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Elon Musk tells SpaceX employees that its Starship rocket is the top priority now
SpaceX launched astronauts for the first time barely a week ago but CEO Elon Musk does not want the company resting on its laurels.
Instead, Musk urged SpaceX employees to accelerate progress on its next-generation Starship rocket "dramatically and immediately," writing Saturday in a company-wide email seen by CNBC.
"Please consider the top SpaceX priority (apart from anything that could reduce Dragon return risk) to be Starship," Musk wrote in the email.
[...] So far, the company's Starship development program in Boca Chica, Texas has suffered four dramatic setbacks. While SpaceX has made progress on each iteration, the most recent prototype exploded shortly after an engine test on May 29.
Also at Teslarati.
SpaceX's Starship Super Heavy booster needs a custom assembly tower
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that Starship's Super Heavy rocket booster will get its own tower-like vehicle assembly building (VAB) – and work on the structure may have already begun.
While the only visible work SpaceX has thus far completed on its next-generation Starship launch vehicle is related to the more complex and unproven upper stage of the rocket, its Super Heavy first stage (booster) is just as critical. For SpaceX, Starship was the perfect starting point, itself following on the footsteps of a largely successful multi-year Raptor engine development program. Substantially smaller than Super Heavy and requiring 5-10 times fewer engines, Starship serves as a testbed for an almost entirely new suite of technologies and strategies SpaceX is employing to build massive rockets out of commodity steel.
[...] While Starship itself is not exactly small at ~50m (165 ft) tall and 9m (30ft) wide, the Super Heavy booster tasked with launching the ship on its way to orbit will easily be the largest individual rocket stage ever built. Currently expected to measure 70m (230 ft) tall, Super Heavy – just the first stage of the Starship launch vehicle – will already be as tall as an entire Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy and weigh roughly three times more than the latter triple-booster rocket when fully fueled. At liftoff, Super Heavy will produce more than triple the thrust of Falcon Heavy and double the thrust of Saturn V, the most powerful liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit.
Thanks to the sheer size of the booster, SpaceX's existing Starship-sized vehicle/vertical assembly building (VAB) is far too small for Super Heavy and is even too short to fully stack a ~50m Starship. SpaceX's contractor of choice started assembling that VAB around January 15th and the facility was able to begin supporting its first Starship stacking and welding operations on March 2nd, just a month and a half later, with the structure fully completed by March 18th. As such, assuming the in-work foundation is as close to completion as it seems and SpaceX uses the same contractor for the next building, Super Heavy's VAB could be ready to build the first massive booster prototype as early as July or August. Things could take a bit longer given that Musk says the booster VAB will be 81m (265 ft) tall, nearly twice the height of Starship's VAB, but likely by no more than a few weeks.
Previously: Today WAS the Day -- Crew Demo 2 Launch Successful -- Heading to ISS [Updated]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 09 2020, @07:26PM (5 children)
NASA may use Crew Dragon for a long time. It's based on proven technology, has an abort system that can bypass the upper stage, and can do splashdowns.
https://everydayastronaut.com/starship-abort/ [everydayastronaut.com]
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(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday June 09 2020, @07:51PM (4 children)
Maybe, assuming it continues to be worthwhile to SpaceX to support and operate an obsolete rocket for a single customer.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 09 2020, @08:25PM (3 children)
They announced Dragon XL pretty recently, intended for Artemis. I think SpaceX will continue churning out Falcon and Merlin for another 10 years or more if NASA wants it. Although they should obviously try to transition away from it.
Another interesting bit is that NASA has apparently approved of using "flight-proven" Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 for CREWED launches [teslarati.com]. This is huge news that could mean that less boosters and Dragon capsules need to be built to meet NASA's needs.
If Starlink becomes successful, the launch business could become a small slice of SpaceX's revenue. It also gives them an opportunity to engage in true anti-competitive practices. They could sell Starship launches at cost or less and undercut the entire planet's medium/superheavy and smallsat launch capabilities.
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(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday June 09 2020, @10:44PM (2 children)
Perhaps so - though it's worth pointing out that Artemis is a near-term project. While Starship is still almost completely unproven technology that is vanishingly unlikely to be passenger-certified on a relevant timetable.
You might be right about another 10 years of Falcon support, but I rather doubt it will be longer than that. Keep in mind that the second that Starship proves itself, Falcon 9 not only becomes completely irrelevant to Musk's goal of colonizing Mars, but actually a hindrance, since keeping them in operation means continuing to operate production, refurbishment, and launch facilities that no longer contribute anything to their long-term goals. Cultivating good will with NASA is probably worth something - the question is how much. NASA will also have strong incentive to get Starship certified for crew missions since it would greatly increase their capacity while lowering costs. (I believe Musk has stated that Starship should be cheaper per launch almost immediately, and will eventually be cheaper to *build* than Falcon 9.)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 09 2020, @11:09PM (1 child)
I can think of an amusing solution. Sell/license Falcon 9 + Heavy + Merlin. Just give away all the trade secrets and responsibilities to ULA or another company, maybe shedding a few knowledgeable employees that can train a batch of engineers to understand what they're working with. But I'm not sure maintaining both Falcon and Starship is so much trouble, and if it is, SpaceX can just demand more money from NASA. If one side balks, it's off.
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(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday June 09 2020, @11:21PM
Not, that'd never work - ULA would never be able to get away with charging ridiculous cost+ contracts, so what would be their motive? :-D