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Starship Integrated Flight Test 2 at 7 Am Central Time

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Re: Starship Integrated Flight Test 2 at 7 Am Central Time

#251

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kid; I got to watch the shuttle launch on a TV rolled into the classroom, and then go right back to reading my mangled, outdated science textbook, watching my te…

I grew up poor and in an underfunded school system as well. The ever-present reminder of this was buckets collecting drips from leaks in roofs. At one point in high school we exhausted our paper budget. Some teachers were able to locate a bunch of dot-matrix tractor-fed printer paper in a supply room and so we students helped to separate the perforations so we could have individual sheets of paper.

That school was publicly, though poorly, funded. I also had Pell grants for college, subsidized medical insurance, a free bus pass, an apartment made affordable through adequate supply of housing, a criminal justice system that has so far protected me from violence.

I have no chips on my shoulder from any deprivation, and appreciate everything that helped me to get where I am today, which I don't think would have been possible anywhere else in the world.

Re: Starship Integrated Flight Test 2 at 7 Am Central Time

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't necessarily have to redesign the booster. The booster completed its primary mission of boosting successfully. It survived long enough that it seems reasonable to say that if they wouldn't have attempted boost back it would successfully coasted to a splash in the ocean. So the SuperHeavy booster can likely be used as is, if they're willing to spend an extra ~$50M per mission on not recover the booster.

I guess it depends on the test program priorities. If Elon has promised everyone a succulent ham if they can get Starship to orbit before some deadline, then you're absolutely right. If instead they want to get the most out of every flight test, then they'll take the time to fly a fix for the "bottom half blows up" issue.

So more booms by Christmas?

Re: Starship Integrated Flight Test 2 at 7 Am Central Time

#253
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im not interpreting their message as negative. Something obviously went wrong, the termination system was activated, and it blew up. Thats what it’s supposed to do when activated.

>Im not interpreting their message as negative. But shouldn't it be interpreted as negative? It blew up.

You learn more from mission failure than success, so failures are useful in the testing stage.

Re: Starship Integrated Flight Test 2 at 7 Am Central Time

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you believe if there was no moon program then we would magically have universal healthcare, housing, non-punitive criminal justice systems. Very ignorant take

If people had more humanity, they would be focusing on getting universal healthcare housing, and a non-punitive justice system before we focus things like putting a few humans on a rock in space. Why is it that the most difficult things to do are the most caring things?

https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/why-explore-space

Re: Starship Integrated Flight Test 2 at 7 Am Central Time

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Ow wow. I had no idea space or for that matter science did not exist for non-white people. Fascinating.

Yup. We basically lose all our melanin on the day that we accept a job offer in the space industry.

Re: Starship Integrated Flight Test 2 at 7 Am Central Time

#256
post #90

What is the benfit of hot staging?

To expand on KennyBlanken's answer: Rockets generally want their fuel to be sitting on the bottom of the tank, where the engines are. That's easy enough when the rocket is sitting on the ground and when the engines are firing, but once the rocket starts coasting/decelerating (e.g., when the engines turn off due to reaching the end of their burn) the fuel may drift away from the fuel intakes, resulting in the engines…

It also makes the rocket more efficient, because any time spent coasting with no engines lit is time that gravity is acting on the rocket and slowing it down.

By always accelerating (with engines lit), hot staging improves the payload to orbit about 10%. So it's well worth doing.

Re: Starship Integrated Flight Test 2 at 7 Am Central Time

#257
post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just want to add another comment in here that there is no manual termination, they are using a fully automatic flight termination system.

Surely the final Starship carrying passengers will not have auto flight termination?

As I understand it, on crewed flights of the Falcon 9 the AFTS is somehow integrated with the abort system so that it is impossible for it to detonate without the capsule having a few seconds to get to safety first.

I don't see how this would work for Starship, since it won't have an abort system.

Re: Starship Integrated Flight Test 2 at 7 Am Central Time

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both the booster and ship have been destroyed. SpaceX can keep claiming these RUDs are 'fine' and 'we're getting data', but the rest of the industry does not consider it normal or a "success." Hotstaging didn't "work" until they can demonstrate the Starship vehicle survives orbital insertion, re-entry, and landing without damage or malfunction caused by the hotstaging.

The “rest of the industry” isn’t doing anything at all.

Rocketlab might end up as the AMD to the Intel of SpaceX.

Re: Starship Integrated Flight Test 2 at 7 Am Central Time

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you’re telling me here is that you’re just being selfish. This is good for you so it should be good for all of humanity. I’m sorry, but it’s not. I appreciate a lot of good things when they happen. I’m saying this this is not a good thing. Do you think it’s a good thing because it made your life better. But you’re only seeing it from your perspective. You don’t have a holistic view of the world.

> This is good for you so it should be good for all of humanity. I’m sorry, but it’s not. You asked me how it impacts me and I answered. > But you’re only seeing it from your perspective. You don’t have a holistic view of the world. You are failing to see the holistic view yourself because you seem to be having a bad time. Lowering the cost of mass-to-orbit by a couple of orders of magnitude significantly changes wha…

Why do we need satellites and space to care about each other? I don’t need a massive satellite in space, I need somewhere to live. A massive satellite in space is not going to provide me a house. And it’s not gonna provide any time before my death. Which is being hind because I’m homeless. Which is being hasten because, I have no healthcare.

Don’t you understand? You’re all surprised about my negative comments but I’m sure you would be feeling the same if you were in my position right now.

Re: Starship Integrated Flight Test 2 at 7 Am Central Time

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good trivia question: Is this the first rocket launch to have two separate RUDs?

Do second stage failures on other rockets, where the booster is a guaranteed rapidly-scheduled-destruction count? :P

No because that wouldn't be unscheduled.
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