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The FAA has granted SpaceX permission to launch its Starship rocket

arstechnica.com

81–90 of 187 posts

Re: The FAA has granted SpaceX permission to launch its Starship rocket

#82
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They managed landing legs and they decided to up the level of difficulty a few notches or something?

It means less hardware/weight on the actual rocket.

And crucially more room to absorb shock.

Re: The FAA has granted SpaceX permission to launch its Starship rocket

#83

April 17 is the anniversary of Apollo 13’s splashdown, if anyone was wondering. Edit: in case anyone wasn't aware of the coolest website on the internet https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/

This is really excellent and just a great example of the niche side of the internet I miss so dearly!

Re: The FAA has granted SpaceX permission to launch its Starship rocket

#84
post #73

I hope they get a shot of it externally in orbit, that would be cool

It won't get to orbit, just "nearly orbital" as the article states. "(...) the Starship vehicle will attempt to ascend to an altitude of 235 km and become "nearly orbital." Starship's engines will shut down at 9 minutes and 20 seconds into the flight, after which the vehicle will coast for more than an hour before entering Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. It will not complete a full orbit and is expected to…

I see... yeah I just imagine it over Earth probably from renderings.

Would be cool if it had a little buddy it released to get above/behind it to take a 3rd person view picture.

Re: The FAA has granted SpaceX permission to launch its Starship rocket

#85
post #25
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feline friends always love it when humans put out nice new warm beds for them! Certainly a warm heated spot in the cold could serve no higher purpose :): https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/outdoor-cats-are-u...

> the American Veterinary Medical Association recommends keeping cats indoors to avoid dangers associated with diseases, parasites, cars, attacks from other animals, poisons and extreme weather Now it’s not only children but cats too? I grew up in a location where cats could go anywhere they pleased (in or outside), and it’s really strange to me that some countries recommend or require them to always be inside.

Outdoor cats are a menace to birds and other wildlife on a scale that's hard to describe. It would be hard for an individual homeowner to do anything else that is even nearly as destructive to their local wildlife than keeping an outdoor cat.

Re: The FAA has granted SpaceX permission to launch its Starship rocket

#86

I was betting on April 20 for meme reasons (and Musk likes the 420 reference) but next Monday works as well. I am very excited about it.

SpaceX previously tweeted that the launch could occur roughly a week after the Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) which still has not happened.

In fact the rocket is not even stacked at the moment, so 4/20 is more probable than 4/17 imo.

Re: The FAA has granted SpaceX permission to launch its Starship rocket

#87

Tragically off-topic, but following the link I see that SpaceX has an online shop. The shop sells a SpaceX sticker pack, and one of the stickers looks like a bunch of cats in a satellite dish. I'm not a SpaceX follower, so can someone who is explain what it means: https://shop.spacex.com/collections/featured-products/produc...

I think it is a play on words - five cats -> Cat 5

Cat 5:

https://twitter.com/Tippen22/status/1476985855981993984

Re: The FAA has granted SpaceX permission to launch its Starship rocket

#88

It's been interesting to see SpaceX shift from hardware-rich to a more traditional process the last year. I suspect a lot of it is due to the sheer cost of what they are doing, but a lot of it is PR management as well... Plus it's obvious that the US government is doing everything in their power to have Musk on as short of a leash as possible.

The slowdown of testing is not a change in their methodology. It was because they succeeded in all suborbital testing. The orbital testing has been held up by bureaucracy, heat tile iterations, and launch tower refinement.

The costs of test articles are pennies on the dollar compared to the launch value of these vehicles once operational.

By now they have 2.5 stacks ready, and surely have enough raptor engines saved up to rapidly launch 5+ starships this year, assuming they have the heat tile stuff figured out to a degree that the tests would be meaningful.

Re: The FAA has granted SpaceX permission to launch its Starship rocket

#90
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if you could head over to Matamoros and give a fisherman $50 to take you out on the water. The launch tower is maybe 500yds from the beach.

Probably a bad idea. Rocket launches tend to have exclusion zones for sea traffic and they will scrub the launch if some boat wanders into the area, and speaking as someone who likes to watch rocket launches on stream, I’m confident in saying that lots of people will be mad at you for doing this. Edit: Oh, you said Matamoros, which is in Mexico and presumably out of the FAA's jurisdiction. Everyday Astronaut seems to…

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