LAUNCHES THIS WEEK:
• Starlink Saturday evening
• Crew Dragon to ISS Saturday morning
Full-duration, 33-engine static fire of Super-Heavy B9 Friday morning
(multiple angles of Starship booster test)
The test produced approximately 7.9 million lbf of thrust (~3,600 metric tons) pic.twitter.com/LA6BIGzzLu
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 25, 2023
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 25, 2023
Why yes, I looked at every video Doug linked. Why do you ask?
Note important detail: Tank farm is intact.
So very cool to watch.
Yeah,
this second test was wayyy better.
The engineering is not settled
Two engines did not do the full duration. Why?
Well, Space is Hard. Hard is Fun. You do things nobody else has tried (well, the Russkis had the very unsuccessful N1) and you fail, retool, rebuild, test again until things go smoother/better.
Testing is all well and good, but bolting the whole shebang together to see if it melts/smokes/blows up/works correctly is partly theoretical, partly try-try-try. The engineers (myself included) think there may be some harmonics around all those engines that will have to be overcome. By testing the batsnot out of it, of course.
That means launches. LOTS of launches. The FAA is standing in the way, other Fed Agencies may tell the FAA to back off and the DOJ to stop bothering SpaceX for its hiring practices. Either way, It Will Get Done.
More power to SpaceX, ’cause ULA and Blue Origin sure as hell ain’t cutting the mustard. Let’s not go on about Boeing, either…