Whoa! SpaceX Starship's flame deflector at launch pad gets full-pressure test

SpaceX's Starship flame deflector at its South Texas launch pad underwent a full-pressure test on July 28, 2023.
The "new water deluge system to protect against the immense heat & force of Starship launch," according to a post on X by Elon Musk.

[stratolestele]

Wow! Those holes and spray pattern look so perfect, I thought it was CGI at first. Impressive is an understatement.

[themach]

Guinness world record for biggest water sprinkler...

[smooth_ops]

I think the people who have concerns that the center portion cant withstand the heat might not be correct. If you've ever got a thin disposable plastic cup or ballon and put just a small amount of water in each, you can hold a lighter underneath either of them without a hole being burnt through. The water absorbs all the heat and allows the material to stay intact, my opinion is that the outcome will be the same with the water deluge. It may actually be better in the sense that the deluge is constantly moving the heated water out as cold water keeps replacing it. The steam cloud thats going to be produced by this launch is going to be immense and ruin every camera shot during the launch.

[scottstewart]

Cool to see the angle of the holes. The ones on the outside seem to be in circular groups, pointing straight up, and they push up the angled stream from the center. I hope the flow at the center can take the energy. The design certainly has a lot of water quickly exiting radially from that center. It just doesn't seem deep enough, maybe?

[jojoksatoto]

If the launch trials were again I'd guess the damage around launch was relatively light / at least safe.

[cptkirkpyro]

this is the content I subscribed to see!

[Fauxtonics]

If NASA was given the task of designing and building a new launch pad after the old launch pad was destroyed, they'd still be having committee meetings on how to design it.

[jamesford]

first playback looked in slow motion as well, looked much more natural when played at x1.25 or x1.5

[raigo.]

Water VS fire ignition Launcher.
Reali spectacular👀

[goldfing]

Geil! (The German word for "awesome"). And it even looks absolutely clean and beautiful! SpaceX spends a wellness area to its Starship :-)

[damoaraimo]

How many metric tonnes of water per Launch?

[damoaraimo]

Does anyone know what the total water flow rate is m3/hr?

[colesonafrank]

I'm especially curious about how the very center will interact with the force from the engines. I'm surprised that all the holes were slanted in a conical fashion. I would have thought that a small number at the very center would have been slanted such that they formed the cone from the opposite side, perhaps being skewed radially so each individual jet didn't quite intersect with any other, but still crossing the very center of the plate to prevent there being any spot (i.e. the center) not covered directly by the high pressure water. I sure hope this isn't a problem!

[terrymarquis]

This looks convincing the next lunch is going to work

[dwightlooi]

Why not a DRY water deluge system? If the point is to prevent the pad from being destroyed by heat and thrust, why not simply have water cooled steel plates under the pad. You have the same volume and pressure of water as you use for the deluge system, but instead of ejecting the water it is simply shuffled from a set of pressurized tank to another set of vented or vacuumed tanks. The water goes through the steel plate sandwich very quickly and removes the heat from the metal. For the next launch, the other set of tanks are pressurized and the water is shuffled back. Given the time between launches the water would have naturally cooled.

[ErikBongers]

That center is a weak spot. No protection. Curious to see there will be a bit more damage to that area after a SF or flight.

[mwplatt]

I guess a lot of the ability to avoid the destruction we saw with the last launch is gonna depend on that base. What is it made of, that whole area from which the water is spraying? Obviously metal of some kind. I just hope it's enough. The steam coming off that thing is going to be incredibly huge, hot and a great spectacle!

[Riiyan]

I got 100 says that rocket is still going to fuck up the launch pad! Any takers?

[douglasstone]

The water doesn't cover the entire launch pad. The higher levels of the pad look like they will still get toasted at launch time. The water deluge needs to cover the entire area that will be hit with the rocket exhaust.

[endsinvention]

Always fun and games until the bolt drops down one of those holes