This past week, SpaceX had another SN24 engie test.
But just a startup and shutdown.
Considering that during the "iterative" testing early on, one of the
problems was the restart of the engine(s) for landing, shouldn't engine
tests at this point in time test the ability to start and restart
engines to emulate a flight ?
In a previous inteview, the PR person had explained that the engine
start is the most challenging part with a serious challenge to spin up
the turbo pumps at the right time/sync etc. (so that would explain why previous tests had been for short burns, since they were only testing
engine start, not actual engine performance).
But as engine start remains a challenge, shouldn't restarts be tested?
And without the ability to target an "X" on a landing site
(since neither booster now Starship have landing legs),
how can they test the ship's ability to land precisely at a tower?
Restarts are tested, at SpaceX's McGregor site.
With the water landings, they will have a chance to assess the
performance of the landing guidance, although they already have some information from the belly-flop tests. Plus all the experience with
the F9 landings.
On 2022-12-17 21:47, Snidely wrote:
Restarts are tested, at SpaceX's McGregor site.
And that didn't prevent engine problesm for re-ignition during actual
flights since the problems were more of a system integration between
tanks and engines.
With the water landings, they will have a chance to assess the
performance of the landing guidance, although they already have some
information from the belly-flop tests. Plus all the experience with
the F9 landings.
F9 experience will be of help to the "static" booster that always comes
back empty and uses the similar "grid fins" for guidance and staying
upright. On the other hand, I have to wonder if they will have enough
data on G-force at time of landing which is something that would matter
when doinging on the "chopsticks" and which would be measured if it had landing legs landing on hard surface.
But for Starship itself, the couple fo tests flights they had so far
resulted in them moving weight to the nose (the landing tanks), but what happens when they start to fit the rocket with real payloads that are returned (humans etc) ? The variability in how Starship will return will change a lot in how the falling upject turns to vertical at last second
to land.
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