Welcome to the /c/SpaceX Integrated Flight Test 2 Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread!
| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2023-11-18 13:00 |
|---|---|
| Scheduled for (local) | 2023-11-18 07:00 (CST) |
| Launch Window (UTC) | 2023-11-18 13:00 to 2023-11-18 13:20 (20 minutes) |
| Weather | Good |
| Launch site | OLM-A, SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA. |
| Booster | B9 |
| Ship | S25 |
| Booster landing | B9 to perform a soft water landing in the Gulf of Mexico |
| Ship landing | S25 expected to impact Pacific Ocean near Hawaii |
Webcasts
| Stream | Link |
|---|---|
| Everyday Astronaut (4k and low latency) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6na40SqzYnU |
| Spaceflight Now | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-LFzFWaACo |
| LabPadre | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwhcSwQWOHk |
| NASASpaceflight | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOI35G7cP7o |
| The Launch Pad | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0K0uSDE6ks |
| Space Affairs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XbmBspvaHE |
| SpaceX | https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1725852544587727145#m |
| The Space Devs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CREQ3e2Li34 |
Stats
☑️ 2nd Starship Full Stack launch
☑️ 299th SpaceX launch all time
☑️ 86th SpaceX launch this year
☑️ 2nd launch from OLM-A this year
☑️ 211 days, 23:27:00 turnaround for this pad
Stats include F1, F9 , FH and Starship
Mission Details 🚀
- SpaceX website (archived 2023-11-16): Starship’s Second Flight Test (archived)
- SpaceX website (archived 2023-11-18): Starship’s Second Flight Test (archived)
- SpaceX website (archived 2023-11-22): Starship’s Second Flight Test (archived)
- SpaceX website (current): Starship’s Second Flight Test
Prediction time!
Stage Zero: Works with only minor damage.
Booster Engine Failures: 5 :(
Hot Staging: Works, looks cool.
Upper Stage: Flies, with significant issues.
FTS: Big boom, on time!
End result: Booster re-enters in one piece, Ship in many.
I’d be surprised if they had that many booster engines fail. I suspect we’ll see only a couple of engines fail at most.
I’m less confident about the success of hot staging, since they’ve never tested it before. Excitement guaranteed though!
Totally! I don’t have an engineering reason to think they’ll fail, I’m just suspicious after the static fires couldn’t maintain 33. A hot staging failure would be MUCH more exciting.
Hmm, I am a bit more confident in the ships abilities (at least for anything between hot staging and SECO).
Anyways, if it gets to the point to initiate hot staging (regardless of the outcome) and the FTS works, it‘s a success. But we should also remember that SN9 landed (crashed) harder than SN8, and SN12 was way worse than the previous three tests. If stage zero is mostly unharmed, the FTS works, and the authorities are not too unhappy, SpaceX has already produced enough hardware for several tests to get it right within the next few months. A good test is a test where you learn a lot, and can try again soon.
This is a really hot take, but I reckon if it manages to make if to stage separation in one piece, and the hot staging works, the ship should fly trouble-free.
It’s the one part of the system that they have done significant testing on, not that many engines etc. If they once again don’t make it past staging that would be very concerning for the Starship timeline, Artemis, and so on…
It’ll be so cool to see the booster soft splash.
Biggest hope is that they manage to get away without sandblasting Boca Chica so the FAA don’t ground them for 6 months again.