totm nov 2023 SpaceX Discussion Thread

[tater]

 

[mikegarrison]

What does "CAA Tower" mean? Is this some acronym for the launch tower?

 

edit: "crew access arm"?

Edited March 9, 2023 by mikegarrison

[tater]

1 hour ago, mikegarrison said:

edit: "crew access arm"?

Yeah, think that's it. Tower as in the tower the CAA will attach to.

Odd wording, but when they built the tower for Starship at 39A, it was noticed that they kept building more segments that were sitting around. Now they are apparently using the same tower segments to build a F9 crew access tower for redundancy (guess it would also allow late loading of perishable cargo?). EDIT: perishable cargo for Cargo Dragon.

Edited March 10, 2023 by tater

[RCgothic]

The "for cargo missions" initially threw me, but yeah, they mean for access to cargo dragon, not for payloads inside regular fairings.

[RCgothic]

For FTS installation?

 

 

[Exoscientist]

1 hour ago, RCgothic said:

For FTS installation?

 

 

 One responder to that twitter thread claimed he heard that booster is to be scrapped.

 

  Robert Clark

[tater]

47 minutes ago, Exoscientist said:

 One responder to that twitter thread claimed he heard that booster is to be scrapped.

Interesting if true.

[Exoscientist]

On 3/9/2023 at 12:34 AM, tater said:

The entire point of the licenses that they have already been granted was that they knew all this. So no.

https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/?&kt=5&lat=25.9961227&lng=-97.154417&airburst=0&hob_ft=0&psi=20,5,1&zm=15

Pad alt 5kT explosion:

 

480m alt 5kT explosion (maxes the 5 psi radius, higher alt reduces impact):

Note that evac is past Stargate facility for launch.

Outer circle is 1 psi overpressure.

Also, a 13.3kT detonation on the pad doesn't have 1 psi overpressure reach the middle of the old village. It kisses the closest side (all SpaceX at this point I think—regardless launch evac is farther away).

Not that this explodes at that level vs deflagration.

 

 Thanks. I took this image for the February Superheavy static test to be size of the exclusion zone for an actual launch:

 This is only an area 3 minutes, 15 seconds of latitude wide, that's 3.7 miles, 6 km. But this means the radius from the launch site is 2 miles, 3 km.

But here is the image from the FAA report:

https://www.faa.gov/space/stakeholder_engagement/spacex_starship/media/Draft_PEA_for_SpaceX_Starship_Super_Heavy_at_Boca_Chica.pdf

 This shows the exclusion radius for the public about 4 miles,  6.4 km.

 Perhaps the smaller map shown in the "Marine Safety Information Bulletin" was only for the SuperHeavy static test in February. I understand that only had 1/3rd propellant load.

  The larger area shown in the FAA map might be sufficient for the public. Still, one should be wary of the amount of damage even kilometers away as demonstrated by the Halifax and Texas City disasters, both in the ~3 kiloton range:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion#Explosion

https://sometimes-interesting.com/texas-city-disaster-deadliest-industrial-accident-in-u-s-history/

 

[tater]

6 minutes ago, Exoscientist said:

 This shows the exclusion radius for the public about 4 miles,  6.4 km.

There's only 1 road, and the soft checkpoint—only SpaceX, government, and property owners allowed—is 22 km from the launch pad. At this point the number of properties in the village NOT owned by SpaceX looks to be 7.

While there might be nonzero danger if they are in their homes, and while they might in fact be allowed closer where the limit is (pink area) on that map if they choose, that would be a risk they take themselves, and I'm not terribly concerned about that. I've been known to chose to do dangerous things myself—as recreation. Heck, I road motorcycles around Thailand once, and I continue to operate a motor vehicle in Albuquerque (not high-quality drivers )<shrug>.

[tater]

22 minutes ago, Exoscientist said:

  The larger area shown in the FAA map might be sufficient for the public. Still, one should be wary of the amount of damage even kilometers away as demonstrated by the Halifax and Texas City disasters, both in the ~3 kiloton range:

Which has a light damage radius of ~1 mile. Broken windows. The moderate blast damage radius is ~660 meters. Which is substantial damage.

Heavy damage for a 3 kT equiv wrecks the launch facility—but the 1 psi limit is not even halfway to the village.

1 hour ago, Exoscientist said:

 One responder to that twitter thread claimed he heard that booster is to be scrapped.

Booster is apparently remaining at the launch site (road opened).

This suggests that they maybe took it off to work on the launch mount. Maybe some interior armoring, since they have been working on the exterior for a while.

[AckSed]

I think the lower skirt on the booster is new. Looks good.

[tater]

Crew 5 undocking tonight.

[tater]

Wasn't really planning on watching this, but my buddy texted me from MCC.

[tater]

Might move TX trip to early April. 

[tater]

live

Splashdown set at 9:02 Eastern

[tater]

Anyone in Mexico, Guatemala, or Belize?

 

[Minmus Taster]

We have a visual of the capsule

Signal is back

Heck of a lightshow, drogues should open soon

Drogues are out

Main chutes are unfurled!

Endurance is ready for a swim!

Splashdown! Welcome home Crew-5!

[Exoscientist]

On 3/9/2023 at 10:39 AM, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

That is the most awesome thing I've seen in a while!

Do you mind adjusting the font size?  This is interesting info, but it comes across as really alarmist (and not quite believable because of that.  On the other hand the site you link to is normal looking and better presented).

Also - see below for more technical reasons why we should not panic.

 Yes. I copied this from another site with a different font. I’ll correct it.

 

  Robert Clark

[sevenperforce]

On 3/10/2023 at 3:38 PM, tater said:

On 3/10/2023 at 2:50 PM, Exoscientist said:

 One responder to that twitter thread claimed he heard that booster is to be scrapped.

Interesting if true.

They are pulling the booster off of the launch mount and parking it next to the tank farm in order to do work on the OLM. You don't want to have human workers working underneath a suspended 250-tonne booster.

[tater]

23 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

They are pulling the booster off of the launch mount and parking it next to the tank farm in order to do work on the OLM. You don't want to have human workers working underneath a suspended 250-tonne booster.

Yeah, I noticed it was not leaving the site on Friday (different post). Probably need to armor some of the inside of the OLM.
 

CRS is now 80% go for this evening.

 

 

 

 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

So are we thinking launch attempt for SS/Booster is slipping to April or later?

[tater]

29 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

So are we thinking launch attempt for SS/Booster is slipping to April or later?

I am not leaving this Sunday for TX, FWIW.

This test is of interest to NASA, and might involve some of their resources. If I mention on here I am otw to TX, assume I have been told something

[StrandedonEarth]

Let’s assume both SS and SH are sitting on their mounts beside the OLM. All three are ready for launch with no major testing left to be done.  After the FAA issues a launch license,  how soon can they get everything stacked, verified, and launched?

[sevenperforce]

14 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Let’s assume both SS and SH are sitting on their mounts beside the OLM. All three are ready for launch with no major testing left to be done.  After the FAA issues a launch license,  how soon can they get everything stacked, verified, and launched?

Under three days.

[tater]

5 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Under three days.

Sounds about right. There have been a bunch of prop deliveries, so the tank farm I think is good to go.

Not sure what the plan is WRT any support by NASA WB-57 aircraft is. If they were gonna watch reentry, we'd see an movement of those assets from Ellington Field (Houston, near JSC) to Hawaii as a tell. Back in the day when used for recon they were capable of being refueled in flight. No idea if that capability even exists on the NASA aircraft, but even if it was not removed, I doubt the NASA pilots are current for that, so I would expect to see them fly one to CA, refuel, then head to HI. They'd likely want to do that I day ahead of time I would think, but I suppose same day is not impossible. Then of course the NOTAMs need to be posted, etc.