SpaceX prepare for Starship Flight 6, another Booster catch and a daylight Ship splashdown

Date:
Mon, 18 Nov 2024 17:03:45 +0000

Description:
After an almost perfect Flight 5 only one month ago, SpaceX is poised to set The post SpaceX prepare for Starship Flight 6, another Booster catch and a daylight Ship splashdown appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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After an almost perfect Flight 5 only one month ago, SpaceX is poised to set a turnaround record for Starship and fly Flight 6 no earlier than Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 4 p.m. CST. For Flight 6, SpaceX aims to conduct an in-space relight objective to Ship 31s flight, with a landing in daylight. Booster 13 will also attempt a return to launch site catch to follow up on the milestone achieved during Flight 5.

Aided by already having a launch license and no major changes requiring a modification, SpaceX wants to prove a monthly cadence with the current pad at Starbase.

NSF, with around 27 camera views, will be live on X and YT for launch day. Starting with the Stakeout Stream:



Which will then move into the launch countdown stream:



Flights 1-5

See Also SpaceX Starship Program L2 SpaceX Section NSF Store Click here to Join L2

So far, SpaceX has made tremendous strides from flight to flight in the Starship Program. Flight 1 was all about getting off the pad and getting data on booster performance. There were not many expectations of success for Booster 7 and Ship 24. Even though the stack only got to 40 km, SpaceX achieved at least clearing the tower and gathering important data on booster performance.

Flight 1 paved the way for Flight 2 and Booster 9 to have a flawless ascent to stage separation using a new method for Starship not present on Flight 1, which never reached staging. This was hot staging where the ship ignites its engines while still attached to the booster. Unfortunately, Ship 25 was lost just shy of the ship engine cutoff. However, Booster 9 was lost during boost back, and Ship 25 was lost near the end of its burn.

Taking the lessons learned from Flight 2, Flight 3 was a huge step forward. Booster 10 passed the boost backburn but was lost during the landing burn. Ship 28 made it into space but lost roll control during the coast phase and started to tumble. This resulted in the heat shield not facing the atmosphere constantly, and Ship 28 burned up on reentry. Ignition on Starship Flight 3 (Credit: BocaChicaGal for NSF)

Then came Flight 4, which saw the first engine out on the accent with the booster since Flight 1. However, Booster 11 completed its boost backburn and its landing burn before tipping over and exploding. SpaceX gained confidence after this landing to press on for the catch on Flight 5.

During the coast phase, Ship 29 didnt do any extra testing compared to Ship 28 and just coasted into reentry. With a perfect attitude and full control, Ship 29 reentered. During reentry, plasma got into the port-side forward flap hinge, nearly melting it off. However, Ship 29 maintained control and completed a flip-and-burn with a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

After waiting for a few months due to modifications to the chopstick systems and regulatory hurdles, SpaceX launched Flight 5 of Starship. After all of
the successes in the past and with the accuracy of Flight 4, the goal was to catch a Booster. The ascent was flawless, with no engine outs, hot staging, and boost back burn. Liftoff of Starship Flight 4 (Credit: BocaChicaGal for NSF)

While Ship 30 headed for reentry to test its new heat shield, Booster 12 was sent on a trajectory to return to the launch site. After what seemed like a flawless reentry, Booster 12 ignited its engines for the landing burn and maneuvered between the chopsticks for a catch. After adjusting the engines, the pins landed on the landing rails, and Booster 12 was caught.

Ship 30 then completed its reentry, with the heat shield fairing much better than Ship 29 but still with some burn-through on the Forward Flaps. However, it landed perfectly on target in the Indian Ocean and was even caught by SpaceXs buoy cams. With an on-target ship landing and a booster catch now achieved, SpaceX is poised to try and repeat the goals while trying some new things on Flight 6. Booster 12 coming in for Landing (Credit: Max Evans for NSF)

Timeline and Trajectory

Regarding Timeline and Trajectory, Flight 6 is near-identical to Flight 5. There are a few changes to the booster events of a few seconds that should help refine the flight profile with lessons learned from Flight 5. However, with the ship, there is a noticeable addition: the return of an in-space Raptor relight demo. This is set to occur at T+37 minutes and 34 seconds.
This will help verify the Raptor firing in space and should help SpaceX push to orbit on Flight 7 or 8. Starship Flight 6 Timeline (Credit: SpaceX)

The trajectory is exactly the same as that of Flight 5; however, the launch time is completely different. So far, SpaceX has chosen to launch early in
the morning for weather conditions and clear views during the coast phase.
For Flight 6, SpaceX intends to launch in the afternoon to have a daylight ship landing. The window opens at 4 p.m. CST and lasts for 30 minutes.

During the final stages of reentry, SpaceX will fly Ship 31 at a higher
angle of attack to test the limits of flap control and future landing profiles. Assuming Ship 31 makes it through reentry, there is the potential
of gaining Ship landing views like the old suborbital hop days. Here is another angle captured by @NASASpaceflight of what appears to be crews installing the Flight Termination System on Ship 31. This reinforces as to
why SpaceX has not destacked Ship 31 from Booster 13. https://t.co/lJBh6JDv67 https://t.co/Km4guWkIKW pic.twitter.com/lOeI4vIQxS

Ryan Weber (@rweb11742) November 18, 2024



Ship 31 and Booster 13

SpaceX has continued to refine the prelaunch flow. Ship 31 was rolled out first on Nov 11, and it appears its flight termination system was installed
on the night of Nov 12. Booster 13 was rolled out on Nov 14, and its flight termination system was installed shortly after stacking Ship 31 on Nov 16. This may become the first stack only to have one stack and one destack, the destack being hotstaging.

With Flight 6 delayed a day, possibly due to weather, SpaceX decided to perform one last test on these vehicles: a partial propellant load test on Sunday, November 17. Once completed, SpaceX confirmed that it was a success, and all final checkouts were completed. Propellant load test and preflight checkouts complete ahead of Starship's sixth flight test https://t.co/oIFc3u9laE pic.twitter.com/r6XNKyY2Zf

SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 17, 2024



Ship 31 and Booster 13 only have a few noticeable changes on the outside and probably dozens of changes internally.

First, Booster 13 has a slightly redesigned raceway. Instead of using stringers on the forward and common domes to cover the raceway, it now has
its own aero covers. A new liquid oxygen (LOX) vent has been added to the top of the LOX tank, and new cowbells have been designed for the reaction control vents.

As for lessons learned from Booster 12, Booster 13s chines have a few extra rivets holding them down to prevent the chine blowout that happened during Booster 12s landing. Booster 13 with its new LOX vent (Credit: Max Evans for NSF)

Ship 31 is pretty unique, as it is the final Block 1 starship to fly with a booster since Ship 33, a Block 2 ship, is slated to fly on Booster 14 and Flight 7. Ship 31 started its life with an anomaly: during its first cryo, an electrical anomaly caused decent damage to its raceway. After fixing this damage, SpaceX eventually finished its testing campaign, which is now slated to fly.

Ship 31 does not have the completely replaced heat shield that Ship 30 had
to endure ahead of its flight. Instead, only the flaps and flap fairings got the new ablative layer, as far as can be seen. SpaceX did redo all of the major adhesive areas on the nose cone and the man tank sections and added gap filler material to the flaps. In addition to this, SpaceX is also going to be testing new secondary heat shield materials on this flight in an attempt to gather data for future flights. Ship 31 Stacked on Booster 13 (Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF)

The biggest noticeable change to Ship 31 is that SpaceX removed about eight columns of heat shield tiles on the port and starboard sides. This is related to SpaceX wanting to test for catch hardware on ship in the future. If this
is successful ship catch hardware could come very soon.

Also, in the tradition of some of SpaceXs more fun play on the Starship program, Ship 31 has a pair of Banana Stickers, which hold a Banana that says for scale on it. SpaceX often used to ship Raptors from McGregor to Starbase with memes and fun stickers over in the past. Banana for scale. Gotta love SpaceX! pic.twitter.com/xGTvQz0AYX

Mary (@BocaChicaGal) November 7, 2024



SpaceX hasnt made any significant changes to the launch pad this time; most of the work has been refurbishment to turn the pad around in a month.

SpaceX is attempting to try some new things on Flight 6. It will be interesting to see if the changes to Ship 31 allow it to survive reentry. As always, SpaceX might catch a booster for the second time.

Featured Image: Ship 31 and Booster 13 Fullstack Testing for Flight 6 (Credit: BocaChicaGal for NSF)



The post SpaceX prepare for Starship Flight 6, another Booster catch and a daylight Ship splashdown appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2024/11/starship-flight-6-launch/


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