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I’ve been following testing progress on /r/spacex and it’s a lot of fun having such a detailed view into the whole operation as these Starship prototypes are bu

by zaroth 6y ago

I’ve been following testing progress on /r/spacex and it’s a lot of fun having such a detailed view into the whole operation as these Starship prototypes are built and iterated upon out in the open. Elon has said chance of a soft landing is less than 50%, so I would expect a very eventful livestream. Personally I’m hoping to see re-light and some sort of flip, with limited damage to ground support equipment. IMO a soft landing is too much to even hope for. The engine re-light is non-trivial because they will be fed from a separate header tank at the tip of the nosecone at that point. It would not be surprising if this didn’t actually happen tomorrow, there’s a million things which could lead to further delays. If it happens at all this month it would be thrilling.

beamatronic 6y ago
Fail fast and often!
- wongarsu 6y ago
  The next prototype is already built, so if this one lands nose first they can just fix any issues and try again. Elon really is building rockets like a software engineer.
alangibson 6y ago
I'm betting on a spectacular crash, but they did nail Falcon Heavy on the first go.
- azernik 6y ago
  They actually lost the center booster, so not entirely nailed. Unfortunately we didn't get good imagery of that particular catastrophe, but if Starship goes down in flames it will be within reach of lots of ground-based cameras. Would make for pretty fireworks.
  - alangibson 6y ago
    Booster recovery isn't a mission objective. But now that you mention it, they did miss Mars so I guess they didn't quite nail it after all.
    - jonplackett 6y ago
      I don't think they ever actually tried to hit mars. mars was in completely the wrong orbit at time of launch - they just wanted to get to about where mars would have been.
    - Cogito 6y ago
      In case people don't know, they hit the orbit they were going for. This was a solar orbit that goes out as far as Mars orbit, but does not actually rendezvous with Mars. It's similar to the first part of a Hohmann transfer, but without course correction and circularisation burns. Trying to actually hit Mars would require launching within a specific window, as well as all the other things required for planetary missions - powered upper stage (not a car), planetary protection protocols, etc. So actually hitting Mars would not only restrict launch opportunities (bad for a test launch) but would also add a whole suite of costs associated with going to another planet (also bad for a test).
  - orangecat 6y ago
    Unfortunately we didn't get good imagery of that particular catastrophe The best footage I've seen is at 1:10 in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0FZIwabctw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0FZIwabctw
nickik 6y ago
Doing the landing swing move and then stopping the swing with the rocket engine seems dicey to me. The timing on those firings need to be incredibly accurate.

by zaroth 6y ago

beamatronic 6y ago

Fail fast and often!

wongarsu 6y ago
The next prototype is already built, so if this one lands nose first they can just fix any issues and try again. Elon really is building rockets like a software engineer.

alangibson 6y ago

I'm betting on a spectacular crash, but they did nail Falcon Heavy on the first go.

azernik 6y ago
They actually lost the center booster, so not entirely nailed. Unfortunately we didn't get good imagery of that particular catastrophe, but if Starship goes down in flames it will be within reach of lots of ground-based cameras. Would make for pretty fireworks.
- alangibson 6y ago
  Booster recovery isn't a mission objective. But now that you mention it, they did miss Mars so I guess they didn't quite nail it after all.
  - jonplackett 6y ago
    I don't think they ever actually tried to hit mars. mars was in completely the wrong orbit at time of launch - they just wanted to get to about where mars would have been.
  - Cogito 6y ago
    In case people don't know, they hit the orbit they were going for. This was a solar orbit that goes out as far as Mars orbit, but does not actually rendezvous with Mars. It's similar to the first part of a Hohmann transfer, but without course correction and circularisation burns. Trying to actually hit Mars would require launching within a specific window, as well as all the other things required for planetary missions - powered upper stage (not a car), planetary protection protocols, etc. So actually hitting Mars would not only restrict launch opportunities (bad for a test launch) but would also add a whole suite of costs associated with going to another planet (also bad for a test).
- orangecat 6y ago
  Unfortunately we didn't get good imagery of that particular catastrophe The best footage I've seen is at 1:10 in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0FZIwabctw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0FZIwabctw

nickik 6y ago

Doing the landing swing move and then stopping the swing with the rocket engine seems dicey to me. The timing on those firings need to be incredibly accurate.