SN11 Misses the Mark ... and the Launchpad

Today, early in the morning, SN11 took to the skies. The landing could have been better. Problems for the launch first came up on Friday, March 25. This is when the launch was originally supposed to occur. However, the test was rescheduled to Monday and launched at 6 a.m. PST on Tuesday (no wonder I missed it, it took place 2 hours before I woke up).

View of SN11 During Flight

The first few minutes of the SN11 launch went according to plan. The rocket reached an altitude of 10 km (6.2 miles) before starting its landing procedure. However, at T+ 6 minutes, the broadcast froze and the launch commentator said that SN11 wouldn’t be coming back for landing. SN11 later had a hard landing in the deep fog, creating a huge explosion. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk later tweeted today that engine 2 had issues on the ascent and didn’t have the right pressure in its chamber during its landing burn. However, this is still just a theory as SpaceX hasn’t completely figured out the problem. Here is the link for the launch.

SN11 Raptor Engines During Launch

SpaceX’s final product will be Starship, which I have talked about before but I will recap it. Starship will take people and payloads to the Moon, and eventually Mars. Starship will also be able to fly below the atmosphere, like a flight from New York to London. Starship is made up of two components: the spaceship called Starship and the rocket known as Super Heavy. The final version of Starship will be powered by six Raptor engines. The Super Heavy will use 30 Raptor engines. This is because Starship will need enough power to launch itself from the Moon and Mars. SpaceX and Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, hope that Starship will be flying people by 2023. It in fact already has a contract for a lunar landing scheduled for that year.

Now, if the flight went according to plan, the flight trajectory would be similar to SN10. With SN10, after reaching an altitude of 10 km, it would start its belly flop maneuver. First, SN10 started a propellant transfer into the internal header tanks. This happens because SN10 needs to readjust its center of gravity to change its orientation. The reason it changes its orientation and does the flip maneuver is to reduce its speed using air resistance so it doesn’t have to rely on just fuel to safely land. Additionally, it also allows the rocket to slowly glide to the landing is more accurate. To land, SN10 used a combination of its four flaps, two on the nose and two on the bottom, and angling the three raptor engines. This allowed SN10 to make a safe landing. SN11 would have followed this same flight plan if everything went according to plan.

SN11 Lifting Off

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) may jump back into an investigation over SpaceX because of this incident. The launch was supposed to happen yesterday in the afternoon but was delayed because an FAA inspector could reach the launch site in Boca Chica on time. This is important because the FAA oversees all commercial launches and there has to be an FAA representative for all Starship launches. The reason for this is because in December during the SN8, SpaceX exceeded its maximum allowed risk for the public event in case there is an explosion. If you recall, SN8 exploded during landing. 

Moment Where Cameras on SN11 Froze

Following the SN8 explosion, the FAA investigated SpaceX and delayed the launch of SN9. After reviewing the company’s operation process, the FAA allowed both SN9 and SN10 to launch. However, both SN9 and SN10 suffered the same fate as SN8, as they ended their engineering cycle as Starship debris. Because of this, the FAA issued a new launch license on March 12, where they had to have a representative watching the launch. The FAA also started to prepare for moving launch operations to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

After SN11 will be SN 12. For SN 12, SpaceX is keeping a relatively similar design and will be testing a new altitude. Musk tweeted back in November 2020 that there will be major SN15 and prototypes, meaning that production of the SN15 parts has already started to occur. The last scheduled prototype launch is SN18. SpaceX has also started their BN1 assembly, which will be a more completed prototype of Starship. In the next few months, we will see more Starship prototype launches and hear more about Starship and its timeline. So far, SpaceX wants to follow the timeline that they have set out. SpaceX is also working on the Super Heavy Prototype, which will be a culmination of all the things they learned from the Starship Prototypes as well as the Falcon Heavy. In the end, SpaceX is helping to lead the space travel of the future.

Sources:

Malik, Tariq. “SpaceX Now Aiming to Launch Starship SN11 Rocket Prototype Tuesday.” Space.com, Space, 29 Mar. 2021, www.space.com/spacex-starship-sn11-rocket-launch-2nd-attempt. 

Pradhan, Arnav. SN10 Successfully Lands ... Sort Of, Blogger, 4 Mar. 2021, www.arnavpradhan.com/2021/03/sn10-successfully-land-sort-of.html. 

Pradhan, Arnav. SN11 Gets Stationed on the Launchpad, Blogger, 10 Mar. 2021, www.arnavpradhan.com/2021/03/sn11-gets-stationed-on-launchpad.html. 

Spacexchannel, director. Starship | SN11 | High-Altitude Flight Test. YouTube, YouTube, 30 Mar. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjCSJIAKEPM&t=845s.