The last post discussed the launch and failed landing of the SN10 rocket. Since then the SN15 has successfully launched and landed, the #'s 13 and 14 were deleted and it was decided to not repeat the #15 flight again with the same vehicle. It is on display at Boca Chica.
The next planned test flight will be a full up test of the Super Heavy booster launching with a Starship as the second stage. The flight will be hypersonic but will not orbit. The booster is planned to soft land in the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles from Boca Chica, maybe recovered but maybe not. The Starship, equipped with heat resistant tiles on the leading or blunt side, will continue into a sub-orbit at about 15,000 mph and is planned to land in the ocean about 100 miles east of Oahu near Hawaii. It may be recovered as it will float.
On this day the engineering is progressing well, the launch integration tower is at its full height, the launch mount is almost complete and the GSE fuel farm is almost fully built. Some of the assemblies of the engineering are mysterious as yet, fuelling the booster and stacked Starship, hold-down of the booster, release of the ship, stacking the second stage, separating the stages in flight, the water deluge system etc. are all still not clear to observers. The booster has had a static fire using 3 Raptor engines but it will require about 29 Raptors to launch the stacked rocket. Will they static fire all the engines while holding down the booster? Even for a 3 second burn that would be more than 1.5 million pounds of thrust.
I will post about the outcome of the test launch which is expected in September or October of 2021.
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| A test fit in August of the booster. |
The date is now 03/11/2023 and the booster is on the launch mount but not yet launched. Many things have changed, this is booster #3 and it has been replaced several times, now booster #6 has been statically fired (31 of 33 engines). We see hope of a launch this month or next. Almost 2 years late but still active plans.
