The Upgrades To SpaceX’s New Starship Prototype
With the amount of changes and upgrades to the new Starship prototype, compared to the one that launched back in April, some consider it practically a new rocket. SpaceX and Elon have pointed out that there are over 1000 changes across the entirety of the new test article both physical and mission-related. All of which are intended to help facilitate a successful launch, stage separation, and complete flight.
On the first test flight, there were quite a few things that went wrong from liftoff to the activation of the flight termination system. Thankfully, SpaceX also gained a lot of invaluable data which has been directly applied to the current prototype. From engine changes to booster heat shield upgrades, a new stage separation, and leak prevention, SpaceX has been very busy.
Recently the company released a detailed report highlighting what exactly went wrong on the first launch and how they addressed these problems with the current Starship test article. Here I will go more in-depth into some of the most significant changes, why SpaceX thinks this launch will be different than the first, the expected launch date, and more.
A Different Rocket
Since SpaceX began developing Starship, they have made a lot of prototypes of both the Booster, and the upper stage. Over time the company has tested these prototypes in different ways from pressure tests to actual flight attempts. The point being, each new prototype was a better version of the previous, using lessons learned from various tests. The first launch earlier this year was with Booster 7 and Ship 24. At that point, SpaceX knew that these specific prototypes were capable, however, because of the iteration speed at Starbase, they weren’t even the most advanced test articles available.
To put it in perspective, before the first launch, in an interview, Elon was quoted saying, “We are actually dying to get this rocket off no matter what happens to it because there are so many improvements between booster 7 and booster 9, literally hundreds. In other words, even before the launch of Booster 7, SpaceX already had a more advanced prototype with hundreds of upgrades. Now, when you combine this with the extra changes made after the first launch and all the data that was produced, you have a rocket with over 1000 changes.
Yesterday, SpaceX released a detailed report on some of the issues with the first flight and changes that were made to the new test article. The statement was quoted saying, ” During ascent, the vehicle sustained fires from leaking propellant in the aft end of the Super Heavy booster, which eventually severed connection with the vehicle’s primary flight computer. This led to a loss of communications to the majority of booster engines and, ultimately, control of the vehicle. SpaceX has since implemented leak mitigations and improved testing on both engine and booster hardware. As an additional corrective action, SpaceX has significantly expanded Super Heavy’s pre-existing fire suppression system in order to mitigate against future engine bay fires” they said.
Looking back on the first flight, it was revealed not long after that another big issue had to do with the flight termination system. Specifically, SpaceX had commanded the activation of the FTS long before it finally activated. This obviously is a problem as the last thing you want is the most powerful rocket in the world out of control and unable to self-destruct. In the recent statement they commented, “After an unexpected delay following AFSS activation, Starship ultimately broke up 237.474 seconds after engine ignition. SpaceX has enhanced and requalified the AFSS to improve system reliability.”
To add to this, they pointed out that “SpaceX is also implementing a full suite of system performance upgrades unrelated to any issues observed during the first flight test. For example, SpaceX has built and tested a hot-stage separation system, in which Starship’s second stage engines will ignite to push the ship away from the booster. Additionally, SpaceX has engineered a new electronic Thrust Vector Control (TVC) system for Super Heavy Raptor engines. Using fully electric motors, the new system has fewer potential points of failure and is significantly more energy efficient than traditional hydraulic systems” they said.
These are only some of the changes made and don’t even include other important upgrades to supporting systems like the pad itself and the steel plate. For the past 4 plus months, SpaceX has been doing everything in its power to create a capable rocket that improves on the first test article’s design in almost every way.
More Changes
Funny enough, the list of changes and upgrades made to the rocket keeps going. In another quote before the first Starship launch, Elon said, “Booster 7 has kinda a retrofitted heat shield system between the engines, and this is very important because if you think about 33 engines, if anyone of them goes wrong, it’s like having a box of grenades, really big grenades, and if one goes off you don’t want the others to go off also. We just want to take off and move on to Booster 9” he said.
After the first launch in an interview Musk said, “Rocket kept going through T+62 seconds” with the engines continuing to run. Lost thrust vector control at T+85 seconds.” Big thing for the next Starship launch is “ensuring that we don’t lose thrust vector control” with Booster 9. We got pretty close to stage separation … if we had maintained thrust vector control and throttled up, which we should have … then we would have made it to staging” he pointed out.
To add to this, on Starship’s first flight, we saw some small explosions with the engines during the launch and the eventual loss of multiple Raptors. Elon was quoted after the mission saying, ” At T+27 seconds, SpaceX lost communications due to “some kind of energy event.” And “some kind of explosion happened to knock out the heat shields of engines 17, 18, 19, or 20.”
If the changes mentioned weren’t enough, Elon talked more about the improvements when he said, “The big things that are important for the next flight are, ensuring that we don’t lose thrust vector control, so isolating that thrust vector control. With Booster 9 that is a lot easier because we use electric motors to steer the engines as opposed to hydraulic actuators where you have a common manifold between the hydraulic actuators. In this case, if you lose hydraulic pressure you can lose multiple engines. The electrically actuated engines will be much more isolated and not have like a single event failure as long as they don’t lose power or coms” he said.
These quotes highlight some of the company’s and Elon’s thought processes on the first test article and the upgrades made. Recently we saw the upper stage stacked on the booster with Starship now practically ready for flight. The only thing holding the launch back at this point is the FAA which just gave us an update. The FAA released a statement saying, “The FAA has closed the SpaceX Starship Super Heavy mishap investigation. The final report cites multiple root causes of the April 20, 2023, mishap and 63 corrective actions SpaceX must take to prevent mishap reoccurrence. Corrective actions include redesigns of vehicle hardware to prevent leaks and fires, redesign of the launch pad to increase its robustness, incorporation of additional reviews in the design process, additional analysis and testing of safety critical systems and components including the Autonomous Flight Safety System, and the application of additional change control practices” they said.
The FAA also clarified that “The closure of the mishap investigation does not signal an immediate resumption of Starship launches at Boca Chica. SpaceX must implement all corrective actions that impact public safety and apply for and receive a license modification from the FAA that addresses all safety, environmental and other applicable regulatory requirements prior to the next Starship launch” they said.
While this doesn’t sound the most promising, a launch could still be just weeks away. Not a lot of information has been shared however it’s likely that SpaceX and the FAA have been keeping up with each other ever since the first launch. In other words, the company has probably been providing updates to the FAA on exactly what they are doing and the corrective actions they are implementing. If this is the case then it is possible almost if not all the corrective actions are complete. If this was the case a launch by late this month or early October would be well within reach.
The big question for the last few months was how the FAA would respond and the timeline to close this investigation and satisfy the various requests. As far as what these corrective actions include, it’s not completely clear but we have a few ideas. The pad for example was a big problem and something the FAA was not fond of. The launch destroyed the concrete and sent it flying in every direction. This has since been fixed with a water-cooled steel plate installed under the launch mount. SpaceX has even tested it multiple times with two static fire attempts. Other issues like the flight termination system have been addressed by the company. In the coming weeks, we will have to keep an eye on the FAA and SpaceX’s operations at Starbase.
Conclusion
SpaceX has made over 1000 changes to both Starship and the various pad infrastructure combined. All of these changes are meant to support a fully successful flight of Starship. The past few months have been very busy for the company and things are not expected to slow down anytime soon. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.
