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Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico

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Re: Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico

#51

Post by lupusreal »

sbuttgereit wrote: post #20
dr_dshiv wrote: post #10

Wait, did it land or not? Retrieved or sunk? Couldn’t tell from the video.

Plan never was to retrieve this one. It was to simulate a landing, but over the ocean and then sink. That looks like it happened successfully... of course we'll need to wait to hear if it actually did things like hover in the right spot, etc. But looked pretty good; despite what looked like some issues with engine lights.

I wonder what happens to it now. Does the USN scoop it up or do they wait for some other navy's submarine to start prying at that sweet ITAR hardware?

Re: Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico

#52

Post by cletus »

So I'm excited to see this tech develop but I wonder how much of a market there really is for super-heavy lifters. I can't wait to see a future version where they land the various stages rather than just dumping them into the sea. The first Falcon Heavy launch was super impressive.

SpaceX already has the Falcon Heavy and there have only been a handful of launches, primarily military.

I guess the argument is it'll open up new opportunities but will this really replace the Falcon 9 workhorse, which at this point is I believe the most successful launch system in history?

Won't someone make a fully reusable smaller launch vehicle that'll suit commercial needs?

Re: Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico

#54

Post by gadders »

bearjaws wrote: post #3

The rate of descent is absolutely astonishing, 8km -> 1km in 20 seconds, then just hovers above the water. Absolutely incredible work by the SpaceX team. Living in central Florida I cannot wait for the new launch facility to come online. We're going to have lines of spectators into the space coast like we did for the shuttle. If any of you are heading to Disney World you should stop by the NASA Kennedy Visitor Comple…

It's mad how rocket landings are now more exciting than rocket launches.

Re: Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico

#55

Post by cjk2 »

gadders wrote: post #54
bearjaws wrote: post #3

The rate of descent is absolutely astonishing, 8km -> 1km in 20 seconds, then just hovers above the water. Absolutely incredible work by the SpaceX team. Living in central Florida I cannot wait for the new launch facility to come online. We're going to have lines of spectators into the space coast like we did for the shuttle. If any of you are heading to Disney World you should stop by the NASA Kennedy Visitor Comple…

It's mad how rocket landings are now more exciting than rocket launches.

They used to be far more exciting. It's the anticipation of less excitement that is nail biting :D

Re: Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico

#56

Post by multimoon »

cletus wrote: post #52

So I'm excited to see this tech develop but I wonder how much of a market there really is for super-heavy lifters. I can't wait to see a future version where they land the various stages rather than just dumping them into the sea. The first Falcon Heavy launch was super impressive. SpaceX already has the Falcon Heavy and there have only been a handful of launches, primarily military. I guess the argument is it'll ope…

There’s lots of things that are just too big and heavy and need launch vehicles like that.

It might be overkill for satellites, but space stations and habitats need the payload capacity of something like this to become anything resembling economical.

Re: Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico

#57

Post by pintxo »

thepasswordis wrote: post #41
mannyv wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guess they didn't want to sacrifice "Of Course I Still Love You" for this test.

Of course I still love you is not even close to large enough to catch this booster, is it?

Catch, yes. Float: not so much.

Re: Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico

#58

Post by mavhc »

cletus wrote: post #52

So I'm excited to see this tech develop but I wonder how much of a market there really is for super-heavy lifters. I can't wait to see a future version where they land the various stages rather than just dumping them into the sea. The first Falcon Heavy launch was super impressive. SpaceX already has the Falcon Heavy and there have only been a handful of launches, primarily military. I guess the argument is it'll ope…

Has to be large to be reusable due to scaling factors.

We can finally start sending useful amounts of things into space, millions of solar panels for one

Re: Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico

#59

Post by creshal »

cletus wrote: post #52

So I'm excited to see this tech develop but I wonder how much of a market there really is for super-heavy lifters. I can't wait to see a future version where they land the various stages rather than just dumping them into the sea. The first Falcon Heavy launch was super impressive. SpaceX already has the Falcon Heavy and there have only been a handful of launches, primarily military. I guess the argument is it'll ope…

FH had the problem that it had a comparatively small fairing compared with an upper stage that's "only" okay-ish for deep space insertions, so you can neither put really huge LEO payloads on it, nor can you give a deep space probe a really big kick stage to make up for the deficits of the upper stage.

Starship solves all these issues: The upper stage is more fuel efficient, and it has more room for really big payloads and/or kickstages.

> Won't someone make a fully reusable smaller launch vehicle that'll suit commercial needs?

Half of the people tried went bankrupt already due to F9: It is already too big for most payloads, so it does a lot of rideshare missions that pool multiple smaller launches together. It's very hard to compete with that.

So even if, for some reason, commercial customers don't really want to exploit the capabilites of Starship (ignoring the fact that multiple did already), SpaceX can again offer ride shares at a larger scale for F9-class payloads.

Re: Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico

#60

Post by TkTech »

cletus wrote: post #52

So I'm excited to see this tech develop but I wonder how much of a market there really is for super-heavy lifters. I can't wait to see a future version where they land the various stages rather than just dumping them into the sea. The first Falcon Heavy launch was super impressive. SpaceX already has the Falcon Heavy and there have only been a handful of launches, primarily military. I guess the argument is it'll ope…

Yes, there won't be as many customers purchasing 150-200 tons of lift, but that's the point of "rideshares". All that really matters with space launches is the cost per kg and if it's capable of lifting multiple payloads into multiple orbits, it'll have 10-15 customers per lift, not one. The current model has a kind of pez-dispenser but for chucking out multiple payloads.

There are purchasers for the full lift capacity too, like ISS modules and major telescopes.

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