[flagged]
Hate to break it to you, but just about every single early employee (except Elon) had a decade+ of experience in aerospace.
March 14, 7:00 a.m. CT: Starship's third flight test
11–20 of 35 posts
Re: March 14, 7:00 a.m. CT: Starship's third flight test
#12I'm very excited about this test! A few observations that will hopefully get you excited:
1. Starship is, by far, the most powerful rocket ever launched. At T-0 its engines thrust with over 7,000 metric tons of force--twice the Saturn V. Imagine bolting together two Saturn Vs side-by-side and launching them--that's how much power will be in tomorrow's launch.
2. Starship is on the critical path for the next US crewed moon landing--the first in more than 50 years. Why did NASA choose to depend on Starship? Of all the proposals, Starship offered the most capability (100 tons delivered to the moon's surface) for the lowest cost (about $3 billion). A less powerful rocket would have been enough for NASA to land 2 astronauts on the moon, but NASA took the long-term view that funding Starship would enable far more ambitious plans for much less money.
3. For this IFT-3 test, Starship will attempt to move cryogenic (super-cold) propellant between two internal tanks while in orbit--something that has never been done before. This test will allow Space X to develop the ability to refuel Starship while in orbit. With orbital refueling, Starship will be able to travel almost anywhere in the solar system.
4. Starship has thermal-protection tiles, like the Space Shuttle. Ultimately they hope that it will be able to survive re-entry and return to its launch pad. If Space X succeeds in re-using Starship for a reasonable cost, it will dramatically reduce the cost of space travel.
Sadly, I'm on the US West Coast, which means I'll have to get up at 5 AM to tune into the launch!
Re: March 14, 7:00 a.m. CT: Starship's third flight test
#13[flagged]
Incinerating what money? They are no longer raising funds for SpaceX in funding rounds -- just doing funding rounds for employee liquidity events.
Re: March 14, 7:00 a.m. CT: Starship's third flight test
#14[flagged]
> failing their way to success
Sometimes that's a pretty valid way to operate. Seems to have worked out super well for SpaceX so far. ;)
Re: March 14, 7:00 a.m. CT: Starship's third flight test
#15[flagged]
How do you explain Falcon 9's low development cost, low flight/operations cost, and demonstrated reliability history, when compared with similarly capable launch platforms?
And given that Starship is being developed in a similar manner to F9 (iterate quickly, big explosions in prototypes is a great learning experience), what in particular makes you think the process will go wildly different to the way F9 did?
Re: March 14, 7:00 a.m. CT: Starship's third flight test
#16I'm very excited about this test! A few observations that will hopefully get you excited: 1. Starship is, by far, the most powerful rocket ever launched. At T-0 its engines thrust with over 7,000 metric tons of force--twice the Saturn V. Imagine bolting together two Saturn Vs side-by-side and launching them--that's how much power will be in tomorrow's launch. 2. Starship is on the critical path for the next US crewed…
> Sadly, I'm on the US West Coast, which means I'll have to get up at 5 AM to tune into the launch!
Roughly 12.5 hours from my comment, for anyone playing along. 11pm AEDT tonight, or a reasonable 8pm AWST.
Re: March 14, 7:00 a.m. CT: Starship's third flight test
#17Here is the time conversion: https://time.is/0700_14_Mar_2024_in_CT?Starship%27s_Third_Fl...
For everyone who knows their timezone offset, that's 2024-03-14 12:00:00 UTC.
Re: March 14, 7:00 a.m. CT: Starship's third flight test
#18[flagged]
If you want to be sceptical about SpaceX, why focus on the one thing they've proven they are good at? If Starship fails I have a hunch it will be for reasons not directly related to engineering, like unstable billionaire tantrums or demand not materializing in time, or simply politics.
Re: March 14, 7:00 a.m. CT: Starship's third flight test
#19[flagged]
Where are the real engineers? Boeing?
Re: March 14, 7:00 a.m. CT: Starship's third flight test
#20[flagged]
OK, let's talk line that.
F-35 was built by a bunch of kids who knew nothing about building fighter jets. They somehow limped towards international success by burning a ton of money, and by spending 17 years before they produced acceptable aircraft. What a bunch of clueless amateurs!
No matter how you look at it, certain things are hard.