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The FAA has granted SpaceX permission to launch its Starship rocket

arstechnica.com

131–140 of 187 posts

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

#131
post #81

Say what you will about Elon Musk, but this is the kind of human creativity that should know no bounds. Here's getting very excited about the species' chase for other worlds.

Gwynne Shotwell often does not get enough credit for making sure SpaceX doesn't implode. She's killing it.

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

#132

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/

Yea, but 4/20 is 4/20. I'd put my money on that.

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

#134
post #47
post #18

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 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.

I had a similar thought about watching it crash down into the Pacific off of Hawaii. If it makes it that far, they plan to sink it in a naval graveyard about 50 miles north of the island. Watching it attempt to soft landing and then sink below the waves would be remarkable

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

#135

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.

It is still a hardware rich process from a Aerospace standpoint. They have three more built at the moment and another three in production. Musk said that they are Manufacturing engines at the rate of 1.8 per day which is absolutely insane

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

#136
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been following it since even before that point when it was still called the "MCT", but without any explanation of what the acronym meant. A long time coming. This is the beginning of a new era in space exploration.

I remember it being called BFR, which stood for Big F**ing Rocket, lol

Big Falcon Rocket, to be spoken with only the straightest of faces.

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

#137
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. What do you mean by this?

Some people are confused and think the government is against Musk in some way like the public is. The government quite likes SpaceX.

And the parts that might be annoyed at him for Twitter are entirely unrelated to those dealing with space.

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

#138
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the chance that the second stage survives reentry on the first attempt is almost zero anyway. IIRC Musk said something like that in his second interview with Tim Dodd.

True, but remember he only gave falcon heavy a 50/50 shot of getting high enough before exploding to not damage the launch site on its first launch. Musk is incredibly optimistic about schedules, and pessimistic about launches.

“We will launch very soon and it will explode very big”

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

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they also have previous painful experience of destroying a Falcon 9 pad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BgJEXQkjNQ Really can't afford to repeat that if they are to make the timeline for using Starship as NASA's next lunar lander.

How much does Mechazilla cost? I read it's 1 billion. Also news is Elon said destroying nearby infrastructure would be a 9 month setback at the least.

Wow that’s like 2.5% of a Twitter.

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

#140
post #18

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…

Drive don't fly. Rent van or large jeep. Sleep in it.

Do it in style. Rent a Tesla. Sleep in it.

I’ve done tours like that through Europe with the S, the 3 and the X. Can sleep comfortably in all of them as one person. In the X, it even worked with my wife and kid (plus baggage for a one week tour).

Can’t speak about the charging situation though down there. If you have to wait in line at chargers while depending on running the A/C all day it might be less fun.

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