SpaceX Improving Toughness of Super Heavy Booster 7

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SpaceX super heavy booster 7 is getting some “robustness upgrades” ahead of its coming orbital launch in late October or early November.

Booster 9 has further design improvements but Booster 7 has a decent shot at orbital flight success.

5 thoughts on “SpaceX Improving Toughness of Super Heavy Booster 7”

  1. Tougher steels and titanium can now be 3D printed.
    Elon needs to contact Nuytco:their Exosuit 2000 uses once classified submarine steel alloy.

    These recent breakthroughs will allow even larger rockets.

    I’m not going to be happy until I see THIS fly:

    https://up-ship.com/blog/?p=40017

    • They might be tougher, but are they cheaper? If so, then Elon should totally look into them.

      Even if they are only a bit more expensive, they might still be worth considering.

      But generally, space-age materials should be kept well away from a “big dumb booster” like Superheavy.

      • At this point Musk is concentrating on price over performance, and he’d be well advised to continue that at least until the design settles down. He’s determined to avoid premature optimization.

        He is using 3d printed parts and exotic alloys in key places, like the engine pintle or turbopumps, where they’re cost justified. But given the size of his rockets, 3d printing isn’t going to make much sense for a lot of the rocket.

        Once the design settles down, and he’s looking at rockets that will fly hundreds of times, not prototypes that might fly a couple times if they don’t crash, it might make sense to start looking into special alloys and optimized parts.

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