>>14307483I'm willing to bet that they're going to keep this cycle going:
>stack>cryotest>destack>cryotest>stack>cryotest>destack>cryotestMy best guess is that they're trying to find the failure threshold for when the repeated cryo/non-cryo stresses from pressurizing and depressurizing the ships will cause the metal to fatigue and fail. That will give them an idea of the average shelf life of each booster and ship, and based on that, give them a lead time on by what rough month and year, they'll need the next iteration of 30X Stainless Steel or some composite alloy that's stronger and lighter or much much stronger at same weight, so that it can handle even more vehicle stresses prior to fatigue threshold and failure. Occam's Razor would suggest that this is the most likely outcome as it's a simple method of testing of the load bearing capacity of the booster and ship adjoined, and gives secondary testing opportunities for all supporting apparatuses like QD arm, QD fuel injector, electrical, sensors, potential failure points for electrical, cabling, and avionics due to repeated cryo/non-cryo extremes; and finally, all of this is further stressed by the humid and hot nature of Boca Chica which adds some extra variability as a form of chaos engineering.
It's best for the stack to fail and crumple on top of stage zero, when its filled to the gills with liquid nitrogen, than for it to fail when its filled methane and liquid oxygen, douse the pad, stage0, and tower; catch fire, and send it all up in flames.
