On May 29th 2021 SN4 committed its final static fire, before shortly after exploding and heavily damaging S,O,P A and the GSE connected to it, in todays article we will look into SN4, its legacy, and the effects of its explosion.
As the sun rose SN4 was getting ready for a Static Fire later that day it would be its fifth Static Fire. At 1:14 PM local time easily visible propellent loading operations began as the clock began to tick to SN4s fifth Static Fire, at 1:34 Pm LT the siren marking t-10 minutes till the test was heard and the action end of the countdown began. At 1:47 PM LT SN4 committed its fifth Static Fire and then stopping operation and detanking began. Two minutes later at 1:49 a sudden vent occurred near the bottom of the vehicle and the vent wasn't a small one and parts of it blowing towards the flare stack meaning at first it looked like it wasn't methane. This vent was likely caused by a popped hose which meant it was an uncontrolled vent. Seconds later SN4, the pad, and parts of the GSE where either damaged or destroyed, the explosion also knocked the Flare Stack which burned off the methane instead of venting it, out of commission since it stopped burning afterwards. Today the methane is recondensed in the recondenser instead of being burned off. After the explosion it was very clear that Pad A was extremely damaged if not destroyed, at the time Pad B was under construction for those who don't know Pad B is the Pad that SN5, 6, 8, 9, and 11 launched from. Now even though this looks like a failure and it was, but SN4 was the first Prototype to complete a Cryo Proof test after all of the prototypes like it before it failed there Cryo tests. This also means it was the first of its type to static fire, it was the second prototype to static fire after StarHopper's Static Fires. After SN4's explosion and the destruction of Pad A, It would force SpaceX to finish Pad B as soon as safely possible, if they wanted SN5 the next Test Vehicle, to do its campaign anytime soon. As was said earlier the explosion was likely caused by a failure in a GSE hose, which caused one of the two propellent to vent uncontrollably. Now due to the explosion it was most likely Methane that was venting out of the GSE hose/s. There will be a episode of my podcast Space Stuff by Teenage Astronaut, about this same topic but longer than this as it is intended as a quick read like all of my articles like this. Written by Joe the Teenage Astronaut Sources Times of when checkpoints occured
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