Mikhail Kotov — about the specifics of working on the creation of a multifunctional, fully reusable two-stage superheavy launch vehicleOn April 20, 2023, SpaceX's Starship rocket system was tested.
Without exaggeration, it was the most anticipated start, which has been postponed for more than a year and a half. As a result, the rocket reached an altitude of 39 km, but after that it lost its orientation and was blown up on command from the Ground.
So is it a success or a failure? To figure it out, you need to remember the history of the creation of the largest rocket in the world.
Perpendicular
The scheme for creating missiles has been worked out for a long time — most often there are nine stages in their development. It all starts with a tactical and technical task, then an advance project is drawn up, a draft design, the development of design documentation, and so on. Flight tests are the seventh stage out of nine, which follows before preparing the device for mass production. So many different launch vehicles were created, but Elon Musk decided to go the other way.
Construction of Starship began in 2018 at a private spaceport near the town of Boca Chica. Right under the scorching Texas sun, simple hard workers on an ordinary construction site began assembling the first prototype of the future rocket. In contrast to the usual light aluminum alloys for rocket engineering Elon Musk decided to bet on stainless steel. The builders fastened the pieces of stainless steel together with rivets and welding, having previously processed them with a grinder (all this could be seen on live broadcasts from the construction site).
In fact, what was happening in Boca Chica was so unlike classical rocket science with workshops and clean rooms that SpaceX was joked about almost continuously. Elon Musk was compared to the orcs from the Warhammer 40,000 universe, building their rockets and robots from improvised materials right in the landfill.
The resulting first prototype of the Starhopper ("Star Jumper"), frankly speaking, was not impressive — it looked more like a piece of a water tower on legs than a familiar rocket. Equipped with one Raptor engine (it was specially developed for the Starship project), the prototype performed three tests: in the first it "jumped" by 1 m, in the second it broke off by 150, in the third it rose by 400 m. And at the end of the tests, the engine failed, but nevertheless the Starhopper was able to land almost without damage.
After that, it was the turn of the prototypes of the future Starship. Musk tirelessly told in various interviews that he deliberately chose the method of creating a superheavy rocket, most similar to Agile. This is a work organization system that is most often used by programmers: with Agile, a minimal working product is created first, and then gradually it acquires new functions and capabilities. So the Starship improvements were carried out (and are being carried out) in the course of the project, based on feedback and identified problems, Musk clarified.
Dear Changes
In the course of work, a multifunctional, fully reusable two-stage superheavy launch vehicle changed very, very much — the shape of the hull, the presence and absence of wings (for control in the atmosphere), the number of engines for the first and second stages, thermal protection, etc. Moreover, initially, in order for Starship to survive re-entry into the atmosphere on the way back, it was supposed to make its hull composite at all. Then stainless steel became the main material. Even later, an option was proposed with the cooling of the device using micro-holes, from which fuel was to be supplied, turning into gas (pyrolysis). As a result, we settled on a tile of foamed quartz on the body, as on the Soviet "Buran" and the American Space Shuttle.
Some of the prototypes of the future Starship were destroyed during tank strength testing, some during flight tests. Of the seven atmospheric flight tests, only two prototypes reached the Ground without much damage. At the same time, everyone seemed to joke about each new attempt. Musk stubbornly continued to go to his goal through explosions, sooty pieces of hulls and damaged engines.
I note that with the method chosen by Mask, it is required to make as simple and cheap prototypes as possible, calmly treat their destruction and use the maximum information received to correct errors.
Instead of a huge launch pad equipped with gas vents and communications hidden deep into the earth, SpaceX has created a small table or rather something resembling a stool for launching. And again, all this was done to reduce the cost of each launch; in order to be able to conduct as many tests as possible.
However, in May 2021, a long break began. There were no flight tests, and many team specialists focused on upgrading and bringing the Raptor 2 engine, the previous version of which was a frequent cause of accidents.
All the additional work on Starship took almost two years — it took a lot of time to obtain a license for the flight from the American FAA supervisory authority. And finally, on April 20, the launch took place.
Failure or success?
Problems were observed even during the separation of Starship from the launch table: for example, not all engines turned on — apparently, the rocket lacked thrust-to-weight ratio, perhaps the specialists had to bring the engines to maximum mode. In general, out of 33 engines, two did not work from the very start, then three more turned off within a minute. However, the control system was able to compensate for these problems and keep the rocket in an upright position. At the 30th second of the flight, the unit that ensures the operation of the first stage exploded.
Nevertheless, the rocket stubbornly continued to gain speed and altitude. The huge 122-meter structure rose to a height of 38 km and passed the area of maximum aerodynamic drag of the atmosphere. Another engine turned off here, but then turned on again. I, like, I think, and everyone who watched this start, froze in anticipation. An incredible sight — a huge rocket trying to continue flying despite all the failures and problems.
Starship began to move to the horizontal phase of flight, but at that moment the control system could not stand it, the rocket began to collapse, turned over twice and flew rapidly to the Ground. Then the flight control center gave the command to self-destruct this huge system, which was fighting for life until the final. The flight was aborted.
The second stage, along with the Starship itself, could not undock from the first and died along with the rocket. Even at launch, the launch pad was severely damaged — it destroyed almost all the concrete base, disrupted communications.
But this launch cannot be called a failure. This is just one more stage in a long and difficult journey to create a multifunctional, fully reusable two-stage superheavy launch vehicle from Elon Musk and his company SpaceX. Another explosion, which will certainly be followed by a series of upgrades and changes.
Will the Mask be able to complete this path entirely? Personally, I would like to hope that it will work out. This rocket is needed at least as a symbol of the fact that you can go against all the rules and traditions and win, bring the work to an end.
