Monday, November 22, 2021

Super Heavy Booster 5 Down to Final Assembly Details

Last Friday, November 19th, workers at SpaceX Boca Chica lifted the liquid methane tank for B5 and put it on top of the oxygen tank, marking the last of the major assembly steps in readying the ~225 foot tall rocket for testing.  A team of welders has been doing final assembly since then.

Two days earlier, Elon tweeted this upskirt photo of B4 after the installation of heat shielding between the Raptor engines.  The tweet simply said, “12 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.” 

This will be the most powerful rocket launched in human history.  Then it will be upgraded with an additional four engines to a total of 33.  I calculate the additional four engines will raise the thrust to 13.7 million pounds.  

Teslarati author Eric Ralph points out that B5 is being assembled differently than B4 and is coming along faster.  Refining processes while in motion is how SpaceX works, though, so not surprising in the least. 

Once Booster 5’s two halves are welded together, only a few things will set it and Booster 4 apart. In recent weeks, SpaceX’s slow progress on Super Heavy B4 relented a bit as technicians began closing out the booster’s raceway (a conduit for plumbing, wiring, and avionics) with basic covers. More importantly, SpaceX also began reinstalling Raptor engines and installing heat shielding around those engines for the first time. In the photo Musk published on November 17th, that heat shield is easily visible and there are signs that it will ultimately enclose the entire outer ring of 20 Raptor Boost engines above their nozzles.
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Super Heavy Booster 5, on the other hand, has taken a slightly different path through assembly. Unlike Booster 4, which first rolled out as little more than a giant steel tank with Raptors half-installed, SpaceX appears to have installed most of Booster 5’s external plumbing, wiring, equipment racks, and maybe even the start of its Raptor heat shield during assembly instead of after. Perhaps as a result, SpaceX has taken more than ten weeks to stack Booster 5 versus 2.5 weeks for Booster 4. But given that Booster 4 still doesn’t appear to be complete some 18 weeks after its assembly began, there’s a chance that Booster 5 will ultimately take 4-6 weeks less to reach initial test readiness.

It looks like B5 could conceivably be ready to test before B4 is.  I don't see them rolling it to the launch area because there's nowhere to put it.  There are two test stands: one still has B3 on it, the other has B4.  The Orbital Launch Pad is said to be nearing the point when a fully loaded booster can be mounted and do a full static fire of the 29 engines, but isn't there yet.  

Let's pretend the FAA gives approval on December 31st, like the schedule shows.  That means they can launch as soon as they want.  The first week in January?  There's a lot to do, a lot to test before they try to put that thing into orbit.  Flounder said it best.



14 comments:

  1. We all know that B3 is destroyed, B4 is stolen back in time, and B5 is our last, best hope.

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    1. I came here to make that joke!

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    2. Clearly, we can't let Mira Furlan or Bruce Boxleitner anywhere near Boca Chica. Or maybe we should...

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  2. What in the world are they launching that requires that much power to lift into orbit ?

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    1. Anything you like. They are building a transportation system for the solar system.

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    2. One of the big things "coming soon" (once they get Starship running) is orbital refueling. SpaceX has that development contract with NASA to develop orbital refueling. EVERY big NASA idea gets more doable with orbital refueling.

      I think I've read it will take four Starship tanks of fuel to fully fuel another one to go out into the solar system.

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    3. Okay, I guess that last one makes sense. Far more fuel efficient to start a journey from space then from surface of Earth. I wish it a successful launch.

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    4. SpaceX was one of four companies awarded a contract to work on orbital refueling back in 2019, and one line really stood out to me.

      Bobby Braun, a former chief technologist at NASA and then dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder said, "I’ve got a stack of studies that go from the floor to the ceiling that list the critical technologies needed for humans to become long-term explorers in deep space, and in-space refueling is always on the list."

      Of the four companies, as usually happens SpaceX got the second smallest award, ahead of a startup that (at least) I'd never heard of.

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  3. a JAN 1 test would be a wonderful 60th birthday present for someone... especially if I could watch it there

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  4. And NASA is still fooling around with the SLS...why?

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    1. because pork-barrel spending and corporate welfare

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  5. 29 Raptors firing will be a key milestone in my life.

    I wonder what the penalty is for the starship orbital launch without FAA approval. Perhaps asking forgiveness here is better than asking for permission.

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  6. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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