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What you don't get a sense for in the video is the size of this thing... It's absolutely bonkers. 9m (30 ft) in diameter 50m (160 ft) in height (or would be wi
by Diggsey 6y ago
What you don't get a sense for in the video is the size of this thing... It's absolutely bonkers.
9m (30 ft) in diameter
50m (160 ft) in height (or would be with the nose-cone)
That's the height of a 12-story building. And this is the upper stage of the full rocket.
- sneak 6y ago...with a 22 ton steel weight (that little block) on the top of it, in addition to the entire weight of the test article and the fuel.
- m4rtink 6y agoThere is likely very little fuel though for such a small hop.
- KiwiJohnno 6y agoI read somewhere it had about 15 tonnes of fuel onboard, which isn't trivial
- trsohmers 6y agoFor reference, the Falcon 9 FT is 3.7m (12 ft) in diameter and 70m (230 ft) in height.
- mabbo 6y agoAnd it's being powered by one raptor rocket. It's designed to have 6.
- _kst_ 6y agoAnd the first stage "Super Heavy" is designed to have 31. Update: I think the hopper in the video is a prototype of the lower stage, which is planned to have 31 engines. The upper stage is planned to have 6.
- thinkcontext 6y agoThe test today is a prototype for the upper stage.
- m4rtink 6y agoThe small hopper in the video is an early general purpose prototype from heavy duty steel, what flew today is a prototype of the second stage (Starship). But assembly enclosure for the first stage (Super Heavy) is being built already.
- mabbo 6y agoAfaik, the hopper in the video is the prototype of the 6-engine upper stage. The super heavy will actually be even bigger than the one in the video!
- gorgoiler 6y agoOh my goodness. I had heard of Starship from the initial PR, and from those photos I had somehow assumed it was about the same size as a train carriage (~60ft.)
- throwaway0a5e 6y agoConstruction equipment for scale: https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/mz7KZlvgwTBa5cs4xfM_aA--~A/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9ODAw/https://media.zenfs.com/en/techcrunch_350/008cdc562544e1b1e175dbd6469a54e1 https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/mz7KZlvgwTBa5cs4xfM_aA--~A...
- deadwing0 6y agoI read that as "for sale," and was genuinely concerned for a moment that spam was being posted on HN. :D
- swader999 6y agoThe commentator likened it to flying a giant grain silo.
- invisible 6y agoJust a slight correction: this prototype is 30m tall. Still absolutely bonkers how big this is and ALSO that it's not the full height yet.
- bconnorwhite 6y agoThe crazy part is that Elon has said this will look like a rowboat compared to their future rockets
- shdh 6y agoCould you share a source for this quote?
- bconnorwhite 6y agohttps://blog.ted.com/what-will-the-future-look-like-elon-musk-speaks-at-ted2017/ https://blog.ted.com/what-will-the-future-look-like-elon-mus... @34:15