Nicholas D’Alessandro
19 March 2021
The completed Super Heavy BN1 booster stack is illuminated in the High Bay at night, as seen from the LabPadre “Sentinel” live cam. Credit: Louis Balderas Jr. / @ LabPadre
SN11 Friday update, for March 19, 2021: The test campaign for Starship looks set to take a ‘Spring Break weekend’, with no additional static fire attempts after Monday’s partial test. Due to the public roadway passing through the workplace, tests that require road closures usually do not occur on weekends.
Although some were expected, no further shutdowns for HWY 4 occurred during the week, indicating that the expected second static fire attempt will not take place earlier than Monday. In addition, flight TFRs posted for Friday, Saturday and Sunday were also withdrawn, leaving a possible flight date in the air (pun intended), pending the issuance of new TFRs. It is widely expected that when SN11 does fly, a successful landing will follow – the second for this design, after SN10.
A cloud of dust forms as SpaceX’s Starship SN10 test article prepares to land in Boca Chica, Texas, on March 3, 2021. Credit: Nicholas D’Alessandro / Spaceflight Insider
Back at the High Bay building, however, SpaceX unveiled a surprise for Thursday. All eyes are on the Super Heavy Booster prototype BN1, which during its time there patiently waited in two parts behind SN11, as the massive “Tankzilla” crane that uses SpaceX for stacking has been extended to its highest configuration yet around the to integrate two. BN1 departments. It was a first of its kind, with a section of the High Bay roof that actually had to be removed to lower the crane hook through it.
Super Heavy is the name given to the huge Phase 1 booster that will drive Starship on its operational missions, and the prototype versions adopt the naming scheme “BN” (or Booster Number). Elon Musk, founder and chief engineer of SpaceX, said late yesterday on Twitter that BN1 will not actually fly, but rather will be a production signpost to help the company develop the most efficient methods for manufacturing and transporting the giant 70-meter stage. BN2 on the other hand is destined to fly, possibly in a short hop test similar to the early Starship SNs.
The key phase for the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket is seen in the B-2 test post during a second hot fire test, Thursday, March 18, 2021, at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The four RS-25 engines fired during the test for a full duration of 8 minutes, delivering 1.6 million pounds of thrust. Photo credit: (NASA / Robert Markowitz)
It is undeniably interesting to note the timing of this stacking event, which takes place immediately after NASA’s second SLS Green Run Hotfire test, which is apparently nominally complete. Super Heavy will act as the rocket’s direct commercial rival to send people to the Moon, and one day Mars.
If fully integrated with a Starship on top, the entire launch system will be known as ‘Starship Super Heavy’ and will stand at a whopping 120 meters – the highest space launch system ever invented, longer than NASA’s Saturn V and SLS itself. It was an absolute banner day for space fans around the world as the race to turn these two very capable launch systems around officially kicked off.
With the Green Run test campaign now complete, SLS will be refurbished and then shipped to Cape Canaveral, while BN1 will go to the test point once SpaceX has confidence in an implementation procedure for the unprecedented test article. The ultimate and ambitious goal as stated by Musk yourself on Twitter: to set up the first rotary test flight of a fully stacked configuration, already in July this year.
Tagged: Lead Stories SpaceX Starship Starship SN11 Super Heavy
Nicholas D’Alessandro
Nicholas D’Alessandro was born and bred in Southwest Florida. The seeds of his interest in Space Exploration were planted when the sonic surge of the Shuttle upon his return through his orphanage would resonate even throughout the country; the knowledge that a real spaceship goes overboard and can have the effect was fascinating to him. A field trip to the Kennedy Space Center boosted the fascination, and with an added interest in the bleeding edge of car technology and Teslas, it was the story of Elon Musk’s journey to Cape Canaveral with SpaceX that eventually led Nicholas to the Space Coast and, after joining Spaceflight Insider in 2020, begin documenting the dawn of commercial spaceflight.