SPACE X SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED STARSHIP FLIGHT TEST 3!

We enthusiastically followed the Starship launch and space operations with our Space Renaissance International community and friends, on the Space Renaissance YouTube channel. This historical Starship team achievement inspires us to further engage in boosting Civilian Space Development, the Space 18th SDG, Space For All, on Earth and Beyond!

On the 14th of March 2024, Space X successfully launched Starship 28 and Booster 10. for the first time, Starship reached orbital altitude (234 km) and orbital speed (>26200 km/h) . Many congratulations to Elon Musk and all of the “out of this word” Space X team, for the wonderful success of the Starship Flight Test 3!
While some incredibly poor journalism keeps referring to the Starship’s tests as a “failure”, development of the first fully reusable space vehicle is proceeding safely and expeditiously.

The first thing many media seem not to understand is the methodology followed by Space X, which is completely different from what the traditional aerospace builders undertake. While the latter prefer to spend their money on long project life cycles (including long requirements discussion, and meticulous and detailed test engineering and integration phases), Space X opts for a methodology more aligned with the experimental scientific method: to identify essential requirements, build and test a prototype, learn from successes and failures, then build a new improved prototype, and test again. Each reiteration adds quality to the project, up to a point when the prototype is working well, and Falcon 9 (as a sample) becomes a “space workhorse”, with an indiscussed market-leader position in the world.When a traditional project fails, many billions are wasted, and many years of work are canceled. When a “normal” failure occurs during Space X’s reiterative project development, many fewer resources are wasted (and, after all, during the expendable rockets’ age, all the rockets were always wasted, at every launch!). The difference is incomparable.

Another advantage of this method is its considerable flexibility. If a project lasts 10 years, it is difficult to take advantage of the technological advances. Adopting a new technology in a project initiated many years ago mandates heavy requirements reviews and leads to unavoidable delays. In a fail-and-repeat project, new technologies and new ideas can be adopted more easily and more quickly, as demonstrated by the thousands of changes and improvements applied to the different starships, super-heavy boosters, and raptor engine prototypes throughout history. The misfortune bearers and the envious notwithstanding, the methodology works — as underscored by the success of Space X in the launchers market!

Starship 28 and the Super-Heavy Booster 10 achieved even more than what was expected: while a suborbital altitude was planned, the Starship spacecraft reached 230 km, a low Earth orbit altitude, at more than 26,200 km/h. Several tests were conducted after the engine cutoff, including a propellant transfer demo and a payload dispenser test.

Only two operations failed. The booster couldn’t make it to descend vertically on its engines (as only 3 of them reignited), and splashed in the Mexican Gulf at little more than 1000 km/h. Starship failed during the re-entry in the atmosphere and the Indian Ocean. We could observe many insulating tiles flying away from Starship’s body during the first part of the re-entry. At an altitude of 65 km, telemetry from Ship 28 was lost, and the vehicle was destroyed before splashing in the sea.

The failure of the re-entry was expected, by Space X. For sure the designers will undoubtedly learn much from these failures, as they have from the previous ones!

Space Renaissance International, together with the National Space Society and more than 70 space advocacy organizations and universities promotes an 18th Sustainable Development Goal, focused on Civilian Space Development to be added to the U.N. 2030 Agenda. Everybody is invited to join the #Space18SDG Coalition!

The rapid progress of fully reusable launch vehicles increasingly makes space the key factor enabling the sustainable development of humanity

We are eager to see the promised other 4 or 5 launches of Starship in 2024.

GO Starship! GO!

Bernard Foing, SRI President

Adriano V. Autino, SRI CEO and Founder

[English language edit by Jim Crisafulli]

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Follow the lecture by Armen Papazian “The Monetary Foundations of a Spacefaring Species”, on the Space Renaissance YouTube Channel, Monday 18 March: https://www.youtube.com/live/nJMFd098aYo

Adriano Autino

Posted by Adriano