WASHINGTON – SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says a propellant dump caused the destruction of Starship’s upper stage on a November test flight, giving him confidence the spacecraft will be able to reach orbit on its next launch. He said that
During the Nov. 18 launch, Starship’s upper stage, or ship, was nearing the end of its long suborbital burn when it lost contact. Organizers of SpaceX’s webcast said an automatic flight termination system appeared to have activated, but they did not say why, and the company has since released few details.
At a recent event at SpaceX’s Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas, Video posted by SpaceX on social media on January 12th, Musk said the failure was related to the release of liquid oxygen propellant near the end of the burn. He said the exhaust system was necessary because the vehicle was not carrying any cargo.
“In fact, two flights almost went off the rails,” he said. “If it had a payload, it would have been able to go into orbit. The reason it actually didn’t go into orbit was because it was expelling liquid oxygen, and the liquid oxygen ended up causing a fire and an explosion.”
He said this ventilation would not have been necessary if the ship had a payload, but the payload would probably be consumed by the Raptor engines on board to reach orbit. He did not elaborate on how the vent caused the fire, nor did he mention the explosion of the super heavy stage shortly after stage separation.
Musk said this failure mode gave him confidence heading into the next Starship test flight. “I think we have a pretty good chance of Unit 3 reaching orbit,” he said.
SpaceX’s Jessica Jensen said at a NASA briefing on Jan. 9 that the third flight is currently scheduled for February and is awaiting an updated launch permit from the Federal Aviation Administration. Stated. Musk outlined a flight plan for a more ambitious mission that would involve additional testing of Starship.
“We want to reach orbit, and we want to fire the engine from the header tank on top of the spacecraft,” he said. Doing so would “prove that it is possible to reliably deorbit.”
The flight will also test propellant transfer from the header tank to the main propellant tank, a milestone for propellant transfer from one Starship vehicle to another and a NASA Tipping Point Award recipient. This will be a part of the demonstration. The first ship-to-ship propellant transfer tests are planned, he said, “hopefully by the end of this year, but definitely by next year.”
Musk said SpaceX plans to use a “Pez dispenser” payload to be used on later flights to deploy full-sized Starlink V2 satellites, which are much larger than the V2 small satellites currently being launched on Falcon 9. Said to test the door. by the end of this year,” he said of the launch of the Starlink V2 satellite.
These Starship tests come as SpaceX continues to increase its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch rates. The company will conduct 96 Falcon launches in 2023, and Musk said it is planning “around 150” flights in 2024. Company executives previously set a goal of 144 launches in 2024, or 12 per month.
This flight speed includes fewer than 24 planned turnarounds between launches from the same airfield by the end of the year. Musk added that SpaceX is working to get the Falcon 9 booster to complete 40 flights. The company has flown the same booster up to 19 times.