3 ms·
The timing for the staging is interesting. On the one hand, you want to light the Starship engines (the 2nd stage) while the SuperHeavy (1st stage) is still acc
by ansible 3y ago
The timing for the staging is interesting. On the one hand, you want to light the Starship engines (the 2nd stage) while the SuperHeavy (1st stage) is still accelerating the entire stack. This is to keep the propellants at the bottom of their respective tanks to prevent any bubbles going into the engines. The Starship then needs to be under sufficient thrust to accelerate just as the SH cuts its engines so that the two stages can separate safely.
I'm sure it will be exciting. I just hope sufficient SH engines remain running long enough to try the staging event.
- panick21_ 3y agoInteresting how fast they switched to that.
- ansible 3y agoThe "spin the entire stack" was an interesting approach to staging as well. It is theoretically very simple and elegant, by just using the existing RCS thrusters for separating. It wasn't clear to me if this also obviates the need for a propellant settling burn on StarShip. I'd think it wouldn't, but I'm not sure. There is still a thin atmosphere at the staging altitude, so if StarShip is pointed in the right direction after separating, it should be de-accelerating slightly in the direction of travel.
- LorenPechtel 3y agoWhich would be the reverse of what you want, it would push the propellant away from the engines.
- greedo 3y agoWouldn't the methane in Starship still be at the bottom of its tank due to the momentum imparted by the Booster regardless of whether it was still attached?
- crgwbr 3y agoIn a vacuum, maybe. But in any atmosphere, removing the thrust means negative acceleration due to drag. Thus the propellant could start to drift up/forward.