Thursday, SpaceX CEO and chief engineer Elon Musk, shared that the Starship rocket would not be flying on Friday but will be getting a fresh actuator in its Super Heavy booster. The need to replace this part will slide the launch back one day to Saturday and drop the two hour window to only 20 minutes.
周四,SpaceX 首席执行官兼总工程师埃隆·马斯克表示,星舰火箭不会在周五飞行,但将在其超重型助推器中安装新的执行器。由于需要更换该部件,发射时间将推迟一天至周六,并将两小时的时间缩短至仅 20 分钟。
No that is not a typo
You read that right, Saturday’s Starship launch attempt window will only be 20 minutes long, giving SpaceX not a lot of time to troubleshoot any problems that may arise.
不,这不是拼写错误,你没看错,周六的星舰发射尝试窗口只有 20 分钟长,这让 SpaceX 没有太多时间来解决可能出现的任何问题。
SpaceX isn’t new to short windows, however. The company launches its Falcon 9 rocket weekly with almost near instantaneous launch windows. The difference this time is the Falcon 9 has launched over 80 times this year alone, while this will only be the second flight of SpaceX’s Starship rocket.
然而,SpaceX 对短窗口并不陌生。该公司每周都会发射猎鹰 9 号火箭,发射窗口几乎是瞬时的。不同的是,这次猎鹰 9 号仅在今年就发射了 80 多次,而这只是 SpaceX 星舰火箭的第二次飞行。
The signs of a delay began when media down in South Texas for the launch witnessed destacking hardware being moved back to he orbital launch pad. Since this sort of equipment isn’t the kind you want left at a launch pad, the only thing it could mean was Ship 25 would have to come down.
当德克萨斯州南部发射的媒体目睹拆卸硬件被移回轨道发射台时,延迟的迹象就开始出现。由于这种设备不是您希望留在发射台上的那种设备,因此它唯一可能意味着 25 号船必须坠落。
Elon Musk confirmed the destack on his social media site X (formally Twitter). “We need to replace a grid fin actuator, so launch is postponed to Saturday,” Musk said.
埃隆·马斯克在他的社交媒体网站 X(以前的 Twitter)上证实了这一消息。 “我们需要更换网格鳍执行器,因此发射推迟到周六,”马斯克说。
While the grid fins aren’t important for the launch of the vehicle, they are for landing the booster in the future. For the second Starship flight, SpaceX will only attempt to splash the booster down in the Gulf of Mexico but in future flights, the goal is to catch it using arms on the launch mount (yes seriously that is the plan).
虽然网格鳍对于飞行器的发射并不重要,但它们对于未来助推器的着陆至关重要。对于第二次星舰飞行,SpaceX 只会尝试将助推器溅落到墨西哥湾,但在未来的飞行中,目标是使用发射架上的手臂抓住它(是的,严肃地说,这就是计划)。
An updated sound advisory, a requirement for SpaceX to do by local authorities, gave details into Saturday’s launch window. While it will open at the same time, 7:00 A.M. CT, the window will be cut back to only 20 minutes.
地方当局要求 SpaceX 发布一份更新后的健全公告,其中提供了周六发射窗口的详细信息。同时,上午 7:00 开放。 CT,窗口期将缩短至只有20分钟。
This will require SpaceX to have a rather flawless countdown. Which is more likely this time than during the first launch back in April as teams have undergone numerous dress rehearsals in recent weeks.
这需要 SpaceX 进行相当完美的倒计时。这次比四月份首次发布时更有可能,因为团队在最近几周进行了多次彩排。
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What about further delays?
If SpaceX can’t get Starship off the pad one way or another Saturday, the company has a backup date on Sunday. Most likely SpaceX will have a window to launch daily if needed. At least until the end of next week where it gets murky with Thanksgiving and SpaceX may or may not have the ability to close the road.
如果进一步的延误怎么办?如果 SpaceX 无法在周六将 Starship 发射出去,该公司将在周日安排一个备份日期。如果需要的话,SpaceX 很可能每天都会有一个发射窗口。至少在下周末感恩节到来之前,情况会变得阴暗,SpaceX 可能有能力关闭道路,也可能没有能力。
From the TFR SpaceX was given by the FAA, the times line up that Sunday’s backup launch window will be 120 minutes. Giving the company much more time to problem solve anything that shows up in a rocket this early in development.
根据 FAA 给出的 TFR SpaceX 消息,周日备用发射窗口的时间为 120 分钟。让公司有更多的时间来解决火箭开发早期出现的任何问题。
Now all this is assuming that what reasons SpaceX has to delay is something the company can resolve in 24 hours. Some issues might need more than a day to clear or weather could delay launches for multiple days.
现在所有这一切都假设 SpaceX 必须推迟的原因是该公司可以在 24 小时内解决的问题。有些问题可能需要一天以上的时间才能解决,或者天气可能会导致发射延迟几天。
For those that are joining us that haven’t followed many rocket launches in the past, welcome to the waiting and see game.
对于那些过去没有关注过多次火箭发射的人来说,欢迎来到观望游戏。
Either way, SpaceX launch operations will begin very early in the morning. Road closures go into effect at midnight and fueling begins two hours before the launch even takes place. Don’t forget the potential hours of pre-fueling operations before that.
无论哪种方式,SpaceX 的发射操作都将在清晨开始。道路封闭在午夜生效,加油甚至在发射前两小时就开始了。不要忘记在此之前预加油操作的潜在时间。