Will SpaceX Catch Starship on Flight 15? | Starship Update
Video from the channel NASASpaceflight about Starship, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 17:38. Language: English. Video type: News.
What's being announced
A week after Starship's flight 14, SpaceX has removed all the Raptor engines from ship 42 at Mega Bay 2. That raises doubts about the schedule for flight 15. On flight 14, a vacuum Raptor on ship 41 shut down early during ascent.
Context
At Starbase, booster 23 already has its methane tank stacked and awaits cryogenic testing at Massey's. Booster 24 is progressing section by section, and ship 44 is being stacked after ship 43. No ship currently in production carries docking ports. At pad 2, work has resumed on one of the chopstick arms' actuators, and a new service structure has been installed. At pad 1, the flame trench is progressing. At McGregor there were 32 firings in two weeks; the longest lasted 557 seconds, and Raptor serial numbers reached 261. At pad 39A in Florida, the launch mount's water system and the quick retraction of the ship's arm were tested.
What it means
The FAA licence covers booster catch, but the ship's licence would need a modification. Flight 16 could be the first from Florida, no earlier than 10 December. According to SpaceX, there will be at least one more launch from Starbase before then. Ship 40 reached the port of Brownsville on 7 October, after almost three months and more than 12,000 nautical miles from Christmas Island. It is the first recovered ship and provides data that would otherwise have to wait for the first catch.