Starbase Sunday #8

28 Jul

Written By Magnum

Welcome to the 8th article of our Starbase Sunday series, which comes out every Sunday at 13:00 UTC and lets you be up to date about what happened at Starbase and McGregor during the week… that said, let’s get started:

July 20th - Sunday

The day wasn’t filled with activities today, but a couple of interesting things happened whatsoever:

At the production site, 2 fwd flaps were delivered and lifted to an unknown location: the only possible explanation is that these flaps are for Ship 37, which is the only Ship whose nosecone rolled out and was stacked flapless. The installation of flaps is a sign that the Ship is almost ready for static fire testing, although proper installation, connection, and testing needs to occur for all 4 flaps.

Now let’s go out to an unusual location: the Gulf of Mexico! There, a mysterious ship was conducting rocket recovery operations: LB Jill, a weird ship with telescopic legs that allow her to float above the water and become a stable work platform, came into the Port of Brownsville on July 12th, and departed the following day, scanning the nearby waters south of the area. By the 16th, a notice to keep clear within 0.25 nautical miles raised some questions as to the purpose of this ship, which was ultimately confirmed on the 18th as “recover rocket parts”. And then, today, the most official confirmation came: a leaked video on Facebook showed the ship lifting a Booster’s aft section (later confirmed to be Booster 13’s) out of the water, and putting it on its deck. The reason for this recovery is unclear, and could range from inspections to preservation to other purposes.

At Pad A, Starstool received much attention, with several lifts and groups of people working on it to make it ready for Ship 37’s static fire.

At Pad B, in the first hours of the day, the CH4 BQD hood was lifted and installed onto the OLM.

July 21st - Monday

Let’s start at Pad B today, where the LOX BQD framework was delivered, lifted, and installed during the night; this piece of hardware goes to further complete the propellant delivery system for future Block 3 boosters.

Meanwhile, we saw the first road delay since the Ship 36’s explosion: it was a port transport, likely to bring Booster 13’s aft section back from Brownsville to Massey’s.

Over to the production site, we saw that crews are beginning to remove scaffolding from Ship 38, while Ship 37 is still shrouded in a fog of scaffolding. Additionally, a new closure popped up on the Starbase City’s website, stating the beach would be closed about a week from now, on July 29th, or 30th as a backup. So, if we put this together, what does it mean?

Well, given what we know, the most likely explanation is that Ship 38 will go for cryo testing while Ship 37 will go for static fire testing. But how, and where? Let’s explain:

A beach closure implies testing at the Pad, which means a Ship will get tested at Pad A… but will it be S37 or S38? If on one hand it would make sense to test the overall, newly-installed system with a “test Ship”, which would be S38, on the other hand S38 cannot be tested on Pad A due to the absence of engines. To be on Starstool, a Ship needs Raptor engines, so we know that S38 will not get tested at Pad A, meaning it’ll be tested at Massey’s: this is the explanation that makes more sense, since the nitrogen tank farm (used for cryo testing) is the one that sustained the less amount of damage, allowing for a cryo test. Additionally, thanks to FAA advisories, we know that SpaceX is aiming for a roughly 1 month turnaround time between Flights 10 and 11, so it makes sense to cryo test Ship 38 now, and prepare it for flight in parallel. It will also be interesting to see whether S38 will get static fire tested at Pad A before or after Flight 10.

July 22nd - Tuesday

Let’s start at Pad A, where Starstool was worked on all day long.

At the production site, CFA drills made huge progress for the Gigabay foundation.

The biggest action of the day however, was the return of Booster 13’s aft section into the Port of Brownsville, which seems to include all Raptor engines (though deformed), and the first few rings of the structure, including the thrust puck, engine shielding, transfer tube, landing tank, and propellant distribution system (all the pipes that bring propellant from the main tubes to the engines).

July 23rd - Wednesday

Let’s start at the production site, where several teams made progress on different fronts:

Ship 37 received an aft flap early in the morning, marking the 3rd out of 4 flaps it needs installed before being deemed ready for static fire testing.

Also there, CFA drill rigs continued drilling the foundations for Gigabay all day long, with excavators and other heavy machinery in full swing!

At the port, Booster 13’s aft remains were unloaded and prepared for upcoming transport, with a road delay set between 00:00 and 04:00 am of July 24th.

Now let’s go to the launch site, where not only teams continued extensive work at Pad B and on Starstool, but they also started working on an entirely new thing near Pad B: the ASU (Air Separation Unit) has begun construction, starting with land clearing. SpaceX’s ASU will take oxygen and nitrogen out of the atmosphere, essentially having them ready on-site without needing the tens of cryogenic trucks that come into the site every day to refurbish the commodities. Once the ASU is operational, it will allow for a faster launch cadence due to shorter replenishment times, as well as decreasing the number of trucks needed for cryogenic transport, with only CH4 trucks needed.

July 24th - Thursday

Tonight, Booster 13’s aft remains were rolled from the port to Massey, and they were staged near the can crusher test stand, where they remain.

Since we’re already at Massey’s, teams have continued conducting refurbishment, especially of the CH4 tank farm, while the water tank farm (second most damaged) remains untouched.

At the production site, work was in full swing to prepare the Gigabay’s foundations, with CFA drills that kept drilling all day long.

But behind them, some activity was going on, as the 2nd aft flap entered Megabay 2 for installation on Ship 37: this marks the last flap and the last piece of hardware that SpaceX needs to install on the Ship before being ready to static fire it at Pad A… with the closure on the 29th, we’re in for an exciting week ahead.

July 25th - Friday

There’s not much to be said today, apart from the usual activity:
At Pad A, teams kept working on Starstool and on the OLM, to prepare them for the upcoming arrival of Ship 37.

At Pad B, work was continued on all the systems, including OLM structure, pipes, BQDs, chopsticks, and more, to prepare the site for upcoming launches.

And then, we got some huge news, which brought the morale upwards! SpaceX launched a redesign of their website, including a significant portion dedicated to future Mars exploration and colonization, using Starship! Shortly after this, Elon Musk announced that he would conduct another major update, covering “progress to date and engineering/production/launch plans for the future”. You don’t have to worry, we will keep announcing it here on Starbase Sunday, and be sure to check out our article about it as soon as it comes out!

July 26th - Saturday

This, again, was a slow day, with work continuing on all fronts but no news… except one: the 4-hour road delays on the Starbase City website revealed what would be moving: Ship 38 would be moving to Massey’s between 00:00 and 04:00 am of July 27th, while Ship 37 would be moving to Pad A 24 hours later, on July 28th! But let’s break this plan down, and see why SpaceX is doing it like this:

First up in the line, S38 would move to Massey between 00:00 and 04:00 am of July 27th, to conduct cryogenic proof testing: this will showcase SpaceX’s capabilities to rapidly turn around after an anomaly at a test site, and would also allow to test them some of the Massey’s systems… but after all the damage, can a Ship conduct cryogenic tests at Massey’s?

The answer is yes, because SpaceX uses nitrogen and LOX to cryo test a vehicle, and these 2 systems sustained no damage whatsoever, as they were farther away from the explosion… so while they absolutely cannot do static fires, they’re more than able to conduct cryogenic proof testing. Now, during the past flights, SpaceX has had a habit of cryo testing the next Ship to fly a few days after the past flight, so why aren’t they doing it now? There might be a few reasons, but I believe that the main one stands in turnaround times: SpaceX is aiming to achieve a roughly 1-month cadence between Flight 10 and 11, and that cadence will be more easily reachable if the Ship is cryo tested before Flight 10. Now, we still need to see whether SpaceX will static fire Ship 38 before or after Flight 10: as we’ve seen, it took a few weeks to modify the pad for static fire testing, and this process would need to be repeated for Ship 38, if they dismantle it… however, instead of taking 5 weeks to do it (they also had to design it and find the pieces), now they might take just 2 (this is speculation)... so, my personal opinion is that they will cryo test Ship 38, static fire Ship 37, and then dismantle the system to focus on launching Flight 10 as quickly as possible.

Now, onto Ship 37: it will move from the production site to Pad A between 00:00 and 04:00 am of July 28th for static fire testing, which is scheduled for July 29th or 30th (or both). If it follows previous testing campaigns, there will be 2 tests, one including a single engine, and another including all 6 engines. But how much will they last? The single-engine static fire will last a few seconds (between 5 and 8 usually), but how about the 6-engine one? Previous tests, starting on Ship 34, included a 60-second firing… this kind of test slightly damaged Massey’s flame trench each time, requiring refurbishment, so it needs to be seen whether SpaceX will conduct it at Pad A too… not having a flame trench, Pad A can require only on its deluge system to protect the infrastructure, but it can’t run for such a long time. SpaceX has certainly invented something, we just need to see what… how much do you think the static fire will last? And how much do you think we’ll need to wait before we see Flight 10?

Even if this week didn’t include any vehicle movement, if you reached this point you’ll have understood how much will happen next week! Next week will be action-packed, unforgettable, and most of all, unmissable… so see you all here next week!

Raptor testing

July 20th

No Raptor test was conducted today.

July 21st

- Raptor south - 11:33:55 - 20s

- Raptor south - 11:34:21 - 20s

- Raptor south - 11:34:48 - 20s

Total tests: 3

Total fire time: 60s / 1m

-Raptor south: 60s / 1m - 3 tests

July 22nd

Sorry, I couldn’t cover today’s tests