship was in the subsonic âbelly-flop,â for which I read the screen as three kilometers altitude and 400 km/hr (0.11 km/s).
The ship fired up its three sea-level Raptors successfully and flipped tail-first rather quickly at very low altitude (apparently that was the plan), then touched down on the ocean in the proper attitude (nose high). It hit the target zone, and a camera on one of the target zone buoys recorded a huge steam cloud obscuring everything, then a fiery explosion. Apparently the ship broke up and exploded when it tipped over onto the water. There was burning cylindrical wreckage visible, sticking up out of the water at about a 45-degree angle. The last recorded speed, which I took to be speed at touchdown, was eight km/hr (2.2 m/s).
The heat shielding at the flap hinge lines obviously still needs some improvement. I do believe it is time to try landing and recovering the Starship on land, and it is time to try doing Raptor restart burns in space. Solve those issues, and they are ready to attempt propellant transfer tests âfor real.â
Gary W. Johnson is a former cutting-edge aerospace defense engineer. He lives in McGregor and is a member of the Tribune-Herald Board of Contributors.
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