SpaceX (Vol. 2)
Discussion
CraigyMc said:
T_S_M said:
That's f
king incredible!
Has it landed on land or in the sea?
In the sea, beside an imaginary landing tower. It hovered before putting down.king incredible! Has it landed on land or in the sea?
It was hard to tell from the pictures but assumed it was somewhere far away from civilisation
Phenomenal work getting it to "land" after being torn to pieces.
CraigyMc said:
T_S_M said:
That's fking incredible!
Has it landed on land or in the sea?
In the sea, beside an imaginary landing tower. It hovered before putting down.king incredible! Has it landed on land or in the sea?
What the hell did I just watch!!!!? Just wow.
Bar two Raptors out on the booster (which still had a 100% successful flight) and the somewhat melty flap that was almost flawless.
The flap was in a better state than I expected in the last few frames. Benefits of steel I guess. I thought it would be totally gone.
Absolutely mind blowing - and the images. My favourites were from the drone just after liftoff. What a machine!
Bar two Raptors out on the booster (which still had a 100% successful flight) and the somewhat melty flap that was almost flawless.
The flap was in a better state than I expected in the last few frames. Benefits of steel I guess. I thought it would be totally gone.
Absolutely mind blowing - and the images. My favourites were from the drone just after liftoff. What a machine!
Hill92 said:
Odds on IFT-5 attempting a catch of Super Heavy and Starship to test Starlink payload deployment?
IFT5 should have a catch attempt, Elon said as much as long as IFT4 demonstrated control on the booster landing.Starlink on the starship -- doubt it. Having said that, this lot aren't hanging about and they'll put weight on the rocket at some point.
GTO-3R said:
Well fk me, that was incredible 
Got to be the first time plasma shots like that have ever been seen?
Roll on the next one!!
The plasma was there on the IFT3 test, but the IFT4 one had many added sparks and melty bits.k me, that was incredible Got to be the first time plasma shots like that have ever been seen?
Roll on the next one!!
I thought when the hinge and back portion of the flap melted off that they'd lose ship. I'm astounded that it actually flew the profile correctly after that and managed to land.
CraigyMc said:
Starlink on the starship -- doubt it. Having said that, this lot aren't hanging about and they'll put weight on the rocket at some point.
I think you'd actually want to be in orbit to make Starlink launching useful, so Raptor test on the next flight to confirm they can de-orbit and then Starlink on the one after.HLS on the Moon when?
RustyMX5 said:
Hill92 said:
Odds on IFT-5 attempting a catch of Super Heavy and Starship to test Starlink payload deployment?
My wild speculation would be attempt to catch super heavy, dunk starship again and possibly do a dummy payload release.They are probably running lots of stuff with big margins at this point in a bid to get flight data and reliability nailed.
Imagine how much smaller the engine-out margins would be if they were running with a 100t concrete payload versus with no payload at all.
Given that they are using effectively full tanks at the moment, it's also likely that they are being really conservative with chamber pressures and the like.
The bigger starship that's coming (basically, taller, and with much more propellant) will presumably be after these lessons are learned, and presumably will need the engines to run much harder than these tests so far.
xeny said:
HLS on the Moon when?
Booster probably has the performance to do that already (although hasn't demonstrated it), and the current most difficult part (reentry for ship) isn't a thing for HLS, there are no tiles on it. Doing it without occupants would therefore seem feasible if required, but I think the whole point is to put humans back on the moon.
Putting humans on it? That'll take a lot of demonstration of reliability and so on, so probably a few years.
Whilst I agree that they are running well within theoretical capacity by not carrying a payload etc.. I can still hardly believe that they have managed to successfully "land" the booster, and then Starship despite half melted fin(s)?
It's only 3 launches ago that the thing basically destroyed the launch pad and was blown to pieces before even getting close to separating/getting into space, never mind coming back again.
Goodness knows just how much additional data they will have collected from today's flight.
Many people have been and continue to be extremely sceptical of SpaceX, but they've made reusable rockets a reality.
The vertical landing of boosters are now totally routine - something that before they happened looked like pure science fiction.
They've managed to get Starship on its own to launch and then land vertically.
Now they've strapped it onto the biggest rocket booster ever, successfully soft landed the booster, Starship survived the re-entry (barely, but at only the 2nd attemp), and despite bits melting off it, managed a controlled soft landing in the sea.
I'm not going to try to predict what they will do next, but one thing is for certain - it'll be VERY interesting to watch, and it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Starship/Super Heavy launches and controlled landings also become pretty much routine in the next 10 years or so.
Brilliant stuff!
It's only 3 launches ago that the thing basically destroyed the launch pad and was blown to pieces before even getting close to separating/getting into space, never mind coming back again.
Goodness knows just how much additional data they will have collected from today's flight.
Many people have been and continue to be extremely sceptical of SpaceX, but they've made reusable rockets a reality.
The vertical landing of boosters are now totally routine - something that before they happened looked like pure science fiction.
They've managed to get Starship on its own to launch and then land vertically.
Now they've strapped it onto the biggest rocket booster ever, successfully soft landed the booster, Starship survived the re-entry (barely, but at only the 2nd attemp), and despite bits melting off it, managed a controlled soft landing in the sea.
I'm not going to try to predict what they will do next, but one thing is for certain - it'll be VERY interesting to watch, and it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Starship/Super Heavy launches and controlled landings also become pretty much routine in the next 10 years or so.
Brilliant stuff!
CraigyMc said:
Booster probably has the performance to do that already (although hasn't demonstrated it), and the current most difficult part (reentry for ship) isn't a thing for HLS, there are no tiles on it.
Doing it without occupants would therefore seem feasible if required, but I think the whole point is to put humans back on the moon.
Putting humans on it? That'll take a lot of demonstration of reliability and so on, so probably a few years.
Don't forget for the current Artemis nominal landing mission, humans wouldn't be on Starship for anything but Lunar descent, so nothing that we've seen tested yet.Doing it without occupants would therefore seem feasible if required, but I think the whole point is to put humans back on the moon.
Putting humans on it? That'll take a lot of demonstration of reliability and so on, so probably a few years.
I say current Artemis mission as I wonder if at some point it will become apparent that Orion increasingly resembles a male Angler fish.
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