WASHINGTON — NASA says SpaceX is on track to demonstrate in-space refueling of Starship next year, a critical technology for returning humans to the lunar surface using that vehicle.
Speaking to the NASA Advisory Council’s Human Exploration and Operations Committee April 26, Amit Kshatriya, NASA deputy associate administrator for the Moon to Mars Program, said SpaceX achieved one step towards refueling of Starship with a demonstration on the latest Starship test flight March 14.
During that flight, SpaceX performed an in-flight propellant transfer demonstration under a NASA Tipping Point contract awarded in 2020. SpaceX planned to transfer at least 10 metric tons of liquid oxygen from a header tank to the main tank within the Starship upper stage while in space.
While SpaceX said the day of the flight that it performed the demonstration, neither the company nor NASA provided any updates since then. At the advisory committee meeting, though, Kshatriya said the test appeared to go well.
“On Flight 3, they did an intertank transfer of cryogens, which was successful by all accounts,” he said, adding that analysis of the test is ongoing.
The next major milestone is a demonstration planned for 2025 where two Starships will dock in orbit, with one transferring propellants to the other. Plans for that have passed a flight system review, according to a slide he presented at the meeting, examining the overall mission architecture and key subsystems, among other topics.
In that mission, a “target” Starship will launch first and go into orbit, followed three to four weeks later by a “chaser” Starship. The two vehicles will dock with the chaser transferring propellants to the target. After the demonstration, the two Starships will undock and deorbit.
Kshatriya said SpaceX has some work ahead of that test, including understanding the slosh of propellants in the tanks as Starship maneuvers as well as the amount of “settling…
Read the full article here