SpaceNews WASHINGTON — A prototype of SpaceX’s Starship next-generation launch vehicle passed a pressurization test April 27, one that had destroyed three of its predecessors.
The Starship SN4 vehicle, on a pad at SpaceX’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas, was loaded with liquid nitrogen, a test designed to confirm its ability to hold cryogenic propellants at pressure. That test came a day after a pressurization test where the tanks were filled with gaseous nitrogen at ambient temperatures.
SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk confirmed the cryogenic pressurization test was a success. “SN4 passed cryo proof!” he tweeted.
SN4 passed cryo proof! ? pic.twitter.com/EJakThZRGF
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 27, 2020
Three previous Starship prototypes all failed that test in spectacular fashion. In November 2019, a bulkhead in the Starship Mark 1 vehicle, which the company showed off to the media two months earlier, ruptured during a cryogenic pressurization test, sending debris flying. The company said at the time that the outcome “was not completely unexpected.”
A second Starship vehicle, SN1, was also destroyed in a cryogenic tanking test Feb. 28, this time with the vehicle bursting near its base. Musk said that the failure in that test appeared to be with a “thrust puck” at the base of the tank that takes the load from the vehicle’s Raptor engines.
The company then stripped down the next Starship prototype in development, SN2, to its tanks, which alone passed a pressurization test in early March. However, the Starship SN3 vehicle collapsed in another cryogenic pressurization test April 3. Musk said at the time that a test configuration error, rather than a flaw with the vehicle itself, may have caused the vehicle to crumple.
