Elon says they need to get the water pressure at least as great as the thrust from 33 engines. That doesn't sound doable does it?

Water pressure, or water vapor? Water vapor is quite powerful, and 'powers' most of our electricity.

As part of a prior job, I got to be onsite in McGregor for an engine test fire a few years back. Was so badass to see from afar, but still fairly close up when you consider how far away you have to be for shuttle launches.

If they can flow propellants to an engine at full flow that is operating at over 5000 PSI chamber pressure with only what they have on board, then it is conceivable that they would be able to keep the deluge above stagnation pressure for the system.

My understanding is that they are planning on using a gas pressurant for the deluge water delivery perhaps without a tower. Also keep in mind that the pressure applied to the pad 60 ft below the nozzles is far less than measured thrust pressure at the nozzles. I think Zach Golden figures the number is around 230 PSI at the center of the pad and decreasing while moving out from there. This is only 3x to 7x the normal water pressure of our faucets. Though I don't have a good idea concerning amount of system flow required to keep the plate temperature in the nominal range. I suppose we might have a better idea once we see the system assembled and tested. It seems that they have a large number of very high pressure vessels that are likely for this water pressurant system on site.

A launch window request has been made for Starship test launch #2



(I'd say probably not happening in June though)

And also...

Good as usual, he gets around to theorizing about Raptor 3.0 impact on a stretched booster at just before 9 minutes. Throttling down to 95% and enabling a 1.6 or so T:W ratio sounds like it makes sense to me, from a durability/capability mid-point perspective.

TexAgs91 said:

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Elon says they need to get the water pressure at least as great as the thrust from 33 engines. That doesn't sound doable does it?

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Not chamber pressure but equal to the thrust at ground level. The pressure starts dispersing in all directions, residual on the outer ring, the instant it's not confined by the engine bell.

If this is a flooded water cooled plate, the water must be able to overcome the force of the engine exhaust against the exit orifice of else the exhaust will enter the water passageway vs the water leaving and flooding the surface.

A 1.6 twr is nuts

Agreed.

Aside, here is a remarkably negative/ignorant/dismissive alike article about a manned mission to mars from (one of my favorite political commentators) Jazz Shaw, who seems wholly ignorant of SpaceX' plans…

I dont know why people think it's "cool" to be negative about the space program and space flight when they've done 0 research beyond the first hits on Google. It seems to be a very "in" thing that transcends political affiliations or agendas.

Quote:

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Axiom Space is ready to launch its second-ever private mission to the International Space Station today (May 21), a flight that will mark a series of spaceflight firsts.

The 10-day Ax-2 mission to the International Space Station has been cleared for launch, representatives from Axiom Space, NASA and SpaceX said Saturday (May 20) after completing one final launch readiness review. Liftoff is set for 5:37 p.m. (2137 GMT) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule, which will launch from Pad 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

"It's obviously a very, very exciting day," Derek Hassmann, Axiom Space chief of mission integration and operations, told reporters in a teleconference this evening. "We worked a long, long time in collaboration with our partners at SpaceX and NASA to get to this point. The crew has been working very hard to get trained and they're certainly ready to go."

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Hadn't heard about this one.

LINK

Just saw a blurb on FNC showing the countdown. Thanks for sharing Hawg!

Link to live feed from Hawg's link above.

What a world we live in where launches are getting so routine that they aren't front page news. Pretty cool.

And the video feeds and commentary available are leap years beyond the cameras stationed 10 miles away, staticky radios and Walter Cronkite narrating - though Cronkite was still pretty cool.

Watching them strap in the crew now. First female Saudi to go to space. Nice.

Axiom is a cool little company.

nortex97 said:

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Axiom is a cool little company.

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Don't know much about them. Care to expound a bit?

They're going to play a massive part in commercial spaceflight, including a private module which will be attached to the ISS before becoming part of the first private space station.

Thanks.

I think they've setup a shop in the old Fry's building on the NASA bypass at 45.

We still a GO for today?

About 4:37 CT if no holds.

Thanks. Will tune into the link to watch.

Amazing how routine they have made this landing. Still incredible to watch.

RED AG 98 said:

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Amazing how routine they have made this landing. Still incredible to watch.

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Looks like the sci-fi movies we grew up on without the cheesier special effects.

Elon just makes that stuff look so easy. Way cool to watch.

Dragon is on track for docking with the @space_station at ~9:10 a.m. ET

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 22, 2023

RED AG 98 said:

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Amazing how routine they have made this landing. Still incredible to watch.

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What an amazing achievement the first stage landed at the launch site (vs a barge landing) for the first time in a crewed mission. I didn't think they had the fuel to return to the launch site. Wow! This is yet another milestone that is revolutionizing space travel from a cost perspective

Anyone else finding the extreme humor in the fact blue origin's HLS plan is going to require hydrolox in orbit refueling, which will be more complicated than metholox,, after their main talking point was spacex's plan was too complicated....because of refueling.

Ag_of_08 said:

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Anyone else finding the extreme humor in the fact blue origin's HLS plan is going to require hydrolox in orbit refueling, which will be more complicated than metholox,, after their main talking point was spacex's plan was too complicated....because of refueling.

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No, I don't find the humor in that. I mean, I do think it's probably funny based on your statement, but I have no idea about hydro vs metho... lox. I guess I kind of do now, so thanks!

nortex97 said:

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Water pressure, or water vapor? Water vapor is quite powerful, and 'powers' most of our electricity.

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Your premise is right but I don't qualify steam as water vapor

Update: This is what was recoverable. pic.twitter.com/tXhJ5jhKcM

— Michael Baylor (@nextspaceflight) May 22, 2023

zwhag2010 said:

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RED AG 98 said:

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Amazing how routine they have made this landing. Still incredible to watch.

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What an amazing achievement the first stage landed at the launch site (vs a barge landing) for the first time in a crewed mission. I didn't think they had the fuel to return to the launch site. Wow! This is yet another milestone that is revolutionizing space travel from a cost perspective

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Just a wild a__ guess... It's only going for 10 days. The NASA crew launches carry a lot of station cargo as well. New science, clothes, food, etc. It's not the full mission, but my guess is it's several months worth. The added weight may be why the other crew missions don't RTLS.

Kenneth_2003 said:

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zwhag2010 said:

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RED AG 98 said:

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Amazing how routine they have made this landing. Still incredible to watch.

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What an amazing achievement the first stage landed at the launch site (vs a barge landing) for the first time in a crewed mission. I didn't think they had the fuel to return to the launch site. Wow! This is yet another milestone that is revolutionizing space travel from a cost perspective

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Just a wild a__ guess... It's only going for 10 days. The NASA crew launches carry a lot of station cargo as well. New science, clothes, food, etc. It's not the full mission, but my guess is it's several months worth. The added weight may be why the other crew missions don't RTLS.

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I would be shocked if the wasted any available space. If axiom didn't use the launch capacity, they would have been incredibly foolish to have wasted in demand space from private companies OR Nasa/Esa, who I can imagine wouldn't have bought the extra space/weight.

More likely it had to do with the launch window, or other factors.