Monthly Archives: April 2023

Success in Failure, Starship Launches and then blows up.

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Today, 20 April 2023, at 08:33 CDT, SpaceX launched the first Starship/Superheavy. This is truly the beginning of a new Era in spaceflight if the objectives of rapid reusability are reached with this vehicle. The cost of moving a pound mass/kilogram into orbit will hopefully be reduced to the point that at the least our Solar System will become accessible to many and that we humans can become a multi-planetary species.

On first viewing, the liftoff was spectacular. The flight was awe-inspiring. That is, until it went out of control and the Flight Termination System kicked in. And even that was a sight to be seen. The SpaceX presenters on the SpaceX feed even thought that it was starting the flip/separation maneuver. I had noted that some of the Raptor 2 engines were not firing, but thought that was par for the course.

In going back over the videos and pictures from various sources, things were not all that good from the start. As Starship cleared the dust cloud, it was at a strange angle, canted slightly off the vertical even before clearing the launch tower. In other launches I have seen, the rocket remains vertical for a bit further. (The image below from Tim Dodd via NASASpaceFlight Forums.)

Tilt at liftoff

There were clear indications of engine failures as it climbed, with one as early as about 7 seconds into launch. Ultimately it appeared that 8 engines had failed, 6 in the outer ring of 20 and 2 in the innermost 13 gimbaled engines. (Image below from NASASpaceFlight Forums.)

This must have eventually lead to the loss of control of the booster as shown in the tweet below.

And to top things off a lot was learned about the durability of Stage Zero, the reference SpaceX makes to the ground launch systems. There was quite a crater dug out under the Operational Launch Mount (OLM). The LOX (Liquid Oxygen), LN2 (Liquid Nitrogen) and water storage tanks just north of the OLM were damaged; there are huge dings in two and an apparent hole in one of the cryogenic storage tanks.

At least SpaceX won’t have to do too much excavation to install the water deluge system and maybe a flame diverter under the OLM. The speculation is that the material from that crater did most of the physical damage. As an aside, some projectile destroyed NASASpaceFlights van that was parked about 1100 feet from the OLM on the other side of those tanks.

The data from this launch is the success. In the coming weeks we should see and hear what happened and what will be done to upgrade Stage Zero, Stage One (Superheavy Booster) and Stage 2 (Starship). Some of the information will be from SpaceX news releases or back channels. Some will be from the work being done on Stage Zero. I am looking forward to the next launch within a few months, as Elon Musk tweeted out:

I will recommend the NASASpaceFlight Forums on SpaceX as a good source of information. One only needs to put a few mental filters on for some of the comments in the various threads.

It is on!

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SpaceX received its FAA launch license for Starship/Superheavy just before 5 PM CDT this Friday the 14th of April 2023. SpaceX is targeting Monday, 17 April for the launch with a 150 minute launch window opening at 7 AM CDT (7-9:50 AM) (Edit – I can’t add, it should be 7-9:30 AM). This was announced here: UPCOMING STARSHIP FLIGHT TEST. Scroll down that page for the full timeline of the launch sequnce. The Starship will land (splashdown) just off the island of Hawaii 1 1/2 hours after launch.

I was watching the live update from NASASpaceflight on Youtube where I heard the announcement. The license is good for 5 years and I have to wonder if it applies to future vehicles or is limited to S24/BN7.

An animation to sooth the anticipation.

I will be up early on the 17th to watch it on the SpaceX channel. The above SpaceX webpage states that they will start coverage about 45 minutes before (the first attempted) launch time.

BillB

Hallelujah! He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Hallelujah!

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May everyone have a blessed Easter/Pasche.

The Resurrection is the basis of the Christian belief. As Saint Paul the Apostle says in his first letter to the Corinthians that has been preserved (1 Corinthians 15:12-22):

“12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”

May you have a good day celebrating it with family and friends.

BillB

The Shop — The Building

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So why am I going through all of this past history, you ask? I didn’t want to spring any of the projects I am going to do on the blog-0-sphere without explaining how this shop I am doing them in magically appeared in my world. The shop will be a multi-use shop with woodworking, automotive repair and any other function that might be carried out in such a facility.

On July 27th, 2021 the foundation was finished. We had already contacted the company that was going to put up the building itself once we were sure the foundation would be built. When the dust had all settled, they were going to send their crew down to the wilds of the Hill Country on the 12th of August. In the meantime, I had to remove limbs from trees to give a clear space for the building to go up in. So out came the tape measures, chain saw, pole saw and ladders. In a couple of days I had what I hoped was a cleared volume for the building to go in.

On the morning of Thursday the 12th, we called and made sure the crew was on its way. They showed up just after 12 PM with a trailer load of materials and 3 men.

Building crew and materials show up to erect the building.
Building crew and materials show up to erect the building.

The trailer was loaded with lengths of 2 1/2 inch square galvanized tubing, roof trusses of the same material, premade bottom wall plates, yards and yards of metal siding and roofing, a roll up door, five windows, a couple of man doors and boxes of screws and other fittings. The guys set to unloading stuff from the trailer. And boy, did they move fast. By 12:57, the crew had the sidewall wall plates positioned, screwed to the foundation and the first “bent” erected.

The first "bent" is up!
The first “bent” is erected.

Just 20 minutes later, all the “bents” were up. I was totally amazed at the speed they were moving at. I didn’t take any more pictures that day because I felt I might be interfering with them. By sunset, which was their quitting time, they had built the front and back frames out with all vertical and horizontal frame pieces, put in all the purlins in the walls and roof, and had started putting the siding on the building.

When they came back the next morning, Friday, August 13th (I wanted to point out the auspicious date), the crew charged right back into the building. By 10 AM they had the building almost complete. The roll-up door trim, roll-up door and the trim around the roof were still to be done. You can see the frame structure through the door opening

Shop building is nearly complete, just the roll up door to go.
The shop building is nearly complete.

By 12 Noon the building was complete. The crew drove away about 12:15 PM. And I took this picture at 12:19. I just have to say that was fast. The crew put up the building in 24 hours including taking an overnight break.

The finished shop building.
The finished shop building.

There was still more to do. We needed to epoxy the floor, get electric power to the shop, wire the shop and start filling it with tools. More in the next installment of “The Shop”.

BillB

The Shop — The Foundation

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The post on April 1st was the first post in over a year. I don’t know why. I guess life got in the way. So many people’s blogs that I read have a good grip on doing it that I didn’t want to replicate their blogs. Commenting there just seemed easier. Sometimes what I wanted to blog about was more a rant than anything else and did not provide anything more than my view of a subject without adding information to the pool. Anyway, I am still here and wanted to celebrate the latest addition to The Last Frontier.

Three years ago, just before the COVID panic, I went to work for Lowe’s Home Improvement. I lasted about 8 months before that particular retail environment just wore on my nerves, having been an Air Force pilot, an Engineer in the Air Force and done engineering work in aerospace and defense. I left their employment amicably. The goal of working there was to earn some money for goals around our property and a new radio for me. In June 2020, I got the new radio, an ICOM IC-9700 VHF/UHF 3 Band transceiver. It’s a sweet rig! In the early months of 2021, Mrs. BillB and I decided to go ahead and build a shop, partially funded by the proceeds from my employment.

We settled on a 30 x 30 foot metal building with 12 foot walls from a company in Grandview, Texas. The company was founded by some of the Old Mennonite community that live in that area of Texas. We had dealt with that community before and found that they were in general fair dealing folks. On May 7th we bought the building with a 50% down payment, the rest due on completion of the building. Since we are self-contracting this project, the ride had just begun.

We sited the building about 50 feet west of our garage. This was where the previous owners had a garden area that was about the same size as the building. Half of this garden area had Century Plants (Agave Americana) in it. They were mature and large. Winter Storm Uri had killed or severely damaged most of them. So I got the tractor with front-end loader and took them out after taking down the fence around the area. I put the remnants in our burn pit and that is another story. We did a “rough” stake out of the building. The difficulty here is that the Last Frontier is on a slope; where we determined the shop would go there is about an 18″ drop from the high corner to the low corner.

Now we had to find a concrete contractor to put in a slab foundation. We got names from THE local lumber yard to be able to get multiple quotes on the job. The first quote we got was high. The next quote we got was in the ballpark of what we had estimated it would cost. So we went with him. He came and surveyed the area then texted us a quote. He was supposed to show up on June 10th. But he never appeared and didn’t answer the phone when I called. We kept trying and finally got someone who showed up. They came on the 16th of July 2021 to put in the forms. Here is the end of the first day’s work.

The foundation forms before steel (rebar)

The next day they came and put in the steel/rebar. They also completed the forms so that was a little step for the siding to sit in to keep water out, and a step-down for the roll-up door.

Completed forms with steel and all of the other.

It was about a week later that they came to pour the foundation. Always love the sound of them doing that. Here is the first concrete going in.

First Concrete pour
First concrete pour.

They came back a week later and pulled the forms. Here is the bare foundation in all of its glory.

The foundation with the forms removed
The foundation in its bare glory!

The next installment will be the shop going up.

BillB

Sunset in the Hill Country

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Venus over Mercury at Twilight

First off, this is no April’s Fool joke.

I caught this picture of Mercury and Venus in the deep twilight on my cell phone on March 4th, 2023. The picture was taken from the top of the hill that is at the southwest end of our street. I had to maneuver around a little to get the power lines out of the picture.

In these times of turmoil, it was a wonderful, calming view. This was my first solo outing after getting out of an 11-day hospital stay a couple of weeks before. It was great being alive and seeing this.

BillB