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SpaceX Starship/Super Heavy OFT-2 Launch Authorized
- resolutebat 3y agoDuplicate: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38283564 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38283564
- mkl 3y agoFrom https://www.space.com/spacex-faa-license-second-starship-launch https://www.space.com/spacex-faa-license-second-starship-lau...: > The liftoff is set to occur Friday (Nov. 17) from Starbase, a SpaceX facility in South Texas, during a two-hour window that opens at 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT; 7 a.m. local time in Texas). 2-4am in NZ. Don't think I'll be staying up.
- yreg 3y agoIn my favourite way: The window starts when this comment is 26.5 hours old.
- SushiHippie 3y ago*26.36583333... You posted the comment @1700131083 (2023-11-16T10:38:03Z) (see https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/38287917.json?print=pretty https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/38287917.json?pri...) and the start will be @1700226000 (2023-11-17T13:00:00Z) 1700226000 - 1700131083 = 94917 seconds = 26.36583333... hours → 1 day 2 hour 21 minutes 57 seconds
- mkl 3y agoWhile I appreciate the pedantry, there's no need for the Firebase thing: just hover your mouse over the comment's timestamp.
- Narretz 3y agoDoesn't work on mobile
- moffkalast 3y agoDesktop: "Look at what they need to mimic a fraction of our power"
- mkl 3y agoTrue. Not hard to see it in view-source:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38287917 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38287917 though (HN doesn't understand that "view-source:" is part of the address).
- ryzvonusef 3y agoIf I understood timezones correctly, it will be Friday 6pm for me (utc+5) for once I am in good timezone-wise, for falcon heavy I had to stay late at night.
- phkahler 3y agoThat doesn't seem right. They'll be crashing into the Ocean off Hawaii in the dark.
- baking 3y agoThat would be considered a win.
- ceejayoz 3y agoIf they get anywhere near Hawaii they'll be very happy. They don't need to see it crater in.
- sneak 3y agoIt’s my understanding a soft water landing is being attempted.
- ceejayoz 3y agoThat's a serious reach goal, and they still don't need to see it.
- s1artibartfast 3y agoI still don't think you need light for that. It is going to the bottom of the ocean either way
- pixl97 3y agoNot for starship, for the booster.
- c_o_n_v_e_x 3y agoAre countdowns scheduled such that the launch ideally happens right as the launch window opens?
- 93po 3y agoI heard they want to launch as soon as possible within the window so that conditions don’t turn to shit and lose the chance. So possible it’ll happen at 7am?
- sebzim4500 3y agoNormally yes, to maximize the amount of time they have for a do-over if something goes wrong in the initial countdown.
- dotnet00 3y agoNot exactly right as the window opens (as they have to ensure the area is clear before launching) but pretty close to when the window opens. Especially with experimental rockets like this because as we've seen before, it isn't guaranteed that the rocket passes all checks and lifts off at the first attempt. So that gives them the largest amount of time to reset and try again before having to give up for the day and schedule the next try.
- irrational 3y agoSo, 5am Pacific? Texas is Central I assume?
- chadash 3y agoYes, 5am Pacific. Texas is mostly Central except for a sliver containing El Paso
- iruoy 3y agoHere is the launch window in your current timezone: http://www.worldtimebuddy.com/event?lid=5&h=5&sts=28336620&sln=8-10&a=show&euid=95c2b625-f0da-7ba4-f91a-d915af96aa2f http://www.worldtimebuddy.com/event?lid=5&h=5&sts=28336620&s...
- mekal 3y agoMake that Nov. 18th (same time).
- Gannon6790 3y agoElon tweeted that now the launch attempt will be on Saturday due to having to fix an actuator on a grid fin.
- ge96 3y agogotta get it right, I'll be able to see it
- esskay 3y agoAnd we'll likely be forced to watch it in glorious 480p quality on the site formerly known as Twitter, where it will burried on a random spacex profile page.
- frederikvs 3y agoYou should be able to watch it on the spaceX website too [0]. I don't know what quality to expect though. [0] https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-2 https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-...
- ryzvonusef 3y agothere will be a couple of youtubers who will have their own life feed, and there is usually a multi-feed link on the spacex subreddit
- throwuwu 3y agoIf you’re not watching a multi feed then why even bother, you’re just going to see smoke and static half the time
- pmontra 3y ago> You can watch it here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX.
- czottmann 3y agoI suspect they'll embed the X post/stream.
- ChrisArchitect 3y ago[dupe] [pdf] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38283564 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38283564
- ourmandave 3y agoOFT-2 means Orbital Flight Test 2.
- codeulike 3y agoInnovation is a gamble. If we knew that a Starship design would definitely work (i.e can it reach orbit? can it come back down? can all of the complexity be managed well enough to make it economically feasible?) then someone would have done it already. The tantalising possibility that it might not work, that Starship might just be a dead end, is what makes the whole thing worth trying.
- kiba 3y agoIt doesn't particularly seem risky to me. What's risky is stagnation and letting other competitors catch up. The only way SpaceX is going to move forward is becoming more ambitious with a new project. The risk isn't that if the Starship doesn't work, but that the R&D time takes too long or too much money to complete.
- wongarsu 3y agoOne major risk is SpaceX running out of working capital and having to scale back the vision. It's honestly impressive how they manage to build out a huge satellite network of unprecedented scale and run an agile development program for a hugely innovative Saturn-V-sized rocket with new in-house developed engines at the same time. All off the back of their profits from Falcon-9, a bit of private investment, and probably a bit of cross-financing from NASA development contracts (like the lunar lander they are developing based on Starship).
- foobarian 3y agoThis is exactly what I find fascinating about the company as well. It's not like it's some secret technology nobody else has - why hasn't any other company done this before? How much of a part is played by the exceptional ambition flowing from the top?
- chasd00 3y ago> It's not like it's some secret technology nobody else has Well to be fair, there’s a lot of technology at spacex no one else has. One example, the Raptor engine’s combination of size, efficiency, and thrust is just not available to anyone other than SpaceX. Even if exact schematics were stolen you’d still need to obtain the recipes for the alloys used and how to manufacture them. Companies gave up on full flow staged combustion as just not feasible but SpaceX figured it out and is on v3 of perfecting it.
- 93po 3y agoDriving to south padre today to see it. So excited!
- foobarian 3y agoI will be living the next 24 hours vicariously through you :-)
- 93po 3y agoIt turned out to be more like 48 hours but it was super cool!
- chasd00 3y agoI was going to the same but Sunday is the earliest I can get there. Looks like I may be too late!
- rigrassm 3y agoSame boat here, was half rooting for a good launch and half rooting for that boat to stay in the exclusion zone for 30 more minutes lol. I made it out to South Padre for the first launch attempt but couldn't stay for the 3 day delay so I missed that one too. Next launch I'm just going to put in for PTO for the whole week and go camp at Isla Blanca, I really want the kids and I to experience a sky scraper being blasted into space up close and personal.
- cubefox 3y agoThe sad thing is that it took the agency longer to grant the launch license than for SpaceX to rebuild the damaged launch tower, manufacture, install and test the water deluge system, and prepare the second rocket for launch.
- ceejayoz 3y agoThat's a silly complaint; much of that work had to be done and demonstrated before they'd sign off.
- cubefox 3y agoSpaceX said they were done for one or two months now.
- ceejayoz 3y agoWhich would imply a maximum time period of said one or two months to process their application for a license.
- cubefox 3y agoEven that would arguably far too long, and it's wrong anyway. Various forms of investigating the previous launch failure probably started (or could have started) long before that.
- ceejayoz 3y agoThey've been investigating since the day first launch threw concrete everywhere. Federal agencies aren't inclined to grant launch licenses based on an IOU of "we promise it'll be fixed soon", and rightly so. Fix, apply, receive license, in that order.
- cubefox 3y agoWhat I was saying. They were waiting for around two months now.
- qualifiedai 3y agoDid the seal with headphones approve?