Wednesday, February 8, 2023

If You Have Time Thursday

Park a browser tab or window on your favorite Boca Chica monitoring cameras, NASA Spaceflight or Lab Padre - or whatever you choose.  We have word that SpaceX is aiming to do the 33 engine static firing we've been waiting for for a couple of years.  Road closure from 8AM to 8PM CST; I wouldn't bet hard on them doing it very early in the day but they've done it before.  In the 12 hours, they have a lot of time to work and overcome issues that might come up.

It started with this email a couple of hours ago:

A few comments into their poll this appeared:

I'm sure the comment is referring to Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX COO, since she's in charge at Boca Chica, and the commenter just didn't know how her name.  On the Lab Padre live cams, they run a longer note explaining she announced that at the CST conference - presumably the Commercial Space Transportation Conference going on this week in Washington, DC. 

Boca Chica Mary, who photographs for NASA Spaceflight, posted a tweet showing the Overpressure Notice to the village residents there outside the Shipyard gates.  Another user tweeted the Marine Safety Information Bulletin (MSIB) for the testing.

It looks like all the indicators are as positive as we get. 



5 comments:

  1. Pardon me for my language, SiC, but...
    HOT DAMN!!

    Full send, baby!!

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  2. Hot indeed. Especially if the water drench system doesn't work.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "BOOM!"
    "Run away! Run!"
    "Wait, that was normal?!"

    ReplyDelete
  4. I live 20ish miles from the SpaceX McGregor test facility.
    My windows rattle when they test fire.
    Guessing they are only testing one at a time.
    Can't imagine how loud 33 at once would be.
    Thinking "overpressure" may be an understatement.

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  5. The test started at 15:13:45 (local) and it was all over in 6 seconds. Nothing went boom, but the "whoosh" was EPIC!

    Musk tweeted that one engine they shut off (didn't meet spec), and another shut itself down automagically. So, it was a 31-engine test!

    When you realize they can achieve orbit with 7 engines not working, I'd say it's ready to rock(et)...Most likely, they will remove those two engines, analyze them, and put two more in it and test again. When all thirty-three are lit, THEN it'll be ready to go.

    FULL SEND

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