Preparations Underway for Possible Late-May Test Firing

After six months of relative inactivity, SpaceX has delivered a new Starship prototype to its Starbase, TX launch facility. The new activity illustrates how anodyne Starbase’s last year has been, and raises hopes that 2022 will prove an eventful year—as the company makes ready for Starship’s first orbital launch attempt – albeit with an entirely different rocket.

SpaceX hasn’t rolled a new and functional Starship prototype from its factory to the test-stand since the summer of 2021, when its Starship 20 underwent a series of successful, six-Raptor static fires. By the time it was retired in May 2022, Starship 20 was ostensibly ready for test-flight. Regrettably, Super Heavy Booster 4, the launch vehicle atop which Starship 20 would ascend, never made it even a fraction of the way to a similar level of flight readiness, and SpaceX, therefore, never received the FAA environmental approval or launch license needed for an orbital launch attempt.

Only now, in May 2022–as Starship 20 and Super Heavy Booster 4 languish in obsolescence—does it seem SpaceX will finally receive the necessary permissions for a limited orbital test flight campaign.

Enter Starship 24 and Super Heavy Booster 7—the new chosen ones assigned to Starship’s orbital launch debut. Both feature extensive design changes, including an upgraded version of the Raptor engine and innumerable lessons learned over the better part of a year spent troubleshooting and testing their predecessors.

Super Heavy Booster 7 has already completed several cryogenic proof tests, and is currently being outfitted with no fewer than 33, new, Raptor engines. Starship 24, upon passing a series of preliminary tests, will be installed on a suborbital launch and test stand that has been significantly modified for qualification testing. Rather than advancing Starship 24 directly to static fires, SpaceX will minimize the risk of catastrophic failure by first using hydraulic rams to simulate the thrust of six Raptor V2 engines while Starship’s steel tanks and plumbing are chilled to cryogenic temperatures. Only after Starship 24 completes stress-testing will SpaceX install new, Raptor engines and commence static firing.

Improved Raptor engines will subject Starship 24 to 1400 tons (~3.1M lbf) of thrust at liftoff – almost 25% more than Ship 20 ever experienced. SpaceX has compensated for these stresses by provisioning Starship 24 with a sturdier thrust section. Ship 24 is also the first Starship SpaceX has outfitted with a next-generation nose, the first with a significant landing propellant tank redesign—and the first with a potentially functional payload bay and door.

Provided Starship 24 passes the planned cryo and thrust simulation tests, SpaceX has two test windows currently scheduled: one from 6am to 12pm CDT on Friday, May 27th, and the other from 10am to 10pm CDT on Tuesday, May 31st.

FMI: www.spacex.com