211–220 of 559 posts
A new era of humanity just started.
Tell me about this new era while I am sitting homeless in my minivan…
...THAT was a big explosion.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I get that this forum is full of "nothing ever happens" types who can't tolerate any optimism and imperfection, but lol this is a whole other level.
It’s not about being an optimist, it’s about being a realist. And it’s not about the imperfection it’s about celebrating failure. It’s about being humble. It’s about having humility. It’s about knowing what you’re doing is only changing the lives of a very, very small segment of the human population. It’s about knowing that what you’re doing, was made from money, stolen from workers, and from a corrupt financial syst…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There were people suffering when Sputnik launched, or when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. It doesn't reduce the magnitude of the event. Sorry for whatever you are going through, though. Hope you get through it.
The moon landings are historically seen through an almost exclusively middle class, white eye. The "magnitude" was definitely reduced if you were poor and/or black. The "magnitude" of the US Space Shuttle program was definitely reduced for me even as a white kid; I got to watch the shuttle launch on a TV rolled into the classroom, and then go right back to reading my mangled, outdated science textbook, watching my te…
It’s astounding that until very recently it was standard practice to put humans on top of untested, first-of-kind rockets.
- Starship got just below orbit - Booster destroyed during hot staging - SpaceX reporting that destruct system fired on upper stage towards end of burn all in all a pretty good result: clean launch and separation, good performance on the booster during ascent (no engine mishaps this time)
The goal was something just under orbital speed.
Not that this wasn't totally amazing. Hopefully the launch pad wasn't damaged and they can crunch the data and have another test that gets further soon.
- Starship got just below orbit - Booster destroyed during hot staging - SpaceX reporting that destruct system fired on upper stage towards end of burn all in all a pretty good result: clean launch and separation, good performance on the booster during ascent (no engine mishaps this time)
Below orbit is a strange way to put it. Orbit is more speed then height. Google says it was going 1,400 mph when it was lost. Orbital speed is around 17,600 miles per hour. The goal was something just under orbital speed. Not that this wasn't totally amazing. Hopefully the launch pad wasn't damaged and they can crunch the data and have another test that gets further soon.
You might be looking at the first stage’s data.
Edit: 24,124 km/hr when telemetry stopped on the stream; 15k mph.
- Starship got just below orbit - Booster destroyed during hot staging - SpaceX reporting that destruct system fired on upper stage towards end of burn all in all a pretty good result: clean launch and separation, good performance on the booster during ascent (no engine mishaps this time)
Below orbit is a strange way to put it. Orbit is more speed then height. Google says it was going 1,400 mph when it was lost. Orbital speed is around 17,600 miles per hour. The goal was something just under orbital speed. Not that this wasn't totally amazing. Hopefully the launch pad wasn't damaged and they can crunch the data and have another test that gets further soon.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't wait for the next one. How many tests are we expecting? 7-8? Seems to be too long! I wish we had the spirit of the Apollo.
> I wish we had the spirit of the Apollo Careful what you wish for. The Saturn test program peaked at 3 tests / year (unless you want to count the separately tested launch escape system for the crew capsule), and the fully stacked Saturn V was only tested twice (in 1967 and 1968) before crewed missions. For all its speed, Apollo was not a SpaceX-style rapid iteration program. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apo…
Starship development started in 2012, and now 11 years later has had 2nd launch and failure to reach orbit.
Apollo program started in 1961 and had men on the moon in 1969 - with 60's tech.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Small correction, I think. The booster appeared to survive hot staging fine. It went through quite a bit of it's flip back maneuver. It was awesome to watch. There were some interesting activations of engines in the booster engine ring at that point. It's unclear to me if that was anticipated as an offset subset was what was desired for the off axis maneuver, or things were degrading at that point. And then it blowed…
It was probably self destructed by the range safety officer if things were going south.