Space Flight Updates - Russia pullingout of ISS?

ThreatMatrix

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I'm guessing they spend the good part of the weekend attaching everything and installing a new engine. Then as early as Sunday night they start testing again. I don't think they need to do any pressure testing since the only added plumbing is a pipe that connects to the small header tank in the nosecone. Another static fire with new engine. Then a static fire using the header tank and then maybe a refire to test the header.
I could see launch in 7-10 days.
 
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ThreatMatrix

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SS1.PNG

Waiting for glue to dry. Testing now scheduled starting Wednesday night. They still need to install an engine to replace one that made an odd noise when it shut down.
 

deuce

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I didn't understand what Elon was talking about when he mentioned that several Raptor engines had not tested to 300 Bar. I understand the measurement but don't understand how the engines produce such a wide difference in pressure. Is he talking about sea level engines, vacuum engines or all variants?

I did like the quote, "At 300 Bar, anything that will burn, will burn!"
 
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ThreatMatrix

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I don't think it matters too much if sea level or vacuum. The engine is the same - the nozzle is differerent.

The two key measurements of a rocket engine are ISP (fuel economy) and Thrust (horsepower). A higher chamber pressure generally results in an increase in those two performance parameters so it is used (reported) as a proxy for "hey, we're making the engine even better". Elon/SpaceX keep pushing Raptor development and are squeezing out more and more chamber pressure. They've built at least 40 engines that we know of and some of them no doubt were at the lower chamber pressures.

As to how the engines produce 300Bar that's what the turbo pumps do.
 

deuce

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Reportedly several only went 270 bar but when questioned Elon said the engineers "chickened out" LOL
 

ThreatMatrix

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Road closures cancelled for Wed-Thu. I guess glue hasn't dried. Still a short closure on Friday prolly just to move crane back to build site.
 

Turk182

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Spotted in the Brownsville ship channel 2 days ago. Could this be part of the Starship Sea Launch Platform?

SEALAUNCH.png
 

deuce

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Raptor Honk!

Word for the day
 

Turk182

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Fire at 1:49

Nice fireworks!

Still no word as to what the flying debris is or was!
 

ThreatMatrix

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Yeah. I don't know what those sparks were. If it was ice I don't know why we haven't seen it before. Maybe because it was night and most SF have been during the day.
 

deuce

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Nothing official but the ice theory seems to be very popular.

I think it was a glitter bomb.

On a related topic, I don't see how they can do this without a flame trench....
 

ThreatMatrix

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I won't believe it's ice until Elon tweets it was ice. Don't know what else it coulda been but I'm not buying ice.
The test stands should never see more than 3 engines so lack of flame trench is acceptable. And there is a water deluge system in place.
The big unknown is the Orbital Launch Pad. They built it without a flame trench and Elon tweeted that they may regret that. It's much higher off the ground and will probably see 20 engines max. That will be real exciting.
This test flight is taking much longer than I expected but it just goes to show that this IS testing so it takes what it takes. I was hoping to see a SH launch before end of the year but that's not looking likely now.
 

ThreatMatrix

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So we had what looked like a successful static fire test last night. However, moments after the static fire we could see what looked like molten steel dripping from under the skirt. This went on for about a minute. Then we noticed that the tanks we're not depressurizing. Eventually Elon tweeted that there was a failure of the pneumatic system and worse, the the pressure in the header tank was increasing and if the pressure relief valve didn't pop the whole thing could blow. So we waited about 20 minutes for that and the relief valve finally popped.
No doubt this will set testing back quite a while. And I don't know if they can even reuse SN8. It may have to be rolled back and replaced with SN9. And they still have to determine the reason for the pneumatic failure and determine if it requires a redesign. We may not get a 15km hop this year.
 

deuce

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Watched with mixed emotions........ Like EM said, "if you don't blow up rockets, you ain't testing rockets!"

I think the damage isn't as bad as first thought.

Still think the "sparks" were the bad concrete patch coming apart.
 

deuce

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Crew-1 was a beau8tiful launch, I got to watch it in person. I hope everything goes as planned.

SpaceX is really amazing....
 

Turk182

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rXQ2uwLVFWR9wSiX5ViLpk-1024-80.jpg.webp


Crew Dragon is beautiful.
 

G8trwood

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Watched it long distance from St Aug Beach, nice to see from the coolness factor and the US back in the mix of things
 

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