SpaceX has now accidentally produced the opposite of Starship Series 9 (SN9) which completed a trio of Raptor ignition tests within four hours last week. abort on January 20th.
On January 13, Starship SN9 set its Raptor engines on fire somewhat successfully with no human intervention or inspection. Although an impressive achievement, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk soon revealed that two of the three engines of the rocket were damaged during the test campaign. NASASpaceflight.com later reported that the company detected a problem with one Raptor after the first three-engine static fire, and it eventually fired and carried out the next two static fires with only two engines.
SpaceX initially allowed five days to replace the two damaged Raptors (SN44 & SN46), and to plan the closure of the road (a sign of test plans) on 18, 19 and 20 January. Windows on the 18th and 19th run with no attempts. Finally, on the 20th, SpaceX started the first real test attempt of Starship SN9 since the engine swapped around 14:00, but it was switched off at 15:00.
After an extremely quick recovery, Starship probably made it less than a minute of ignition, but the second attempt was eventually stopped around 3:40 p.m.
Two hours later, after SpaceX extended the end of its road closure from 5pm to 8pm, Starship SN9’s third Raptor fire attempt was also disrupted – again just a minute or less away from the ignition.
SpaceX held Starship SN9 for an hour or so after the third abortion, but eventually began at 18:50 with final denial and pressure loss, indicating the end of the day’s efforts.
It is impossible to say what caused Wednesday’s back-to-back abortions, and whether the three cases were linked. While frustrating to watch from the sidelines, it’s important to remember that the public gets a truly unprecedented continuous view of SpaceX’s process of developing and refining a world – class launch vehicle. In addition, every die suffering under Starship should theoretically provide valuable amounts of data that both Starship and Raptor teams can use to better understand how to design, build, test and use the latest vehicle and its engines.
More likely, SpaceX is relying on caution (and therefore careful hardware and software limits) while trying to prepare Starship SN9 for its real purpose of collecting data – an SN8-style takeoff and landing.
SpaceX is currently scheduled to try again with another series of Starship SN9 static fire attempts between 08:00 and 17:00 CST (UTC-6) on Thursday 21 January.
Meanwhile, before SN9’s multiple interruptions on Wednesday, SpaceX rolled the latest in a series of Starship ‘test tanks’ from the factory to the starting point. A team quickly attached the tank to the concrete block and connected it to ground support equipment in preparation for a series of tests that are likely to end with SpaceX deliberately putting the tank under pressure until it bursts. If successful, it will open the door for future Starships to save weight by cutting the thickness of the steel sheet from 4mm to 3mm.
Stay tuned for updates on both active test campaigns.