SpaceX is examining the Sternhip Flight 7 misery

Washington -Guard leaks that were created by an unexpectedly strong harmonious reaction caused the loss of SpaceX's Starship vehicle on a test flight last month when the company is preparing for the next start.

In a declaration published on February 24, SpaceX provided new details about the seventh Starship/Super Heavy Test flight on January 16, which ended with the interruption of the upper level of the Starship above the Caribbean.

According to SpaceX, there was about two minutes after separating the vehicle in the AFT section or “attic” of the spaceship near one of the six Raptor engines. A pressure increase in the section followed, which pointed out that there was a leak.

A second flash followed about two minutes later, whereupon were “persistent fires” in the attic. “Finally, all of the starships' engines caused them to carry out controlled switch -off sequences, and ultimately led to a loss of communication with the ship,” said the company, with the last telemetry received about 8 minutes and 20 seconds after the output.

SpaceX noted that telemetry was lost before the autonomous flight end system was triggered on the vehicle. Instead, this system was activated about three minutes after the loss of communication with the vehicle.

The company came to the conclusion that the most likely cause of the loss of the spaceship was a “harmonious reaction in flight that was stronger several times than during the tests, which had led to an increased load on the hardware in the drive system”. This increased stress caused drift leaks that could not be fully ventilated from the attic, and allowed the fires that led to the engine disorders.

As part of the study, SpaceX carried out an extended static fire of the spaceship, which was built for the next mission, flight 8, and fired its engines in the test on February 12 for 60 seconds.

“The 60-second burning was used to test several motor thrust levels and three separate hardware configurations in the feed lines of Raptor Vacuum Motors to create and tackle the harmonious reaction observed during flight 7,” said the company. “The results of the static fire, which changes the hardware changes to the fuel supplies to vacuum motors, adaptations to drift temperatures and a new operating thrust that is used for the upcoming flight test.”

SpaceX said it also adds ventilation slots and a gaseous nitrogen flushing system to reduce the flamelessness of the loft section of the current version of the Starship.

SpaceX is progressing with the next Starship Mission, flight 8, which is to start from February 28 from the Starbase location of the company in Boca Chica, Texas, until the approval of the Federal Aviation Administration for SpaceX in Flight 7 Aviation Administration is started.

SpaceX said that flight 8 will have many of the same destinations as flight 7 that have not been proven, including the provision of four mass simulators of the next generation of the next generation as a test of the vehicle's operating use. Starship will also test new technologies to protect it during the re -entry, such as: B. metallic tiles with active cooling.

As with the previous flight, SpaceX will try a “catch” of the Super Heavy Booster in the Starbase Launch Tower. The booster contains changes such as improved avion and power distribution systems as well as an upgrade for the Raptor engines to tackle a problem on flight 7, in which one of 13 engines is closed on an ignition during its boostback burner to return to the start page.

“The seventh flight test of the Starship was a memory that the development progress is not always linear. Bringing the flight hardware to a flight environment is the fastest way to demonstrate how thousands come together from different parts to achieve space,” said space SpaceX in its summary of flight 7 “in the upcoming flights are still aimed at ambitious goals in order to be completely reusability track.”

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