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i was at south padre island for the first starship landing. even though it blew up a minute or two after it landed, i consider it the first landing. i had seen pretty much every major launch from spacex on their livestreams but i was still taken aback at seeing starship. its as odd as watching a skyscraper slowly levitate upward into the sky. and to see it standing after the dust settled was unreal. and after it was…
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.
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.
SpaceX moved beyond what they could test without the launch (and catch) tower. They've spent a lot of time and money developing the ground systems - in comparison the early crude Starship prototypes were comparatively cheap and easily replaced - and I would imagine they really would prefer not to accidentally demolish the tower again.
Considering the hover capability of the booster (can be throttled to <1G) we might see an unprecedented amount of touch and go testing before the first real attempt?
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/
https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=055:55:00
^^ The moment everyone is probably trying to find :)
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…
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.
There is a marine exclusion zone: https://twitter.com/VisitBocaChica/status/164693832218955776...
I'm not saying it's a good idea, but, i think if you're sufficiently motivated you can still go inside the exclusion zone.
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…
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!