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On February 28, SpaceX's SN01 Starship prototype imploded and exploded during a pressurization test (Mk1 failed in November). A day later, Eric Berger from Ars Technica visited SpaceX's facilities in Boca Chica, Texas. Some highlights from the story include:
- SN01 was not destined to fly, only to serve as a platform for static fire testing. (Elon Musk had previously tweeted that the wrong settings were used on the welding equipment used to build SN01.)
- SN01's failure has been attributed to bad welding on the thrust puck, which is welded onto the bottom tank dome of Starship and connects the Raptor engines to the rest of the rocket.
- The quality team raised concerns about the thrust puck to an engineer who did not act upon them. They have been instructed to contact Musk directly with design concerns.
- SpaceX went on a hiring spree in February that doubled its workforce in Boca Chica to over 500. The goal is to build a production line for Starships.
- SpaceX aims to build a Starship every week by the end of 2020, with a goal of building one every 72 hours eventually.
- SpaceX engineers have built an in-house x-ray machine to look for imperfections in welds.
- Construction costs for a single Starship could eventually drop to as low as $5 million.
- The Boca Chica site will operate 24/7, with workers alternating between three and four 12-hour shifts per week.
- A 20 km flight is planned for this spring, and an orbital mission could happen before the end of 2020.
In other news:
- SpaceX to Raise Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Through a Funding Round That Will Value It at $36 Billion
- SpaceX Could Earn $30 Billion Annually From Starlink, 10x Of Sending ISS Supplies – Elon Musk
- SpaceX's latest Starship test was uneventful and that's great news for its flight debut
- Astronauts capture SpaceX cargo capsule with robot arm for final time
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Another Starship Prototype Explodes, but SpaceX Isn't Stopping
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday March 10 2020, @10:11PM (5 children)
Cost for new St. Charles water tower escalates again [dailyherald.com]
$5 million seems in line with what water tower projects tend to cost. Except those aren't coming off of assembly lines by the hundreds or thousands, and have different structural requirements. There isn't going to be much actual steel used in a Starship, since they need to be as thin as possible to keep mass low, while still remaining structurally sound.
The goal for Raptor engine cost is about $250,000 each [soylentnews.org]. 6 Raptor engines per Starship.
Super Heavy will use around 37 engines. A complete Starship + Super Heavy booster would definitely exceed $5 million. However, a Mars program might require 1,000 Starships but only a handful of Super Heavy boosters since those boosters will land back on Earth every time and could be reused within a day. Just keep a few boosters at every launch site (Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Boca Chica).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2020, @11:54PM (1 child)
5 Million? That much could buy about 1/16th of an F-35A.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Wednesday March 11 2020, @12:01AM
The F-35 pilot's helmet costs $400,000.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Wednesday March 11 2020, @10:51PM (2 children)
I am not impressed much by a design using 37 engines.
There is some good math theory about cumulation of defects in complex systems out there, already for a century or more.
Quite relevant to space industry of Old Times. In car analogy, imagine a failure rate of a car using 37 engines...
I suggest all those engineers shall prove their design by actually riding it, headed up by a weed smoker together.
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday March 11 2020, @11:27PM (1 child)
These rockets can actually continue to work [spacenews.com] even if an engine fails in flight. Try that with a single large engine.
Maybe you should smoke some more weed and get back to us. You probably won't learn anything, but the results could be entertaining.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Thursday March 12 2020, @05:58AM
That will never happen in this timeline.
Anyway, I am looking forward to fireworks.
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.