SpaceX's Starship SN8 Prototype Fires Engines for 3rd Time

SpaceX has recently completed its third quality fire evaluation on its SN8 concept starship. As the rocket was about to be deployed, the drill saw the gasoline and then the engines ignited for a few seconds, as the vehicle was bound to the planet. Even though the other two regular fire tests went as expected, this time there were concerns.

According to Digital Trends, the fluid leaked from the bottom of the prototype as the engines are launched, which is not usual for testing and suggests an issue. Luckily for SpaceX, the spaceship remained intact. This seemed unusual, and Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, quickly stated that something out-of-nominal had happened.

Is It Losing Pneumatics?

Musk noted on a Twitter post that the vehicle had lost pneumatics as the test had difficulties. He also stated at the moment that the team did not realize why the issue happened. Musk noted that the liquid oxygen header tank's strain is rising and there is a risk that the spacecraft could burst. Musk claimed, though, that an explosion would decrease disk pressure.

Musk later tweeted that as expected, the explosive disk worked and the car seemed to be malfunctioning. In another tweet, he then mentioned that it was appropriate to substitute at least one of the SN8 prototypes. Kasturi also discussed the sparks which some observers saw during the test.

He said that the burner or hot gas fuel manifold in front of the molten engine might cause sparks. He indicated that it was sparks that triggered whatever caused the pneumatic failure. He noted that at the design stage, this dilemma needs to be tackled. The Starship would eventually be the new century rocket that will transport materials and workers to the Moon and Mars. The first project to combine all three of the Raptor engines was the SN8. There was just a single-engine in all previous versions.

The static fires of SN8, the first two arising on Oct. 20 and Nov. 10, are intended to make way for a test flight of 9 miles (15 kilometers) in the immediate future. This would have been far better than all of its predecessors. Space.com noted that the stubby Starhopper craft and the SN5 and SN6 prototypes achieved maximum altitudes of around 500 feet (150 meters) during the flight last summer of 2019 and this past August and September.

Blame the Raptor

Switching the Raptor out could be at fault for the post-firing incident with SN8 undergoing safeguarding choices.

Several engineers removed one of the Raptors in the SN8 on Saturday, as spotted as SN32 by Mary (@bocachicagal) on Twitter.

However, what Raptor would substitute to the extracted engine remains unclear.

Options included a restored SN39, which was originally part of the trio of Starship SN8 before being replaced by SN36, or could be advanced into operation by the recently arriving SN42.

SN42 then drove to the launch site on Sunday, rolled up to shield it from the dust swirling around the launch site.

Following their initial training at SpaceX's McGregor Research Site, further Raptors would now be in varying phases of readiness for shipment to Boca Chica.

Based on the potential of missing SN8 during the test flight and the goal of moving Starship SN9 into operation soon after that, SpaceX is likely to have at least six flight engines ready to go.

As was previously expected to follow up on the Header Tank-related test firings due to the switch out of SN39 and SN36, the replacement engine's installation would immediately call for another Static Fire test.

The date of the Static Fire three-engine test may be within a week, ultimately taking Starship back to an eventual test flight posture, and likely even in November. This is of necessity, without incident, providing the Static Fire evaluation continues.

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