SpaceX says propellant venting brought on lack of second Starship

WASHINGTON — SpaceX Chief Government Elon Musk says a propellant dump brought on the destruction of the Starship higher stage on a November check flight, giving him confidence that the car can attain orbit on its subsequent launch.

On that Nov. 18 launch, the Starship higher stage, or ship, was nearing the top of its burn to position it on an extended suborbital trajectory when contact was misplaced. Hosts of the SpaceX webcast mentioned it appeared the automated flight termination system was activated, however didn’t give a purpose why, and the corporate offered few particulars since.

At a current occasion at SpaceX’s Starbase check website in Boca Chica, Texas, video of which SpaceX posted on social media Jan. 12, Musk mentioned the failure was linked to venting liquid oxygen propellant close to the top of the burn. That venting, he mentioned, was wanted solely as a result of the car was not carrying any payload.

“Flight 2 really nearly made it to orbit,” he mentioned. “If it had a payload, it will have made it to orbit as a result of the explanation that it really didn’t fairly make it to orbit was we vented the liquid oxygen, and the liquid oxygen in the end led to a hearth and an explosion.”

That venting, he mentioned, would have been pointless if the ship had a payload, presumably as a result of it will have been consumed by the Raptor engines on the car with the intention to attain orbit. He didn’t elaborate on how the venting triggered the fireplace, or talk about the explosion of the Tremendous Heavy stage shortly after stage separation.

Musk mentioned that failure mode gave him confidence for the subsequent Starship check flight. “I believe we’ve received a extremely good shot of reaching orbit with Flight 3,” he mentioned.

That third flight is at present projected for February, SpaceX’s Jessica Jensen throughout a Jan. 9 NASA briefing, pending receipt of an up to date launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration. Musk described a extra bold flight plan for the mission with further assessments of Starship.

“We need to get to orbit and we need to do an in-space engine burn from the header tank” on the prime of the car, he mentioned. Doing so would “show that we will reliably deorbit.”

The flight would additionally check transferring propellant from that header tank to the primary propellant tank, an illustration that’s a part of a NASA Tipping Level award as a milestone in the direction of transferring propellant from one Starship car to a different. The primary ship-to-ship propellant switch check is deliberate, he mentioned, “hopefully by the top of this 12 months, however definitely by subsequent 12 months.”

Musk mentioned SpaceX will check the “Pez dispenser” payload door that will likely be used on later flights to deploy the full-sized Starlink V2 satellites, important bigger than the V2 mini satellites at present being launched on Falcon 9. “We do hope to do that by the top of this 12 months,” he mentioned of launching Starlink V2 satellites.

These Starship assessments will happen as SpaceX continues to extend the launch fee of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. The corporate carried out 96 Falcon launches in 2023 and Musk mentioned the corporate was planning “150 flights or thereabouts” in 2024. Firm executives beforehand set a objective of 144 launches, or 12 per 30 days, for 2024.

That flight fee will embody a deliberate turnaround of lower than 24 launches between launches from the identical pad by the top of the 12 months. Musk added SpaceX was working to qualify Falcon 9 boosters to carry out 40 flights. The corporate has, up to now, flown the identical booster as much as 19 instances.

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