SpaceX success with Flight 5, Flight 6 already...
- by NASASpaceFlight.com
- Oct 25, 2024
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SpaceX completed a significant milestone in the Starship program with Flight 5 and is set to try to repeat it for Flight 6. Both vehicles are now Static-Fired and ready for integrated testing ahead of a potential November launch.
Flight 5
Ship 30 and Booster 12 lifted off at 7:25 am Central Time on October 13. The liftoff and ascent were flawless, with all 33 engines running on Booster 12 all the way to hot-staging. Ship 30 then ignited its six engines and went on its way to the Indian Ocean.
So far, out of the five flight tests, only two flights, Flight 1 and Flight 4, have had engine outs on ascent. In fact, during all phases of flight for Flight 4, not a single Raptor shut down prematurely.
Flight 5 Hot Staging (Credit: Max Evans for NSF/L2)
After hot staging, Booster 12 performed its 13-engine boost backburn. However, this time, it was not aiming for the Gulf of Mexico but rather back to the launch site for a catch. With the boost backburn completed, Booster 12 then reoriented itself for its glide back to the launch site.
As the booster came back through the atmosphere, the engine section started to glow due to the aerodynamic forces causing heat to build up on the cork of the engine shielding. Once at 1 km or so, the 13 center engines started up and performed the initial landing burn to bleed off most of the velocity.
Booster 12 Returning (Credit: Max Evans for NSF/L2)
Booster 12 then quickly switched to the three-center engines only and began translating itself over towards the tower while still slowly descending. SpaceX may have been targeting the wetlands to the east of the tower as a precaution.
Interestingly, on Friday night, Elon Musk-likely inadvertently-posted audio of a Flight 5 review meeting with SpaceX officials while gaming. The three-minute clip included notes that Booster 12 was one second away from trigging an abort away from the Tower into the launch site.
“We had a misconfigured spin gas support that didn’t have quite the right ramp-up time for bringing up spin pressure and we were one second away from that tripping and telling the rocket to abort and try to crash into the ground next to the tower instead of the tower,” noted the unidentified SpaceX manager on the call, in reference to a large amount of abort modes that can be triggered by the rocket.
“I knew we had a whole bunch of new aborts and commit criteria that we tried to double-check really well, but I think our concern was well placed, and one of these came very close to biting us.”
The chine on Booster 12, via Mary for NSF
“Just before engines started up, one of the chine
covers ripped off, which is something we were worried about.
These spot weld margins on chine skin before flight, we wouldn’t have predicted the exact
right place, but this cover that ripped off was right on top of a bunch of the single
point failure valves that must work during the landing burn,” the meeting added.
“So thankfully, none of those or the harnessing got damaged, but we were just trying to cover up over some really critical equipment right as landing burn was starting.”
The call noted that they have plans to address this issue.
Thankfully, none of the “scary sh–” as the manager called it, occurred during Booster 12’s return, as it then translated over before angling into the chopsticks, which were closing at this moment in preparation to catch. Just before the common dome was past the sticks, they began to close rapidly, and then grabbed the booster just above the chopstick stabilization points.
Tower view of the first Super Heavy booster catch pic.twitter.com/Bgjeyuw7Hf
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