A group of NASA astronauts appears to have taken an agency-sanctioned trip to SpaceX’s Boca Chica spacecraft facility, including a visit with a prototype scheduled to be activated and launched earlier this week.
Apparently in line with the fast pace of production and testing of Starship, the frequency of visits by NASA astronauts to SpaceX facilities in southern Texas has also increased in the past six months.
In 2019, SpaceX built the Starhopper, carried out several tests with the first prototypes of the Raptor engine and performed two untethered jumps. With that success in hand, SpaceX turned its focus to the Starship Mk1 and suffered an almost immediate failure during pressure tests, encouraging a series of rapid manufacturing upgrades that were largely completed in just a few months.
In 2020, SpaceX pushed these new facilities to the limit while continuing with major expansions. In 12 months, SpaceX built and tested five small ‘test tanks’ and six complete sections of starship tanks, executed almost a dozen Raptor static shots with that hardware, jumped two of those tanks (SN5 and SN6) to 150 m, fully integrated into the first full-height Starship (SN8), and almost landed that vehicle after an otherwise impeccable 12.5 km (7.8 mi) launch and descent.
In 2019, NASA signed its first space ship monetary contract with SpaceX, awarding $ 3 million for the prototype of a docking mechanism that the spacecraft will need to dock and refuel in space. In April 2020, NASA revealed that SpaceX – with its Starship launch vehicle – was one of three finalists selected to compete for a Human Landing System (HLS) lunar landing contract, providing the company with $ 135 million of the prize. total of $ 970 million to begin the preliminary design and certification work.
About five months later, a group of NASA astronauts made their first public visit to SpaceX’s Starship development center in southern Texas, flying over the factory and training jet launch platform on a routine Houston and Johnson Space Center. Days later, SpaceX won a $ 53 million contract with NASA’s “Tipping Point” to demonstrate the transfer of large-scale cryogenic propellant with a prototype starship.
Ultimately, excluding solid commercial crew and cargo partnerships, NASA’s relationship with SpaceX and the company’s starship appears to be growing stronger by the day. While it is difficult to say how indicative of this growth is the visible attention of NASA’s astronaut corps, it is worth noting what these same astronauts they are not (publicly) flying over, visiting and touring – that is, factories, R&D facilities or hardware prototypes of competitors from HLS Dynetics and Blue Origin.
With a delay of about a week, SpaceX is currently preparing to fire its fourth full-size starship prototype – SN11 – for the first time on Monday, March 22, 19 days after the SN10 spacecraft has landed briefly in its entirety . SpaceX presented temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) to the FAA for the 10 km (6.2 mi) launch of the SN11 from Tuesday to Friday, leaving plenty of opportunity for a launch this week if the rocket can successfully test its three Raptor engines until Wednesday.