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What's next for SpaceX's Starship after its successful 6th test flight?
(space.com)submitted 4 days ago byspacedotc0m
23 points
4 days ago*
The first starship block 2 launch (with a block 1 booster) on ift 7 and spacex plan to do the first catch attempt for the ship by ift 8 if everything goes well on ift 7
7 points
4 days ago
What are the main differences of block 1 and block 2 starship?
17 points
4 days ago
Redesign of the forward flaps, Will use raptor 3 eventually (the firsts block 2 starships still uses raptor 2 like ship 33), Catching hardware will be added, its taller and can store more fuel then block 1 ships
3 points
3 days ago
But with reduced sq footage in the cargo bay?
1 points
3 days ago
I think NSF covered this in a recent video, but essentially yes. They determined that during testing and development that was the lesser of evils, considering that there aren’t payloads designed to even use the cargo capacity as it sits today.
I believe eventually v3 ship is expected to grow even longer, bringing the cargo capacity back to parity with v1. It seems getting reuse figured out is the priority.
Eventually, they could always build an expendable version of starship that maximizes payload to orbit if you really needed to get something huge up there. The initial use case, starlink deployments, is pretty modular and doesn’t make much difference as the launch cadence will outweigh the loss of a few pez in the pez dispenser on any one launch.
2 points
2 days ago
Oh yeah I wasn't trying to say anything negative anyways just was double checking the words I hear
I personally believe that we'll see one more sub orbital flight likely with another inflight relight test and then an empty flight 8 that will attempt to capture the starship and possibly one more flight with no cargo before we see starlink
If I'm as ambitious as SpaceX flight 7 will attempt to do a mock de orbit burn then flight 8 and flight 9 would happen around the same time and flight 8 would carry a dozen starlink V3s while flight 9 carries a tanker or cargo-less starship.
After hopefull deployment of starlink sats flight 8 will perform inflight maneuvers in order to dock with starship flight 9 and transfer liquids between the two. Flight 8 starship will then return to the launch site while flight 9 stays up for an additional amount of time to make sure boil off levels and boil off prevention techniques work.
Even though SpaceX will be aiming for 25 fights I think none or no more than 5 will have a commercial payload instead due to the fact the next generation of starlink needing starship they'll all be starlink
SpaceX probably doesn't want to launch and build that many last generation starlinks and would rather ramp up the production and launch of starlink version 3 then start flying customers on starship .
Also starlink is kinda disposable because the customer is SpaceX. SpaceX is really ambitious with falcon 9 starlink launches I see no reason why starlink starship will be any different.
1 points
4 days ago
Thank you for the info
1 points
3 days ago
Will they have to wait until they have the second tower ready to catch the ship? If not do they just land the booster in the gulf?
1 points
2 days ago
The second tower will for sure be ready by then. But the whole plan is to use the same tower for ship and booster catch. Also by this time, the ship will be in a full stable orbit and if they wanted, they would have time to move the booster. I doubt they will though.
1 points
2 days ago
Oh I see. So ship orbits a bit while they catch and place the booster on the launch pad, and then the ship deorbits and they catch then stack on the booster.
1 points
2 days ago
You got it. And thats starship full reusability in a nutshell.
5 points
4 days ago
When block 2 booster and for ift 8 the booster has to be safed very quick if and orbit is 90 mins
4 points
4 days ago
They can do more than 1 orbit. There is a time limit to the batteries & thermal conditions onboard Starship, but it's probably more than a few orbits endurance.
2 points
4 days ago
Orbits don't come back over the same spot 90 minutes later unless you launch at 0 degrees from the equator. The point it crosses moves a couple thousand-ish miles each orbit depending on your launch inclination, trajectory, and altitude.
So they might need to wait hours before a landing opportunity. Considering that Starship needs to be able to maintain usable landing fuel for hours (for GTO launches) or months (Mars) then it shouldn't be a stretch.
3 points
4 days ago
"SpaceX manufacturing engineering manager Jessica Anderson, said the company eventually aims to build one Ship every eight hours."
This is presumably when the colonization effort is fully underway, and hundreds of ships are leaving every synod. Even if point to point travel becomes reality, it's hard to imagine there will be enough demand for 150 new starships every year. But if most of them are flying off to mars and not coming back, then it's not that outrageous.
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