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SpaceX Starship Flight 13 livestream [video]

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Re: SpaceX Starship Flight 13 livestream [video]

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could not believe they sacrificed twenty sats. What do think was the cost?

Based on v1 satellite cost estimates, under $5MM for 20. It was v3 sats, don't know the cost on those yet.

From the official launch video from SpaceX: https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-13

Around 20 minutes into the flight, they deploy 20x v3 sats. Google search tells me those cost more than 1M USD each. Yikes... they burned up 20M USD for a "few tests". Damn, space is expensive! The official video says that SpaceX only had twenty minutes to test the deployed sats before they fall back to the atmosphere.

Re: SpaceX Starship Flight 13 livestream [video]

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on v1 satellite cost estimates, under $5MM for 20. It was v3 sats, don't know the cost on those yet.

From the official launch video from SpaceX: https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-13 Around 20 minutes into the flight, they deploy 20x v3 sats. Google search tells me those cost more than 1M USD each. Yikes... they burned up 20M USD for a "few tests". Damn, space is expensive! The official video says that SpaceX only had twenty minutes to test the deployed sats before they fall back to the atmosphere.

Worth it to prove the pez dispenser deployed them correctly? Small % of the total launch cost.

Re: SpaceX Starship Flight 13 livestream [video]

#213
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The “chopstick” catcher arrangement seems awfully fragile. Would the ground equipment have survived this if it had been a real catch?

Rockets have a self destruct feature to avoid exactly this type of contingency

By the time that the booster returns to the landing zone, the Flight Termination System (FTS) is AFAIK no longer active and cannot be reactivated. Which makes sense because it is a bunch of high explosives, now nearing some valuable equipment.

The SpaceX solution is to steer carefully and have the default trajectory end in the sea. Only if everything looks good, is the booster redirected to the tower.

Re: SpaceX Starship Flight 13 livestream [video]

#214
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're conflating politics and ethics.

Von Braun used the Nazi war machine to make his rockets. Musk ran DOGE. They’re both political figures by their own choices.

After reading this

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/breakdown-in-pakistan

and this

https://lydialaurenson.substack.com/p/the-time-i-joined-peac...

I do wonder whether much of USAID and similar programs are an instance of a road to hell paved with good intentions. If professional NGOs hollow out existing local organizations and destroy local ability to organize on the cheap, they may be basically condemning entire countries to perpetual dependence on someone's else's politics and budgets.

Re: SpaceX Starship Flight 13 livestream [video]

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actual, literal Nazis got us to the Moon and frankly no one cared. Not then, not now. Try separating politics from the advancement of humanity, you'll feel better.

You're implying that von Braun was still a nazi when he was working in the US (he wasn't) and you imply that Elon Musk is a nazi in the first place when he's done nothing to indicate that.

Well, the Nazi party was banned permanently by the Allied powers on Oct 10, 1945, so technically every member still alive became an ex-Nazi at that point. Including the leaders later hanged in Nuremberg, and, of course, Wernher von Braun.

Of course some people say that once a Nazi, always a Nazi.

Re: SpaceX Starship Flight 13 livestream [video]

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Von Braun used the Nazi war machine to make his rockets. Musk ran DOGE. They’re both political figures by their own choices.

After reading this https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/breakdown-in-pakistan and this https://lydialaurenson.substack.com/p/the-time-i-joined-peac... I do wonder whether much of USAID and similar programs are an instance of a road to hell paved with good intentions . If professional NGOs hollow out existing local organizations and destroy local ability to organize on the cheap, they may be basically condemning entire co…

That’s the point. I’m not being cynical, USAID is self-serving diplomacy. Doesn’t make zeroing out the budget the right call though.

Re: SpaceX Starship Flight 13 livestream [video]

#218
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've mentioned Dornberger's book to me in a previous conversation regarding Von Braun, and though I haven't yet had a chance to read it I just did some research on it. From what I can tell it looks like like an amazing source for technical details of the V2 rocket but there are many problems with it that make it unsuitable for the kind of argument that you're attempting to make here. First of all, the book wasn't w…

Have you ever found a refutation of von Braun being arrested by the Gestapo and scheduled to be executed? I don't know why arresting von Braun would be nazi propaganda - it paints the nazis as rather stupid. BTW, I read the book because of the technical details, which were quite interesting to me. Google "was von braun arrested by the nazis" and you'll see essentially the same thing I posted. Confirmation of the same…

No, the arrest most certainly happened, it's corroborated from enough sources that this isn't in question, though from what I can tell the arrest report no longer exist, but there are contemporaneous notes made by Alfred Jodl. Additionally from a cursory search there are conflicting reasons given for the arrest including what you've mentioned and even communist accusations.

When I said "Nazi" earlier I should have been more precise, I was referring to von Braun, Dornberger, and his ghostwriter as "Nazis" even though AFAICT von Braun was the only actual card carrying Nazi of the bunch.

With that said, the problems with this source remains. The ghostwriter has a financial conflict of interest with the subject which would bias him to make as flattering of a portrayal of the subject, and the people involved are all intrinsically untrustworthy because well... look at the bunch... a Nazi propagandist, a Major General from the Wehrmacht, and an actual Nazi.

Look at the circumstances around this, you have the Nuremberg trials having only recently taken place which saw a bunch of dudes these guys personally knew publically shamed and hanged, These guys themselves were directly targeting civilians with these weapons, It's the middle of the McCarthy Era -- There's no way these guys could tell anything remotely close to an objective truth.

Everything they're going to say in this context is to save their skin. They're gonna write "Oh yeah, arrested by those evil Nazis for being too peaceful and science-minded" not something more realistic like "von Braun made a deal with the devil that was an absolutely psychotic and dysfunctional authoritarian regime and the deal almost blew up but that von Braun is so damn lucky he must have a horseshoe up his ass."

An adjacent topic that I've wondered about for years is his come to Jesus stuff after the war. It's plausible that he had a serious reckoning with his world view from his experiences during the war but it also seems just a little bit too convenient, you know?

Re: SpaceX Starship Flight 13 livestream [video]

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many times have they managed to catch it in the last 8 or so missions? There have been a few misses like this already with the boosters

They only tried to catch it twice, and they caught it twice.

They planned on catching the booster on flight 6 as well, but aborted due to some issue with the launch/catch tower

Re: SpaceX Starship Flight 13 livestream [video]

#220
post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever found a refutation of von Braun being arrested by the Gestapo and scheduled to be executed? I don't know why arresting von Braun would be nazi propaganda - it paints the nazis as rather stupid. BTW, I read the book because of the technical details, which were quite interesting to me. Google "was von braun arrested by the nazis" and you'll see essentially the same thing I posted. Confirmation of the same…

No, the arrest most certainly happened, it's corroborated from enough sources that this isn't in question, though from what I can tell the arrest report no longer exist, but there are contemporaneous notes made by Alfred Jodl. Additionally from a cursory search there are conflicting reasons given for the arrest including what you've mentioned and even communist accusations. When I said "Nazi" earlier I should have be…

Yes, von Braun was a card-carrying Nazi. But something to consider. Professors could not get their research papers published unless they were card-carrying Nazis. Von Braun could not have headed up the rocket program unless he was a card-carrying Nazi. Did he make a deal with the devil? Yes.

He was also arrested by the Gestapo and threatened with execution if he was not more diligent in his efforts to develop the V2 missile.

I don't think it is implausible that he was less than enthusiastic about nazism. And once he was in the rocket program, there was no way out for him.

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