IT'S SURVIVE! Starship Launch Pad Upgrade Help Stage Zero To Survive This Time!
SpaceX's upgrades at the Starship launch pad were also put to the test Saturday.
The rocket made a big mess when it launched on its first test flight in April, when the blast from the Raptor engines blew a hole in the concrete underneath the pedestal where the rocket sits before launch. Massive chunks of concrete were strewn across hundreds of acres around the launch pad, denting tanks and carving craters in the surrounding mud flats. Clouds of dust and sand fell on communities several miles away.
This is something SpaceX didn't want to repeat with the second test flight, so engineers installed a water deluge system at the pad to protect it from similar damage again. In the final seconds of the countdown, the deluge system released more than 100,000 gallons of fresh water through channels built into a steel plate installed underneath the pad's circular launch mount. The fountain-like flow of water was supposed to absorb the heat and acoustic energy from the Super Heavy engines.
By all early accounts, the deluge system worked as it should. There were no chunks of large debris around the launch pad after Saturday's liftoff. This will reduce the cleanup SpaceX has to do before moving the booster and upper stage to the pad for the next Starship test flight, preserving an opportunity for another Starship launch within the next few months.
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