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Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

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Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#381
post #506

[stub for offtopicness]

I hate to bring politics into such a momentous occasion, but as a lifelong Democrat, I think Trump might get my vote because of his alliance with Elon. Elon clearly is a once-in-a-century human who has progressed humanity more than anyone else in history. I think we need to let him achieve his goals without being burdened by government bureaucracy. Unfortunately, the Democrats have aligned against Elon. It didn't have to get this way, but it has. A Trump presidency will allow Elon to progress more, bringing humanity with him. I hate Trump and I think he is a narcissistic idiot, but he supports Elon more than Kamala.

Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, reusable is supposed to reduce the cost. But the space shuttle was reusable and it has been shutdown because it was too expensive. What is the differences between the two?

Economy of scale: starship can be "mass"-produced Material: stainless steel is much cheaper Percentage of reusability: boosters of shuttle cannot be reused, maintenance of shuttle itself is also very expensive (heat shields were pricey). whereas the starship stack has higher reuse percentage and allegedly cheaper to maintain.

[deleted]

Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#383
post #212
post #17

Video of the catch > Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster! https://x.com/spacex/status/1845442658397049011

10 minutes from 3h25m of this video shows launch and catch. Historic viewing :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC87WmFN_As&t=3h25m14s

This angle is even more impressive IMO https://x.com/kimbal/status/1845451222750306344

Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#384
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FAA needs more funding at this point. They're not staffed for the rate of launch requests which commercial space has grown too.

Need to remove regulations instead and fast track SpaceX. Every fucking time we don't need to increase the size of the Government. It only gets bigger. Never smaller.

If by the size of government you mean the budget, there have been multiple instances of the government shrinking. As a percent of GDP the 90s saw cuts to federal spending, the 2011 sequestration saw a drop in spending even in nominal terms, and obviously the end of WW2 saw a massive collapse in government spending and the end of multiple different programs

Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#385
post #506

[stub for offtopicness]

I hate to bring politics into such a momentous occasion, but as a lifelong Democrat, I think Trump might get my vote because of his alliance with Elon. Elon clearly is a once-in-a-century human who has progressed humanity more than anyone else in history. I think we need to let him achieve his goals without being burdened by government bureaucracy. Unfortunately, the Democrats have aligned against Elon. It didn't hav…

The great dichotomy of man. Elon is a hardheaded questionable fellow who stops free speech on his platform if it doesn't suit the agenda and is supporting Trump who literally spurred an insurrection.

But Elon also started one of the greatest revolutions mankind has ever seen, up there with the Apollo project, which one can say is mankind's greatest achievement.

What do you do with that dichotomy is up to you to resolve.

Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#386

That was crazy, 50% of me thought as it was coming in, especially as it pitched towards the tower, "they've overcompensated and are going to bring the whole tower down" but they absolutely nailed it.

Even without the catch step, I always feel like their boosters are coming down way too fast way too late, with engines reigniting startlingly close to surface. Never ceases to surprise me.

I have the same feeling watching Starship when the telemetry on the bottom right of the screen showing “0km” but landing burn hasn’t started. Later did I know that it was meant to start the burn only a few hundreds _meters_ from the ground

Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#387
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MIMO and nonlinear control theories are probably some of the hardest topics in all of engineering. SpaceX control system also has to compensate for the fuel moving inside their rockets so the control algorithms probably involve some kind of fast numerical fluid simulation. Another interesting thing SpaceX is doing is to use consumer-grade chips in triple redundancy configurations instead of using $100,000+ radiation-…

I always thought the liquid sloshing would be one of the hardest to simulate (considering how chaotic fluid mechanics is). Interestingly, I think this caused the 2nd Falcon launch to fail (the LOX sloshing).

There wouldn’t be a whole lot of fuel left by the time it’s back to land so likely an irrelevant factor.

Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#389

Couldn't watch the livestream on X because it was erroring out. We live in a world where you can't stream a video or Chromecast on X but you can catch a damn rocket...

I wouldn't bother with X. There were dozens of YouTube channels with the live feed.

Re: Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]

#390
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MIMO and nonlinear control theories are probably some of the hardest topics in all of engineering. SpaceX control system also has to compensate for the fuel moving inside their rockets so the control algorithms probably involve some kind of fast numerical fluid simulation. Another interesting thing SpaceX is doing is to use consumer-grade chips in triple redundancy configurations instead of using $100,000+ radiation-…

Reliability is not based on a system that cannot fail. It is based on a system that can survive failure.

… or cannot fail
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