SPACEX STARHOPPER ORBITAL VEHICLE TAKES SHAPE



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SPACEX STARHOPPER ORBITAL VEHICLE TAKES SHAPE. Haya everyone Mic of Orion here, OK, this is just speculation at this point, but there’s very good chance SpaceX will test fire Starship Hopper or Starhopper on the 24th and 25th, of this month, this’ll be series of short hops, not more than hundred meters off the ground, if even that. The recent spectacular success of Falcon Heavy launch has inspired not only SpaceX but also NASA and other potential commercial customers to press on SpaceX the importance of the next step in rocket development. Funny enough, SpaceX has already started work on Super Heavy and Starship, although assembly point which at this point for both rockets will be at Boca Chica facility in South Texas, is yet to be built. The first clues SpaceX is doing just that can be seen in recent photos of an area cleared for what is best described future hangar of sorts, the structure some ~80x30m will house future assembly for SpaceX super Heavy and Starship. Which could mean only one thing, the Starship assembly could start as soon as the facility is built. When can we hope the facility will be up and running is hard to guess, but at speed SpaceX is building things these days, wouldn’t surprise me if the facility is up and running by mid-May. And if I am right, the main components for Starship at first will be sent to the new assembly facility with first Starship assembly completed sometimes in mid to late June. Now this is optimistic time-table as weather and technical delays could always delay this progress, however the whole thing should be up and running my late June unless serious incident delays this further, hopefully not, but Texas, especially that part of Texas is prone to freak weather conditions. So what can we expect to happen in coming weeks? Well first thing with in next 10 days, we’ll have first proper flight test of the Starhopper, this could happen as early as 24th of this month or more likely the 25th if the weather allows, this would follow on by a sub-orbital tests of Starhopper, which will happen sometimes in mid-May, Starhopper will try to reach 5000m height and maintain altitude for few seconds before it descends back to the launch pad. This test will see integration of 3 raptor engines and test of all 3 engines first, before any flight can take place, this could happen on the 22nd, if all goes well, SpaceX will test fire the Starhopper on the 24th, this will be untethered test, so the Starhopper won’t be fasten to the ground as was the case in the very first test. Starhopper’ will perform slight lift off, perhaps 10-20m off the ground and land back. The short hopes test will be performed several times during the 24th and if all goes well on the 25th as well. SpaceX won’t perform any major flight hop tests or sub-orbital flights before they get all the data from these initial hops, also it would be real madness to do a test above the new facility in case something goes really wrong, such as rapid unscheduled disassembly, which could damage the facility and cause major fatalities. So SpaceX will take it easy, test the Starhopper with short hops and if all goes well, after few more such hopes in late April, probably on 30th of April and 1st May, SpaceX might order more complex over the water hops and sub-orbital flight tests, these test could happen sometimes in mid-May, around 15th or 16th of May most likely. OK everything I’ve said so far is my guesswork right now, but based on my limited experience I think it is a good guess. I’ll be posting any updates in coming weeks and months, so stay tuned.

Published by: mic of orion Published at: 4 years ago Category: علمی و تکنولوژی