Posted on 11/09/2021 2:00:41 PM PST by BenLurkin
At the end of the first orbital test flight for its 164-foot Starship, SpaceX envisions a reentry into the atmosphere at speeds approaching Mach 25, or 19, 000 miles per hour, followed by 15 minutes of hypersonic flight.
During this time, the spacecraft will hurtle sideways, generating tremendous heat before adjusting to an upright position for a "soft " rocket-powered ocean landing 62 miles north of Kauai.
It will sink in the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility, according to plans for the historic flight, and join dozens of warships that have gone down over past decades during Navy "sink exercises " in waters 15, 000 feet deep.
NASA, for its part, wants to fly a WB-57 high-altitude research jet close enough to the 30-foot-wide Starship's hypersonic reentry to gauge the surface temperature of the "Starbrick " thermal tiles that will take the brunt of the heat. Controllable fins will keep Starship in the right position.
Current state-of-the-art thermal protection systems, or TPS, including ablators, ceramic tiles and reinforced carbon fiber "typically require significant maintenance between flights, " meaning inspection, replacement time and cost, an Aug. 24 NASA report stated.
Super Heavy is expected to be equipped with up to 37 "Raptor " engines powered by liquid oxygen and liquid methane, according to the draft programmatic environmental assessment released in September. Starship will employ up to six Raptor engines.
The flight is expected to take 90 minutes. As Starship enters its landing approach, likened to a speed-reducing belly flop, a sonic boom will be created.
(Excerpt) Read more at govtech.com ...
I hope it doesn’t kill any whales or anything.
"Starship TPS is intended to provide a dramatic leap forward by demonstrating operational reuse requiring minimal to no maintenance between flights, " NASA said.The space agency also offers a possible window for the Starship launch, saying it is "targeting (a ) Starship reentry observation opportunity near March 2022.
Musk's space flight operation has not identified all potential options for future landing sites and "may plan to land the Starship on islands in the Pacific Ocean, " which would be analyzed in future reports if plans develop, according to the environmental assessment.
Ted Ralston, a retired aerospace engineer, said Hawaii would likely be ruled out for a land-based return. Rather, SpaceX may have in mind sparsely populated or uninhabited islands in the Western Pacific with little commercial air traffic, he said.
Eventually, SpaceX wants to launch and land its Super Heavy boosters and Star ships back at Boca Chica - and it is adding steel arms at its 450-foot "Mechazilla " launch tower to "catch " the returning vehicles.
well starship has vacuum raptors installed getting ready for testing, booster 4 has 20 odd raptors installed getting ready for testing. lots of interesting stuff getting done at spacex starbase.
“SpaceX may have in mind sparsely populated or uninhabited islands in the Western Pacific with little commercial air traffic, he said.”
French Frigate Shoals comes to mind. However, it would be pretty bad for the birds that nest there, I suppose. There is even a runway to set down on, or crash on, depending on what they have planned.
It will be like a 40-story building blasting off. You have to throw a lot of metal into the sky to get to Mars and back.
The upcoming launch of StarShip + Booster4 = nearly 400 FT. TALL ROCKET! This will be an amazing moment in history I WILL ABSOLUTELY NOT MISS.
Even if StarShip burns up on reentry, just getting this COMBO BEHEMOTH OFF THE PAD will be an unrivaled accomplishment in and of itself.
GOD SPEED, SPACEX!
Is it JUST ME or does anyone else also have concerns that StarShip might prematurely separate from the Booster due to forces occurring during launch or during ascension?
Megazilla, Chopsticks, StarShip-20, Booster-4, etc.. I've been keeping up with it all and it's truly mind-boggling the speed with which SpaceX works. PROPS TO ELON!
Also, StarShip-20 will land in the ocean off the coast of Hawaii, but I'm assuming Booster-4 will also do an ocean landing near the Gulf, right?
There is no greater visionary on this planet at this moment in our lives than one Elon Musk. His dream of helping humans become a multi-planetary species is a tall order requiring the brightest minds and millions of dollars led by a tremendous visionary.
They’re planning on next March. Something to look forward to!
Is it JUST ME or does anyone else also have concerns that StarShip might prematurely separate from the Booster due to forces occurring during launch or during ascension?
If it were anyone else doing it, I would. :^) The early boost phase after launch should be loud enough to be heard for perhaps a few hundred miles. Won't be as loud as the Saturn V.
Coming up next year, the Falcon Heavy will be going up at least three times, and perhaps as many as five times, throwing big payloads for the DoD and whatnot. The James Webb telescope is finally going up in December, but that’ll be aboard the Ariane 6, assuming the engines start this time, and continue to operate correctly through MECO.
I know the Raptors are theoretically more quiet but I would think there’d be SIGNIFICANT low frequency rumble/vibration during launch.
It’ll be cool.
Perhaps he is looking for The Nexus...
Wow as I read the article my first thought was French Frigate Shoals. Good for you to get there first. Remember Operation K.
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