SpaceX (Vol. 2)

[CraigyMc]

Eric Mc said:

CraigyMc said:

Ship is orbital.

Not quite.

It's not intended to be fully orbital as they want it to renter without completing a full orbit.

I think everyone's aware of that, Eric. It's at 26400km/h.

Unfortunately its attitude is not under control, looks to be venting from the hot end the same as on IFT3.

[CraigyMc]

The "on hold" music while starship travels is the same blue danube as on stanley kubrick's "2001: a space odyssey". Nice.

[MiniMan64]

Have they lost it?

[Eric Mc]

CraigyMc said:

I think everyone's aware of that, Eric. It's at 26400km/h.

Unfortunately its attitude is not under control, looks to be venting from the hot end the same as on IFT3.

Well, you DID say it was in orbit when it's not really. It's definitely in space though.

Orbital velocity at the altitude they are at is around 28,000 kmh.

[CraigyMc]

MiniMan64 said:

Have they lost it?

Puerto rico lost access to the telemetry, and the video isn't broadcasting out via starlink so it's feasible something's gone badly wrong.

To be honest, when it started slewing (right after engine shutoff) that was a really bad sign.

Lets see what happens in the next half an hour.

[Discendo Discimus]

Live stream is paused for approx 30 mins while the Starship coasts, next update will be when it attempts to land.
I don't think they've lost it although it did seem like they were having issues just before the signal went.

[CraigyMc]

Discendo Discimus said:

Live stream is paused for approx 30 mins while the Starship coasts, next update will be when it attempts to land.
I don't think they've lost it although it did seem like they were having issues just before the signal went.

They may not do any attitude control until the tanks have boiled off, then correct it in whatever attitude it's in, but the lack of telemetry is bothersome.

[AJLintern]

They still seem to have telemetry as the speed and altitude are updating.
I found it odd that the sea level engines kept firing for a while after the vacuum engines shut down - is that expected...?

[CraigyMc]

AJLintern said:

They still seem to have telemetry as the speed and altitude are updating.
I found it odd that the sea level engines kept firing for a while after the vacuum engines shut down - is that expected...?

The sealevel engines can throttle down to a lower thrust level than the vac one while in vaccuum, so it you're trying to hit a really specific velocity you'd use the more fine-grained option, which is what they appear to have done.

[CraigyMc]

Cool. Got video back.

[Leithen]

Looks stable now.

[Eric Mc]

Looks like it's stopped waving about.

[CraigyMc]

Appears to be pitched way up but it's tile-side to the atmosphere, so that's a start...

[louiechevy]

Looks very good compared to the last flight

[Leithen]

Where is it flying over?

[CraigyMc]

Leithen said:

Where is it flying over?

Namibia, I think.

[CraigyMc]

Plasma appearing..

[RustyMX5]

At least nothing seems to be falling off this time (so far)

[louiechevy]

That's amazing

[Eric Mc]

Speed beginning to come down