SpaceX is already preparing for the next Starship launch – the SN11 prototype is installed on the launch pad
Less than a week has passed since the landing (and subsequent explosion) of the previous SN10 prototype of the Starship launch vehicle, and SpaceX is already preparing for another test flight. A prototype SN11 was set up yesterday at a launch pad near Boca Chica’s village in South Texas in anticipation of the upcoming launch.
It is expected that shortly, SpaceX will conduct the fourth flight of prototypes at an altitude of about 10 km, followed by an attempt to return and a jet landing. Many videos have appeared on the Web about how the SN11 rocket (short for “serial number 11”) is taken to the launch pad and placed on the test bench using a huge crane. The rocket is about 50 meters high and is propelled by three Raptor rocket engines. The final version of Starship will receive six Raptor engines.
Starship SN11 is the latest prototype built by SpaceX to test the systems needed to create a huge, fully reusable system that will consist of the Starship recoverable spacecraft and the same reusable 70-meter Super Heavy first stage.
The Super Heavy accelerator will receive about 30 Raptor engines. Mr. Musk recently announced that the system would begin delivering humans into space in 2023. In the future, this machine is planned to be used for flights to the Moon, Mars, and other places far from the Earth.
According to Elon Musk, many changes were made to SN11 to correct deficiencies identified during previous tests – according to him, SN10 exploded after landing because the engines did not have enough power due to helium leaking from the fuel tank. Curiously, SpaceX is starting to increase the number of heat shield tiles – if, in fact, there were no tiles on SN8, then on SN11, they already cover a noticeable part of the rocket. Perhaps soon, we will see a prototype with full-fledged thermal protection (it is designed to prevent the destruction of the ship when heated during the entry into the Earth’s atmosphere):
On March 3, SpaceX launched its Starship SN10 spacecraft to an altitude of 10 kilometers and managed to land the car, although the rocket exploded a few minutes after landing. This mission followed two other launches of Starships SN9 and SN8 to the same altitude – those prototypes managed to take off and make the necessary maneuvers, but the landing did not go well. Both SN8 and SN9 exploded with huge fireballs during the landing attempt.
SpaceX made incremental changes and updates to the Starship design after each test flight. The company said Starship would eventually deliver up to 100-110 tons into low-earth orbit. NASA has selected Starship as one of three candidates with the potential to deliver astronauts and equipment to the moon under the Artemis program. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has already booked a SpaceX Starship flight around the moon for himself and eight other passengers.
