SpaceX (general discussion)

From a couple of days ago. Testing the StarHopper RCS:


Drove two days from LA to shoot Starhopper’s 200m hop but road closures seem to indicate a delay to NET August 26. Here’s video of an RCS test today. Worth it.

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Can you confirm this will be the last flight of StarHopper? Onto Starship prototypes next, right?


Yes, last flight for Hopper. If all goes well, it will become a vertical test stand for Raptor.


How would it handle a RUD of an engine as a test stand? Will there need to be a big shield put in place between the engine and the tankage?


It’s quite robust
 
Scrubbed for Monday after an abort just after T-0. Trying again Tuesday.
 
Published by Eric Ralph in News SpaceX 1 hour ago

SpaceX scrubs Starhopper’s final Raptor-powered flight as Elon Musk talks “finicky” igniters



Impressively accurate analysis!


Very strange that relatively simple circuits like the igniters (basically a square wave oscillator and a transformer) could be miswired. Very strange that there are no sensors that could check on whether the igniters were working. Also very strange that there are no comments here


Yes, rather embarrassing tbh
 
Measured to the top of the hopper or the bottom? ;)

From the bottom. The specific sentence is:

FAA said:
SpaceX may operate the Starship Hopper vehicle for one flight, without further FAA authorization, to a nominal altitude of 150 meters AGL or less, with a maximum propellant load of 30 metric tons at liftoff, in accordance with its application.

AGL is defined to be 0 when the craft is touched down on the ground.

Do note that I think there is basically 0 chance they will actually reach exactly 150m under this authorization. Going over even a little, even if accidentally, would be against their permit, and SpaceX is generally very careful about those. So they will leave a bit of margin on there just in case.
 
Today A water tower flew around with Rocketengine
and is sooo Cool to watch that !
EDAjUO4U0AAk6KM
 
Good job it will not be flying again as it crushed two of its feet & lost another.


 
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A water tower w/one engine is spectacular. Starship mk1 w/three engines is going to be insane.

I'm a bit confused. Is Hopper / Starhopper the same thing? Are both the Texas and Florida sites building Starship mk1s? There are so many photoshops & unofficial renderings out there it's difficult to determine what is being built. I'd thought Hopper was Hopper and then I see, "Starhopper" pop up here and there. I'd thought both Texas and Florida were building identical designs and that they were not even prototype Starships. More like X-planes.
 
A water tower w/one engine is spectacular. Starship mk1 w/three engines is going to be insane.

I'm a bit confused. Is Hopper / Starhopper the same thing? Are both the Texas and Florida sites building Starship mk1s? There are so many photoshops & unofficial renderings out there it's difficult to determine what is being built. I'd thought Hopper was Hopper and then I see, "Starhopper" pop up here and there. I'd thought both Texas and Florida were building identical designs and that they were not even prototype Starships. More like X-planes.


Hopper/Starhopper refers to the same vehicle, built first in Texas. It mounted a single raptor engine, and has now flown twice, first to 20m and now to <150m.

Before the hopper was even finished, both sites (Texas and Florida) started building a new vehicle, which has been referred to as the "starship prototype" by Musk on twitter. We don't know precisely how close it will be to the real thing. Right now, both of these are basically at the point where the main hull has been (mostly) built, and most of the remaining work is either inside where we don't see it happening, or outside adding legs and wings and stuff which we very much will see soon.

On top of that, the straight part of the hull of both of the SS prototypes were built from rings that welded on the site. Neither build site stopped making those rings when need for them for the SS prototype ended. Right now the theory is that they are still making them to quickly move on to building the SH booster as soon as the welding jig is free.
 
Thanks! :) That's basically what I figured (I know there are pictures of part of a wing on a flatbed semi) but wasn't sure. The notion of a SH booster under construction is new to me. I also wonder how the tall, fabric-covered building will be used.
 

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