Keep Trying, Even If You Trip Up
SpaceX has another round of launches on the horizon, aiming for its tenth Starship flight. Recent setbacks were blamed on a mix of structural weaknesses and issues with fuel pressurization.
The launch is slated for Sunday, August 24, opening the window at 6:30 PM CT (11:30 PM UTC). This mission is set to mirror past ones, with the added goal of deploying mock Starlink satellites and relighting an upper stage Raptor engine during its flight.
This time around, the company won’t attempt to catch the Super Heavy Booster. Instead, it will aim to gently send it into the Gulf of Mexico after turning off one of the three engines that aid in its landing. By testing a backup engine’s ability to finish the landing procedure, SpaceX gathers valuable data. The booster is planned to coast over the ocean using only two engines before finally dropping into the water.
In light of earlier failures, the upper stage will be fitted with enhancements to its heat shields, allowing for stress-testing of potentially vulnerable sections as well as testing the sturdiness of its catch fittings. The vehicle, along with its payload, will embark on a suborbital flight and, should it survive entry back to Earth, it will be purposely destroyed upon splashdown.
SpaceX’s journey with the growling Starship rocket hasn’t been smooth, despite some early successes—like catching the returning Super Heavy booster with a clever chopstick mechanism.
The recent attempts, including Flights 7, 8, and 9, faced issues that usually ended up lighting up the sky. The last attempt even involved detonating a Starship while still on the ground!
As they set a tentative launch date for the tenth test flight, SpaceX also shared insights about how things went down during the ninth attempt, diving into the likely reasons behind the explosion.
SpaceX declared the loss of its Super Heavy Booster during the ninth flight was due to experimenting with a steeper angle of attack. Reports suggested that the booster hit a peak of 17 degrees unexpectedly leading to an “energetic event” rather than the planned splashdown. Last signals came in while the booster was about a kilometer above the zone.
The company figures the mishap was due to excessive structural loads on the fuel transfer tube resulting in the explosive failure.
The takeaway? No more ungainly angles.
As for the upper stage Starship, it made it into space but began spinning uncontrollably due to leaks, which the team referred to as “off-nominal attitude.” This malfunction forced them to skip planned payload deployment and engine reignition. They picked up final telemetry when the Starship was about 59 kilometers over the Indian Ocean.
The leading cause behind why Starship went down seems to root back to an issue with the main fuel tank’s pressurization diffuser, situated inside the nosecone. SpaceX published footage showcasing the failure point, which allowed methane to flow into the nose and decline pressure in the main tank.
What’s the fix? They’ve designed a new diffuser that passed a tougher qualification examination which mimicked flight-like stresses, enduring for significantly longer than predicted timeframes without risking any damage.
Lastly, they’re attributing the pad explosion to a Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV) issue in the payload bay, calling it “undetectable or under-screened.” This same fault led to structural failure resulting in that unfortunate *boom.*
To prevent another mishap, SpaceX plans to revise COPV inspection standards, increase stress-testing methods, and adjust the operating pressure. Additionally, they’ll implement new protective covers and are developing a novel non-destructive check approach to spot internal damages.
SpaceX has had its share of COPV hiccups before, recalling an earlier Falcon 9 explosion linked to a loose tank in flight that damaged the LOX second-stage tank. The original blame lay on faulty steel rods, which held the tanks, rather than the tank itself.
In response to the ninth flight mishap, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) accepted SpaceX’s assessments and corresponding setbacks they’ve planned to rectify, giving the all-clear to press forward with the upcoming flight.
With just two flights remaining in the current generation of Starship, fingers crossed that the next phase doesn’t bring forth a whole host of new issues down the line! 🚀
