Watch SpaceX successfully land the Starship SN15

-

-Advertisement-

Yes, finally, SpaceX has made history yet again, the Starship SN15 prototype made it back to the landing pad successfully and there were no unexpected happenings this time.

This was SpaceX’s fifth attempt at a 10km high altitude flight test of a Starship suborbital test vehicle prototype from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.

Just as Elon Musk had said, this was a far better Starship prototype compared to the previous ones ‘with hundreds of improvements’ — these enhancements were marginal enough to overcome the barrier SpaceX was facing, a successful landing.

Tesla Accessories by EVANNEX.
– Sponsored –

“SN15 has vehicle improvements across structures, avionics and software, and the engines that will allow more speed and efficiency throughout production and flight: specifically, a new enhanced avionics suite, updated propellant architecture in the aft skirt, and a new Raptor engine design and configuration,” SpaceX stated in the test flight video description.

The Raptor engines on the SN15 prototype also received engineering and design improvements. SpaceX fired two Raptor engines on landing this time instead of one. This produced enough thrust to land Starship SN15 back to the ground successfully. The timing of re-igniting the engines at landing was perfect this time, hence the result was positive as well.

Similar to previous high-altitude flight tests of Starship, SN15 will be powered through ascent by three Raptor engines, each shutting down in sequence prior to the vehicle reaching apogee – approximately 10 km in altitude. SN15 will perform a propellant transition to the internal header tanks, which hold landing propellant, before reorienting itself for reentry and a controlled aerodynamic descent.

The Starship prototype will descend under active aerodynamic control, accomplished by independent movement of two forward and two aft flaps on the vehicle. All four flaps are actuated by an onboard flight computer to control Starship’s attitude during flight and enable precise landing at the intended location. SN15’s Raptor engines will then reignite as the vehicle attempts a landing flip maneuver immediately before touching down on the landing pad adjacent to the launch mount.

Source: SpaceX

This was basically the high-altitude flight test but since SpaceX has mastered the flight and belly flop maneuver — the entire world had its eyes on the successful landing. Because, although the SN11 prototype had landed previously, it exploded minutes later, technically called a RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly).

It took only a little more than a week to put SN15 to go from the static fire tests to the high-altitude flight tests because there was no need to replace a Raptor engine this time.

A controlled aerodynamic descent with body flaps and vertical landing capability, combined with in-space refilling, are critical to landing Starship at destinations across the solar system where prepared surfaces or runways do not exist, and returning to Earth. This capability will enable a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo on long-duration, interplanetary flights and help humanity return to the Moon, and travel to Mars and beyond.

Source: SpaceX

After the successful landing of Starship SN15, the fire was still coming out of the engine bay, luckily a firefighter robot was installed near the landing pad to cool down the bottom of the SN15. Photographers from NASASpaceflight.com kept recording the live view of the SN15 even after 5 hours of the landing to show us if anything goes wrong (video below).

Stay tuned for future updates on Starship and SpaceX, follow us on:
Google News | Flipboard | RSS (Feedly).

Iqtidar Ali
Iqtidar Alihttp://www.teslaoracle.com
Iqtidar has been writing about Tesla, Elon Musk, and EVs for more than 3 years on XAutoWorld.com, many of his articles have been republished on CleanTechnica and InsideEVs, maintains a healthy relationship with the Tesla community across the Social Media sphere. You can reach him on Twitter @IqtidarAlii

Latest News

Chuck Cook tests Tesla FSD Beta v12.3 at challenging unprotected left turns (video)

Tesla's latest FSD Beta release v12.3 is generally getting good feedback from beta testers except for a few hiccups...

Tesla FSD v12.3 gets good first impressions from the beta testers (videos)

Tesla (TSLA) started rolling out FSD Beta v12.3 (2023.44.30.25) to non-employee beta testers on Tuesday. First impressions testing videos...

Watch Starship Flight 3 (IFT-3) live stream recording and live updates from the SpaceX Starbase launch site

SpaceX has started live-streaming the Starship Flight 3 (IFT-3) launch and liftoff official coverage (watch below). We will be updating...

Starship Flight 3 (IFT-3) date falls on SpaceX’s 22nd foundation anniversary, FAA approves the launch

According to Elon Musk, SpaceX will attempt to fly the Starship for the 3rd time from Starbase, Texas in...
- Advertisement -

Watch Starship Flight 3 (IFT-3) live stream recording and live updates from the SpaceX Starbase launch site

SpaceX has started live-streaming the Starship Flight 3 (IFT-3) launch and liftoff official coverage (watch below). We will be updating...

Starship Flight 3 (IFT-3) date falls on SpaceX’s 22nd foundation anniversary, FAA approves the launch

According to Elon Musk, SpaceX will attempt to fly the Starship for the 3rd time from Starbase, Texas in...

Starship Flight 3 NET launch date set to March 14 with a new flight and splashdown trajectory

SpaceX announced earlier today that the 3rd Starship orbital flight test is set to be conducted as soon as...

Tesla Tips & Tricks

Calculating Tesla Model 3 range loss through a cold winter night (video)

As the holiday season is nearing, cold weather is...

SpaceX enthusiast designs a 1:110 scale LEGO Starship

A NASA/SpaceX enthusiast who goes by the name of...

Here’s how much battery is drained if a Tesla is left unplugged for 32 days

A Tesla Model 3 owner parked her car in...

Tesla Quarterly Reports & Eearnings

- Advertisement -

You might also likeRELATED
Recommended for You