SpaceX rolls Starship onto the launch pad five days after the last flight test

SpaceX rolls Starship onto the launch pad five days after the last flight test

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Update: Less than five days after the serial number 10 (SN10) briefly became the first prototype to be launched and landed in one piece, SpaceX took its successor – Starship SN11 – from the factory to the launch pad.

The goal: complete cryogenic testing and static fire test within the next 4-7 days to clear the way for another starship to launch as early as next week. Already equipped with three Raptor engines, the SN11 may have a limited chance of reaching SpaceX’s ambitious programming goals, but the experiences of the SN8, SN9 and SN10 ships suggest that a launch before the end of March is a more reasonable expectation. Stay tuned for updates as SpaceX prepares to install the Starship SN11 on the launch pad and put its cryogenic proof test on the calendar.

NASASpaceflight.com reports that SpaceX – already scheduled to transport a new ship to the launch pad on Monday, March 8 – wants this prototype ready for launch as early as next week.

According to the same report, SpaceX – having already installed three Raptor engines on Starship serial number 11 (SN11) – intends to close more or less all qualification tests by the end of the week. Not unlike the test campaigns that all other flying Starships had to go through before being released for launch, this process includes – at the very least – a good cryogenic proof test and a combined wet general test (WDR) with static fire.

The SN11 spacecraft has been virtually complete for several weeks; waiting for SN10 to deliver the torch. Now, that time has come. (NASASpaceflight – bocachicagal)

Excluding the Starhopper, out of the five starship prototypes that took off, SpaceX consistently managed to speed up the process of preparing each vehicle for flight, but the average time spent between launch and takeoff is still more than a month. In other words, even taking into account the general improvements that SpaceX seems to make between tests, preparing the Starship SN11 for flight within a week or two after the prototype reaches the launch pad would be somewhere between a factor of two to five faster than any previous test campaign.

Excellent data recently collected by a new Twitter account (@BocaCharts) exemplifies both SpaceX’s continued improvement and the unlikely SN11 to be ready to fly next week.

Still, it is not entirely impossible. If SpaceX can borrow the most efficient starship launches and test its completed campaigns and combine them all with some new unspecified efficiencies, it is reasonable to conclude that the SN11 starship may be ready to fly near the end of next week ( around March 19). More specifically, SpaceX would have to successfully complete a static shot on the first attempt within a week of the launch of the SN11 scheduled for March 8, followed by a quick two or three-day turnaround for a launch attempt.

Although it is not impossible, it is safe to say that this scenario is unlikely. However, assuming SpaceX continues to find ways to streamline pre-flight processing as it did with SN8, SN9 and SN10, it is reasonable to assume that Starship SN11 could be ready for an inaugural launch attempt as early as the last week of March. .

All of the above ignores the possibility that SpaceX may choose to physically modify the SN11 starship to mitigate the possibility of some or all aspects of the SN10 spacecraft’s forced landing and subsequent explosion. If that is the plan, these changes will have to be made at the launch site after the launch of the Starship SN11 scheduled for Monday, March 8.

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