News Changes to the SpaceX BFR rocket.
- Thread starter RGClark
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GLS
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GLS
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Thunder Chicken
Resident Lua Script Rabble-Rouser
It's interesting how they are down to three grid fins on the booster. The booster does have an angle of attack on return, 'flying' after a fashion (with a terrible glideslope) and the one grid fin on the lee side of the booster probably wasn't doing much for control forces.
GLS
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GLS
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1 week to do
GLS
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The twelfth flight test of Starship is preparing to launch as soon as Tuesday, May 19. The launch window will open at 5:30 p.m. CT.
A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the X TV app. As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so be sure to check in here and stay tuned to our X account for updates.
The upcoming flight will debut the next generation Starship and Super Heavy vehicles, powered by the next evolution of the Raptor engine and launching from a newly designed pad at Starbase.
Read about the upgrades debuting on Starship, Super Heavy, Raptor, and the launch pad on Flight 12.
The flight test’s primary goal will be to demonstrate each of these new pieces in the flight environment for the first time, with each element of the Starship architecture featuring significant redesigns to enable full and rapid reuse that incorporate learnings from years of development and test.
Watch “Test Like You Fly”, the first episode in a new Starship series that takes you inside the factories and onto the launch pads as these first vehicles prepared for flight.
The booster’s primary test objective will be executing a successful launch, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn, and landing burn at an offshore landing point in the Gulf of America. As this is the first flight test of a significantly redesigned vehicle, the booster will not attempt a return to the launch site for catch.
The Starship upper stage will target multiple in-space and reentry objectives, including the deployment of 22 Starlink simulators, similar in size to next-generation Starlink satellites. The last two satellites deployed will scan Starship’s heat shield and transmit imagery down to operators to test methods of analyzing Starship’s heat shield readiness for return to launch site on future missions. Several tiles on Starship have been painted white to simulate missing tiles and serve as imaging targets in the test. The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned.
For Starship entry, a single heat shield tile has been intentionally removed to measure the aerodynamic load differences on adjacent tiles when there is a tile missing. Finally, the ship will perform experimental actions tested on previous flight tests, including a maneuver to intentionally stress the structural limits of the vehicle’s rear flaps and a dynamic banking maneuver to mimic the trajectory that future missions returning to Starbase will fly.
A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the X TV app. As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so be sure to check in here and stay tuned to our X account for updates.
The upcoming flight will debut the next generation Starship and Super Heavy vehicles, powered by the next evolution of the Raptor engine and launching from a newly designed pad at Starbase.
Read about the upgrades debuting on Starship, Super Heavy, Raptor, and the launch pad on Flight 12.
The flight test’s primary goal will be to demonstrate each of these new pieces in the flight environment for the first time, with each element of the Starship architecture featuring significant redesigns to enable full and rapid reuse that incorporate learnings from years of development and test.
Watch “Test Like You Fly”, the first episode in a new Starship series that takes you inside the factories and onto the launch pads as these first vehicles prepared for flight.
The booster’s primary test objective will be executing a successful launch, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn, and landing burn at an offshore landing point in the Gulf of America. As this is the first flight test of a significantly redesigned vehicle, the booster will not attempt a return to the launch site for catch.
The Starship upper stage will target multiple in-space and reentry objectives, including the deployment of 22 Starlink simulators, similar in size to next-generation Starlink satellites. The last two satellites deployed will scan Starship’s heat shield and transmit imagery down to operators to test methods of analyzing Starship’s heat shield readiness for return to launch site on future missions. Several tiles on Starship have been painted white to simulate missing tiles and serve as imaging targets in the test. The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned.
For Starship entry, a single heat shield tile has been intentionally removed to measure the aerodynamic load differences on adjacent tiles when there is a tile missing. Finally, the ship will perform experimental actions tested on previous flight tests, including a maneuver to intentionally stress the structural limits of the vehicle’s rear flaps and a dynamic banking maneuver to mimic the trajectory that future missions returning to Starbase will fly.
jedidia
shoemaker without legs
I mean, those are good things to test, but wouldn't you first want to have a successful prototype that performs nominally? Even though they brought some back for landing, they were essentially charcoal by the time the atmosphere was done with them, wouldn't you want to improve that before testing for contingencies?
RisingFury
OBSP developer
jedidia
shoemaker without legs
That too I guess, though as far as I can tell it's far easier to make orbit from where they are now than it is to bring this thing down without getting chewed up... But yes, getting to Orbit and then back, I think that's where I'd start with damage simulation tests and stuff...
GLS
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Delays...
GLS
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GLS
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Preview by Everyday Astronaut:
and his live stream:
and his live stream:
Buck Rogers
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GLS
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GLS
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30 minute delay
GLS
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... and another 30 minute delay
Scrub in 3, 2....
Scrub in 3, 2....
dennis.krenz
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GLS
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Looks like it will not be DelayX...
... still not sure about DOGE
GLS
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Here we go....
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