SpaceX (Vol. 2)

[anonymous-user]

Bit late, but congrats on volume 2 everyone

[Beati Dogu]

The CRS-22 cargo Dragon capsule is to to undock from the ISS on Tuesday, 6th July.

It has been up there for about a month.

It should splash down in the Atlantic a while later, off Florida.

[Beati Dogu]

A comparison of rocket sizes:



From left to right: Starship, New Shepard, Falcon 9 and Saturn V.

[Krikkit]

annodomini2 said:

Burn time is comparable, ~169 secs.

Starship should have ~20% more deltaV than F9 2nd stage, but it needs to be capable of landing.

Superheavy mostly empty will have significantly more surface area than an F9 booster, so maybe they can use more drag due to stainless being more stable than carbon fibre at temperature extremes.

So maybe Superheavy can tolerate a higher re-entry velocity than F9.

I believe this is the idea - lots more energy as it's bigger, but also much more surface area and better material to handle it.

Should be exciting.

[Beati Dogu]

As I understand it, the Starship (i.e. upper stage) will be doing proportionately more of the work that a Falcon 9 upper stage does. Consequently the booster will separate, turn itself around and head home earlier and at a lower velocity than a F9 booster.
.
Because the booster will be coming in slower than a Falcon 9 and since it’s built from steel, it can handle the temperatures without a reentry burn. With no reentry burn, they don’t need to carry the fuel for it. Thus saving more launch mass.The desire to save weight on the booster is why it won’t have legs. They have offloaded the recovery mechanism to the launch/recovery tower to this end.

[AW111]

The lightweight booster will also have a big surface area for it's mass, so I assume it will decelerate faster - less time to heat soak.

[Beati Dogu]

The business end a Super Heavy booster is about 6 times larger than of a Falcon 9.

[AW111]

Beati Dogu said:

The business end a Super Heavy booster is about 6 times larger than of a Falcon 9.

Do you know how the re-entry mass compares?

[Talksteer]

AW111 said:

Beati Dogu said:

The business end a Super Heavy booster is about 6 times larger than of a Falcon 9.

Do you know how the re-entry mass compares?

About 10 times as much, the CF version was in the fullness of time expected to be about 150 tonnes, the prototype SS version will be heavier.

[annodomini2]

Superheavy dry mass is iro 200t.

It will not be dry.

[Beati Dogu]

By comparison the SLS booster, which is comparable size wise, is about 94 tons empty. It is of course a one shot deal and mostly made from aluminium alloy.


Meanwhile, the latest cargo Dragon capsule has departed the ISS now. It was delayed a couple of days due to topical storm Elsa riling up the sea off the US east coast.

Splashdown will be at 11.30 pm on Friday, local time. That’s 4.30 am Saturday, UK time.


Also the new west coast landing ship has arrived at the port of Long Beach, California. It'll likely be in use before the month is out.

[Talksteer]

Beati Dogu said:

By comparison the SLS booster, which is comparable size wise, is about 94 tons empty. It is of course a one shot deal and mostly made from aluminium alloy.


Meanwhile, the latest cargo Dragon capsule has departed the ISS now. It was delayed a couple of days due to topical storm Elsa riling up the sea off the US east coast.

Splashdown will be at 11.30 pm on Friday, local time. That’s 4.30 am Saturday, UK time.


Also the new west coast landing ship has arrived at the port of Long Beach, California. It'll likely be in use before the month is out.

I know you know this but the SLS core stage is hydrolox (less dense) without a common dome (more of it is air). Super-heavy carries more than 3 times as much fuel and has 9 times as much thrust!

[annodomini2]

Talksteer said:

Beati Dogu said:

By comparison the SLS booster, which is comparable size wise, is about 94 tons empty. It is of course a one shot deal and mostly made from aluminium alloy.


Meanwhile, the latest cargo Dragon capsule has departed the ISS now. It was delayed a couple of days due to topical storm Elsa riling up the sea off the US east coast.

Splashdown will be at 11.30 pm on Friday, local time. That’s 4.30 am Saturday, UK time.


Also the new west coast landing ship has arrived at the port of Long Beach, California. It'll likely be in use before the month is out.

I know you know this but the SLS core stage is hydrolox (less dense) without a common dome (more of it is air). Super-heavy carries more than 3 times as much fuel and has 9 times as much thrust!

Actually the bulk of volume of the SLS core propellant is hydrogen.

Methalox for Raptor ratio is around 3.5-3.8:1 Oxygen to methane

Hydrolox is 6-8:1 hydrogen to oxygen

[shalmaneser]

Cannot wait to see this thing head skywards.

[red_slr]

Not space x but could not find another thread, Virgin Galactic are going live on Sunday with SirRB as a member of the crew plus 3 other VG senior people as pax.

Youtube linky

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

c.2pm BST.

[hidetheelephants]

red_slr said:

Not space x but could not find another thread, Virgin Galactic are going live on Sunday with SirRB as a member of the crew plus 3 other VG senior people as pax.

Youtube linky

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

c.2pm BST.

I think this is the VG thread, the most recent at any rate.

[Flooble]

red_slr said:

Not space x but could not find another thread, Virgin Galactic are going live on Sunday with SirRB as a member of the crew plus 3 other VG senior people as pax.

Youtube linky

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

c.2pm BST.

They're taking a Solid Rocket Booster as part of the crew?

[Beati Dogu]

SpaceX’s new landing ship A Shortfall of Gravitas has been out on sea trials.




Looks pretty sleek and futuristic. It's self propelled, unlike the others, which have to be towed.

Video footage:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/14135986703317...

Edited by Beati Dogu on Saturday 10th July 09:58

[Beati Dogu]

The number of Raptor engines are building up now:



- Elon

[annodomini2]

Beati Dogu said:

The number of Raptor engines are building up now:



- Elon

Let me guess, musk is playing a trick on us, the launch tower, isn't the launch tower, it's just the storage rack for Raptors?