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Tag: Starship

  • SpaceX’s Test Rocket Topples Over In The Wind

    SpaceX’s Test Rocket Topples Over In The Wind

    SpaceX has been working on their BFR rocket for quite some time now. The company was getting ready to perform a test rocket launch soon from their facility in Boca Chica, Texas. Starship, formerly known as BFR, is Elon Musk’s dream to carry people and cargo into the orbit. It may even travel to the Moon, Mars and beyond at some point in the future. But, for now, it seems that the Texas wind is taking a toll on the rocket. 

    Photos suggest that the test rocket that was being prepared for a launch test has toppled over in the strong 50 miles per hour wind. According to Elon Musk, the mishap will take a few weeks to repair. According to Musk, the rocket was being prepared for a test launch in a few week’s time but the strong winds broke the Starship’s Mooring Blocks. These mooring blocks are responsible in keeping the rocket secured to the ground. This reportedly caused the Starship’s upper fairing to topple over. 

    The rocket is being made from stainless steel. Elon Musk says that 310S stainless is better for the high temperature outer skin, as it can bear  approximately 1450 Kelvin heat, so active cooling with cryogenic fuel only has to mitigate 300 degrees of delta temperature. The stainless steel fairing on the top seemed to have been damaged by the fall. Elon also reported that the bottom part of the rocket that houses the propellant tanks are fine.

    SpaceX wishes to do hop tests with this rocket. The speciality of the rocket is its reusability which according to the company will make space travel economical and accessible. The hop tests involve igniting the vehicle’s engines and sending the rocket to low altitudes and getting them back to Earth upright. The final design of the rocket however, will differ from the test rocket that has toppled over. The Raptor engines of the rocket are said to be going through a radical redesign. The test vehicle is slightly shorter than the Starship’s final design. The Starship will also boast of seven engines while the test vehicle has only three. 

    Development and manufacturing of the Starship will reportedly be done from Hawthorne, California but the company is planning to shift some of it’s Starship prototype production to Boca Chica, Texas. The reason for that, given by Musk, is that the prototypes were too big to move across the country easily.

  • SpaceX’s Starship Prototype Being Built At Breakneck Speeds

    SpaceX’s Starship Prototype Being Built At Breakneck Speeds

    In September 2016, Elon Musk had revealed his plans to build a super-heavy launch vehicle that could transport people in space. It was called the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS). Then in 2017, Musk showed the world an updated design of that space ship. He also renamed it to Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) and the Big Falcon Spacecraft (BFS). Now the name has changed again. The new name of the craft is Starship and the work is already in progress.

    What has changed?

    The rocket will be made out of polished stainless steel. Elon Musk has already shown off that rockets can be reused upon re-entry to earth, thus reducing the cost of space travel. According to Musk, a smaller version of the Starship will also be built for testing. The ship is being built at their South Texas launch site. This is also where the first hop test will be conducted in June 2019.

    The hull of the ship was originally supposed to be built with carbon composites (CCs) but a recent image shared by Elon Musk on Twitter suggests that it is being built with stainless steel alloy. The company is using 300 Series Stainless steel for the hull.

    On being questioned if stainless steel would make the ship heavier, Elon Musk stated that the alloy is heavier compared to carbon composites at room temperature. However it is lighter and stronger at cryogenic temperatures ranging from –150 °C (-238 °F) to absolute zero (-273 °C; -460 °F).

    Why Stainless Steel?

    Stainless steel’s natural reflectivity also has it’s positives since it will require less heat shielding. The steel is coldformed at cryogenic temperatures. This process allows for the end product to be lighter and tougher than traditional hot-rolled steel.

    SpaceX is also working on a staged combustion, methane fuelled rocket engine called Raptor. On being asked of be Raptor will be powered by electric turbo pumps, Elon further tweeted that the Raptor will not feature the electric pump fed engine. According to Musk, the Raptor turbopumps need 100,000 horsepower per engine.

    The image shared by Elon looks like it is directly out of a Sci-fi movie and we hope Space X achieves what it has set out to achieve. 2019 will be a very important year for the company as it has set various goals in this year. 

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