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SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

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Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#41

Post by doomlaser »

lmm wrote: post #38
doomlaser wrote: post #29

This is the first time I've seen video of a starship test that didn't end in catastrophic explosion, so this is great news! I'm still worried about the overall design, specifically when it comes to landing. The current procedure is for it to fall into the atmosphere flat on its side, then continue to fall for a long time, and then only when it's near the ground it must reorient 90 degrees to upright and then do a fin…

Parachutes are a lot fiddlier and less reliable than the layperson assumes, so the baseline for how complex a system like this can be is worse than you'd think.

In my mind, the multiple complex reorientations while falling at terminal velocity — with no plan B — just seems particularly harrowing..

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#42

Post by _kst_ »

mabbo wrote: post #39
Diggsey wrote: post #25

What you don't get a sense for in the video is the size of this thing... It's absolutely bonkers. 9m (30 ft) in diameter 50m (160 ft) in height (or would be with the nose-cone) That's the height of a 12-story building. And this is the upper stage of the full rocket.

And it's being powered by one raptor rocket. It's designed to have 6.

And the first stage "Super Heavy" is designed to have 31.

Update: I think the hopper in the video is a prototype of the lower stage, which is planned to have 31 engines. The upper stage is planned to have 6.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#43

Post by llboston »

zizee wrote: post #33

No one has seemed to have mentioned it yet, but the game changer of Starship will be full reusability of both the first and second stage of the rocket. Falcon 9's reusability of the first stage was a huge step towards making access to space a lot cheaper. If SpaceX can realize full reusability with Starship it will enable things like large scale moon bases, space hotels and mars colonization. They still have a lot of…

Another significant thing is that Starship is designed to be mass manufactured at a relatively low cost. SpaceX can crank out thousands of Starships, fly them to Mars and build a million people colony. Starship is truly a game changer!

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#44

Post by Robotbeat »

BbzzbB wrote: post #16

What a week for SpaceX! Two days ago they landed Bob and Doug, and now they succeeded to hop a water tower (as a side project nonetheless, AFAIK only a small part of SpaceX is on this team)! Can't wait to see future iterations and improvements of this beast, especially to see more Raptors strapped on!

The water tower was last year. This is a prototype using the same production technique as for the production versions.

EDIT: More grain silo than water tower. ;)

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#45

Post by Robotbeat »

fnord77 wrote: post #12

Is there an official spacex feed?

No, but there were no fewer than 3 hosted live-streams (one which had 3 different HD live cameras you could switch to) with countdowns and technical commentary. All by non-traditional media. Remarkable what is possible nowadays.

Here they are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwC6LG_z8zE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJR4gZBLMNw

And the last one is constantly streaming 3 live feeds of the SpaceX Boca Chica facilities 24/7:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QbM7Vsz3kg

EDIT: And by remarkable, I don't just mean technical capability but the really impressive non-traditional media community that has grown up around New Space the last 5-10 years. Here's amazing, close-up 4K video of the hop by yet another non-traditional space media person:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXzPu6MM99Q

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#46

Post by eric-hu »

llboston wrote: post #43
zizee wrote: post #33

No one has seemed to have mentioned it yet, but the game changer of Starship will be full reusability of both the first and second stage of the rocket. Falcon 9's reusability of the first stage was a huge step towards making access to space a lot cheaper. If SpaceX can realize full reusability with Starship it will enable things like large scale moon bases, space hotels and mars colonization. They still have a lot of…

Another significant thing is that Starship is designed to be mass manufactured at a relatively low cost. SpaceX can crank out thousands of Starships, fly them to Mars and build a million people colony. Starship is truly a game changer!

Can you recommend resources for reading more about the long term plans of Starship?

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#47

Post by thinkcontext »

_kst_ wrote: post #42
mabbo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it's being powered by one raptor rocket. It's designed to have 6.

And the first stage "Super Heavy" is designed to have 31. Update: I think the hopper in the video is a prototype of the lower stage, which is planned to have 31 engines. The upper stage is planned to have 6.

The test today is a prototype for the upper stage.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#48

Post by m4rtink »

_kst_ wrote: post #42
mabbo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it's being powered by one raptor rocket. It's designed to have 6.

And the first stage "Super Heavy" is designed to have 31. Update: I think the hopper in the video is a prototype of the lower stage, which is planned to have 31 engines. The upper stage is planned to have 6.

The small hopper in the video is an early general purpose prototype from heavy duty steel, what flew today is a prototype of the second stage (Starship).

But assembly enclosure for the first stage (Super Heavy) is being built already.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#49

Post by m4rtink »

sneak wrote: post #31
Diggsey wrote: post #25

What you don't get a sense for in the video is the size of this thing... It's absolutely bonkers. 9m (30 ft) in diameter 50m (160 ft) in height (or would be with the nose-cone) That's the height of a 12-story building. And this is the upper stage of the full rocket.

...with a 22 ton steel weight (that little block) on the top of it, in addition to the entire weight of the test article and the fuel.

There is likely very little fuel though for such a small hop.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#50

Post by ChuckMcM »

Always impressive to me. And I know that people will say "Yeah, basically the only thing 'new' here is the engine" but there are also a bunch of other things that struck me;

It did the hop 'off balance' (the final version expects to have 3 raptor engines working together) so the engine out scenario for landing still seems pretty safe.

There is something like four more advanced vehicles in the warehouse section at various stages of completion. So scaling up making them seems to be working out.

It looks "small" in the images but when you see people working on it you can tell its grain silo big. That is a heck of a thing to fly overhead.

Rockets taking off and landing vertical has amazed me ever since I saw the DC-X do it once.

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