Exciting history in the making
I first started taking a serious interest in SpaceX after watching that astonishing test flight of Falcon Heavy on 6th February 2018. John Insprucker and Lauren Lyons, both SpaceX engineers, brilliantly set the scene and provided expert commentary throughout. The launch was powerful, of course, and hearing the words “Go for launch” with only seconds remaining took me back to when I was a teenager in the days of the Apollo Moon landings.
Seeing the cherry-red Tesla car with Spaceman in the driving seat floating above Earth - accompanied by David Bowie’s classic song Life on Mars? - was novel. The raw enthusiasm of the ever-cheering SpaceX team, including an excited mature blond woman with her hands and arms raised upwards in celebration (Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX President and COO), was infectious and a welcome difference to the stuffiness of NASA staff. But I was blown away to see the two side rocket first-stage boosters come back to land simultaneously. This was beyond special and I cried with joy for a long time at what was happening. I’ve since watched almost all of SpaceX’s launches and landings.
Falcon Heavy test flight and landing Credit (both images): SpaceX
I quickly realised that the most exciting thing about SpaceX wasn’t the reusability of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, but rather the development of BFR - politely called the Big Falcon Rocket in those days, but actually known as the Big F***ing Rocket.
Construction of the first prototype, Starhopper, took place at Boca Chica, Texas. This SpaceX site - recently renamed as Starbase - had barely any facilities at the time. High winds blew off and damaged the top part of Starhopper, so what we were left with looked somewhat odd. A lengthy series of tests ended with a 150m hop on 27th August 2019. Starhopper was retired, but not scrapped, and “Hoppy” remains as part of the launch site complex - affectionately remembered, nicknamed the “immortal one”.
Next came the first full-size prototype, or rather two of them. Mk1 was built at Boca Chica, with a separate team constructing Mk2 in Florida. Mk1 provided an impressive backdrop for Elon Musk’s nighttime public update presentation in September 2019, but failed a pressure test on 20th November. Mk2 was scrapped.
It was announced that the next prototype would be called SN1, short for Serial Number 1. SN1 failed too. This time, it was during a cryogenic test. In the night sky, it “popped” with the bulk of SN1 briefly shooting upwards in a rapid unscheduled disassembly (RUD). That was on 28th February 2020. SN2 was a test tank, adapted to fix the problem of SN1, and did its job.
SN3 didn’t do much better than SN1. In fact, an error caused it to ceremoniously crumble during cryogenic testing.
SN4 promised much and can be fondly remembered. It was the first to pass the cryogenic testing stage. During the month of May, it accomplished several static fire tests, which is when the Raptor engine is briefly ignited to make sure it was fitted correctly and all is well. But after a final static fire, a ground support equipment failure caused a spectacular explosion. Yes, another RUD - but this one was a big BOOM!
And then came SN5. After all the usual initial testing, it hopped 150m on 4th August. And it came down, upright, on the landing pad. Success. SN6 followed, achieving the same with very slight improvements.
SN7 was another test tank, along with SN7.1 and SN7.2 - but then we got to SN8. It didn’t look much different from the earlier SNs at first, until after the first static fire test was done. Then the nosecone and flaps were fitted, at the launch pad. A full Starship was getting nearer to flying - and it looked great. But first more static fire tests were required. Finally, at 10.45pm (UTC) on 9th December 2020, SN8’s test flight took place - and it was a resounding success. It launched, reached 10km, manoeuvred to its brand-new-concept belly-flop or skydiver position, went through a controlled descent, successfully flipped to its landing position, but then came down on the landing pad too quickly, exploding. We were all excitedly clapping, screaming, jumping up in delight at this huge step forward. It was epic. A good landing would have been the icing on the cake, but the hardest parts of the test flight had been wonderfully proven.
The landing issue had been caused by a loss of pressure in the header tank. Everyone hoped for a quick fix and a safe touchdown. It didn’t happen for SN9, although almost all of the flight was again successful. But SN10 did land more or less upright after another superb flight, albeit still a bit too hard. Unfortunately, eight minutes later, it exploded - possibly due to a methane leak. SN11 launched and flew well, but failed to reach the ground, disintegrating just above. And that’s what you call a test program - just the beginning, with much more to come.
Written by Iain Scott, 5th May 2021