Defying most expectations, SpaceX has moved the primary full-size flight-proven Starship again to the launch pad lower than every week after the prototype survived a high-altitude launch and touchdown.
Two days after that spectacular launch and 4 days in the past, CEO Elon Musk revealed that SpaceX “may attempt to refly [Starship] SN15 quickly,” indicating that the rocket landed in spectacularly good situation. Whereas Starship SN15’s ~10 km launch was far much less aggravating than these skilled by orbital-class Falcon boosters, reusing the primary efficiently recovered Starship prototype mere weeks after that first touchdown can be a unprecedented achievement provided that SpaceX took greater than 15 months to reuse a Falcon booster after the rocket’s first touchdown.
Early on Tuesday, Might eleventh, Starship prototype SN15 started to maneuver for the second time since its Might fifth launch and touchdown. Carried by a customized transporter designed to safe landed Starships with out the necessity for a crane, SN15 was rigorously rolled a couple of hundred ft from the touchdown zone to “Suborbital Mount B” – one in every of two an identical launch mounts. Utilized by Starship SN15 all through its check and launch marketing campaign, Mount A is within the strategy of being refurbished.
Whereas SpaceX has but to really set up Starship SN15 on Mount B, the prototype has been connected to a crane and mentioned set up is imminent – presumably simply ready for winds to die down. As of publishing, SpaceX has eliminated SN15’s six ‘used’ touchdown legs however hasn’t changed them – a vital step earlier than the Starship can fly once more.
It’s unclear if legs may be put in after a Starship is affixed to a launch mount, which means that SpaceX may also be ready for winds to die down so it may well raise SN15 off its transporter and substitute its legs – an understandably delicate course of given the necessity for staff to clamber beneath and round a 100+ metric ton rocket hanging within the breeze.
It’s price noting that even after SpaceX reinstalls Starship SN15 on a launch mount, there’s no assure that the prototype will fly once more. Earlier than any reflight, SpaceX will virtually actually put the rocket by way of a minimum of one further tank proof check and static hearth its Raptor engines. Points or harm that escaped preliminary post-flight inspections may simply come up throughout that course of and it’s extra doubtless than not that a number of of SN15’s three Raptors can be eliminated for detailed inspection or changed outright.
For now, keep tuned as SpaceX prepares to put in Starship SN15 on a launch mount for the second time and the corporate’s subsequent steps hopefully come into focus.