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Starship's Tenth Flight Test
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpmTivdrQiQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpmTivdrQiQ
- sidcool 1y agoAlways an inspiring sight!
- metalman 1y agostarship 10
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- erulabs 1y agoUnbelievable! Watched with my 4 year old, he was full of questions about why the ocean was turning to nighttime, what satellites are, about going to another planet, about the earth being so blue and if we “ever even knew that before”. Just wonderful stuff. So excited for the future.
- lm28469 1y agoTake a blanket, drive in an area with minimal light pollution, lay on the ground and watch the sky with your kid(s). I did that with my grandma as a kid and to this day I don't think I've done anything more relaxing and interesting, it's like watching a fire or waves, it never gets old
- dvt 1y agoSo awesome, I hope to have kids one day precisely for this reason! One of my fondest memories is my dad quenching my curiosity (with a drawing, to boot!) of how satellite dishes work when I was 6 or 7.
- monero-xmr 1y agoMy kids learning to ride a bike - the moment you release your hand for the first time and they just go and go. When my son learned checkers, and then when he beat me the first time. When my daughter told her first original joke at a family dinner and everyone died laughing. The moments truly never stop. Every single day they amaze and surprise you, fill you with so much love and joy and appreciation. One time Bill Gates was asked what gave him joy and without missing a beat he said his children. Nothing is greater, nothing gives you more meaning, nothing is more ultimate than the sacrifice and patience and wonder and fulfillment of having children.
- bombcar 1y agoThere's a moment of abject horror, fascination, wonder, surprise, and pride when you suddenly recognize yourself in your children; a moment, a word, even just a holding of the head and you're staring into a mirror ...
- monero-xmr 1y agoIt is a complete shift in world view. In BC (before children) you lived one way, then in AD (after delivery) you live another. Complete and utter change in priorities, outlook, experience, meaning, fundamental shift that those without children cannot understand
- doug713705 1y agoAnd people with children cannot understand what it is to live a whole life in full freedom. I'm over 50 years old and I fully love my life as it is and have never regretted my choice of not having children (and never will). Not that my choice is suitable for everybody, but the most common choice is not suitable for everybody either.
- holoduke 1y agoI can understand. I have 4 small kids. The amount of freetime us near zero. I can sometimes envy your life
- qmr 1y agoGo directly to steam and download Kerbal Space Program. Thank me later.
- erulabs 1y agoOh I will. My boy just turned 4, so he’s a little young for video games right now. Maybe 5 or 6? But we played spaceships in the park all evening. Looking forward to gaming age for sure!
- prox 1y agoIf you live in a good spot, a beginners telescope might be money well spent.
- hdgvhicv 1y agoWarning. KSP breaks pretty much all sci fi programs when you wonder why the landing shuttle is flying towards the planet it’s going to.
- hliyan 1y agoThis is the same age when I started watching Star Trek (original series). To say it had a profound impact on my interest in science and ethics is an understatement. English wasn't even my first language, but I think I picked up a lot of the themes, and my interest in science, tech and ethical philosophy continues to this day. I actually wrote this bit about introducing children to Star Trek (answer is a bit dated now): https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/6719/what-is-the-recommended-viewing-order-for-young-first-timers-to-watch-star-trek/6747#6747 https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/6719/what-is-the-r...
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- ffsm8 1y agoDated indeed, as nobody is interested in Star Trek anymore since they've actively ruined the IP. Heck, the person spearheading star Trek vision has gone on public records essentially saying he never liked star Trek and that's why he's gonna make it more like star wars....
- bamboozled 1y agoIn hindsight, I don't feel like the lessons in ethics have done wonders for the USA either...
- hliyan 1y agoThe "Yangs vs. Comms" episode comes to mind.
- jfengel 1y agoYou're talking about the movies, and yeah, that has failed. They're talking about yet another one, and I'm baffled, but we'll see where (if anywhere) it goes. But the Paramount+ stuff is doing pretty well. Strange New Worlds is very popular. So was Lower Decks. The last season of Picard, at least, gave fans a lot of what they had been looking for. They've got a new series coming out, and what little we know is that it has a bang-up cast. (Not that that's sufficient; Discovery did very badly by some very talented actors. But it's a good start.) So Trek: The IP is still going pretty strong. At least as well as Star Wars, which has also been hit-and-miss.
- madaxe_again 1y agoI always ask mine what she’d like to do after school today. “Let’s go to the moon” comes back at least once a week. Sincerely hope to be able to take her, one day.
- Pigalowda 1y agoSo the starlink simulators its deploying right now are empty platters that will burn up in the atmosphere from what I understand. Next missions they’ll be real statlink sats. Are these different than regular sats? It sounds like they’re able to handle more bandwidth but I don’t know.
- jdminhbg 1y agoYes, they're bigger than the current Falcon 9 rockets can launch and can handle more bandwidth.
- decimalenough 1y agoStarship will be deploying the next gen v3 satellites, which weigh about 2 tons each. A single Starship launch with 60 of these deploys more capacity than 20 launches of a Falcon 9.
- geerlingguy 1y agoIIRC the v3 sats can do like 1 Tbps of bandwidth thanks to a larger antenna system?
- xeromal 1y agoWow, that really puts it into perspective
- Pedro_Ribeiro 1y agoThe figures they've been talking of the ideal cost per launch of starship are even more insane. I'm sure some of it is hype farming on Twitter but if they get the cost to less then $1000/kg it would be incredible.
- kersplody 1y agoNext flight should be a mass simulator of at least 100 tons to orbit. This flight was around ~10 tons to almost orbit. The economics of Starlink basically require high cadence Starship launches with 50+ Starlink v3 satellites on each flight.
- bamboozled 1y ago[flagged]
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- wyldfire 1y agoI'm not seeing cues of satire, it all seems sincere.
- nsxwolf 1y agoWhy would it be satire? We all just saw one of the greatest achievements in the history of engineering and we can’t feel good about it?
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- apical_dendrite 1y ago[flagged]
- justahuman74 1y agoIts pretty common for 4 year olds to not yet know about planetary orbits, and to also find rocket launches fascinating
- blendergeek 1y agowhat is the sad part here?
- Pedro_Ribeiro 1y agoWhat is sad about this?
- NobodyNada 1y ago...Huh? Why would that be sad? My parents have formative memories of watching the moon landings as kids, and I of watching the space shuttle. As someone who ended up where I am in large part due to my curiosity about the world growing up, reading of OP's kid watching a rocket launch, thinking critically about what they're seeing, and learning more about the world from it is a joyous thing.
- dyauspitr 1y ago[flagged]
- chasd00 1y agoWas cool to see the pez dispenser door start to open and all that vapor get sucked outside. The booster ditch was super cool, hover then just cut the engines and let it drop.
- HPsquared 1y agoSimulating a chopsticks landing, probably.
- ericcumbee 1y agoIt was said somewhere that one of the previous ditches in the ocean. the booster remained a little too intact and floated into Mexican waters creating a navigational hazard. So the idea was also to make sure it broke up on splashdown.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 1y ago[flagged]
- cryptoz 1y ago[flagged]
- ugh123 1y agoYou forgot the /s
- decimalenough 1y agoToday is a suborbital trajectory by design.
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- 2OEH8eoCRo0 1y ago[flagged]
- allenrb 1y agoAnd then what? SLS is a many billion dollar dead end.
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- sbuttgereit 1y agoI think Scott Manley's position on the "still hasn't gotten to orbit" take is probably still the best and most accurate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8htMpR7mnaM&t=420s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8htMpR7mnaM&t=420s
- pclmulqdq 1y ago
- decimalenough 1y agoEverything nominal so far and payload deployment was successful for the first time. Re-entry starts at around T+0:45.
- K0balt 1y agoLooks like they hit all the objectives! Splashdown right next to the buoy! Awesome to see it all go right.
- JKCalhoun 1y agoAlso here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpmTivdrQiQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpmTivdrQiQ
- JKCalhoun 1y agoSome kind of failure in the lower engine area. Figure it's going to burn up on entry? EDIT: made it. I suppose it was meant to blow up on landing in the ocean? It would have been nice to examine the burned components — but perhaps they had not intended to retrieve it that far away anyway.
- ls612 1y agoSounds like they removed a few too many heat tiles before launch.
- pixl97 1y agoIt made it, but there was some toastyness on the bottom of the lower flaps. This said, it is less bad than we've seen on the other 2 landings.
- mrandish 1y agoThey announced before the flight that they intentionally removed tiles from some areas around the lower flaps specifically to get data on what happens when tiles fail, such as how much burn occurs, how quickly and what type. It appears it was successful in showing varying amounts of burn through and damage in the areas that were intentionally left under-protected.
- rubzah 1y agoThe part that burned was damaged from early on, likely at, or right after, separation. So the integrity of that flap was already very compromised. I actually thought the flap would disintegrate on re-entry with that kind of damage. But no, they even put full stress on it, unfolding it while supersonic through the atmosphere, like a champ.
- dotancohen 1y agoAt what T+ do you see the damage occurring? Thank you.
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- plussed_reader 1y ago[flagged]
- jprd 1y agoThey did it. Damn.
- haberman 1y agoLanded on target in the Indian Ocean! Engines relit successfully and it touched down vertically (and then promptly exploded, which I guess was the plan :)
- niteshpant 1y agoI thought it exploded after it landed?
- nsxwolf 1y agoThat was expected. It’s not meant to land on water.
- gibolt 1y agoIt is, for the purpose of this test. Don't want it coming back down on land somewhere unexpected :)
- pengaru 1y ago> I thought it exploded after it landed? It landed on the sea, there was no barge afaik.
- decimalenough 1y agoWell, yes, it landed in the ocean by design and toppled over because that's what happens when you land a 50m tall spaceship vertically in water.
- schoen 1y agoThis sequence of events (even though expected!) reminds me a lot of the Monty Python and the Holy Grail speech: > Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these islands. (although I suppose this ship fell over, then burned down, and then sank into the ocean)
- chasd00 1y agoJust saw the splash down. I think this was 100% successful test.
- Geee 1y agoYes, although one booster engine failed at the start. Not a big deal. :)
- rlt 1y agoThe nice thing about SpaceX’s rapid iteration philosophy (and having Starlink as its first “customer”) is that they can account for engine unreliability by building extra margin into early launches, fly with reduced payloads, collect data on failures, and improve the reliability over time.
- imglorp 1y agoThey said ahead of time they were shutting one booster engine down to test redundancy.
- itishappy 1y agoThey did that too, but they also had an early engine failure. No big deal, they're redundant, and the booster they caught during flight 8 suffered worse.
- ericcumbee 1y agothat was on the landing burn. they had a engine out on the ascent.
- indoordin0saur 1y agoYes. Looks like it ignited and ran correctly for the first few minutes though.
- kersplody 1y agoNot quite, but it's a major milestone. Still quite a bit of work to go on the rapid reusability part (burnt flaps, oxidized body, missing tiles, tile waterproofing). Starship might actually deliver payload to orbit on flight 11.
- decimalenough 1y agoSuccessful splashdown! Looks like they nailed all the objectives, and not a moment too soon.
- mikewarot 1y agoI'm amazed the thing landed right next to the Buoy, and was seen from the BuoyCam.
- gibolt 1y agoThis has happened many times so far. Control to reach a specific landing point is quite good (when things don't go boom first)
- AtlasBarfed 1y ago[flagged]
- ChocolateGod 1y agoNot sure why you would joke about something like that
- AtlasBarfed 1y agoFar better to pretend it didn't happen, and downvote all mentions of it? Every day these companies operate with "don't be ashamed of your past AfD" as the CEO ... Is a mockery. So keep lapping up the propaganda! Tastes sooooo good. So what's worse, all the unbridled enthusiasm for a Nazis corporation, or me bringing up the dark side in a joke?
- loeg 1y agoDude, they nailed it. Amazing.
- chpatrick 1y agoIncredible.
- pram 1y agoAre the tiles on Starship going to need replacing after flight like the Shuttle? There isn’t a permanent material that can handle all the heat yet? Serious question, my space expertise is only from KSP.
- dotnet00 1y agoThe intention is to need minimal to no replacement between flights. Part of the purpose of these tests is to figure out how to do that. The tiles themselves work fine, but how to best mount them? where do you need them? Can you make them thinner? do you need anything underneath? what kind of gap do you need between tiles? Those are the things they're hoping to understand in these tests. The Shuttle tiles were technically reusable AFAIK. The issue was that they were very fragile and the Shuttle for the most part could not tolerate any heat getting through the tiles (being aluminum), so every flight needed to have a perfect heat shield. Starship is a bit better on that end, as stainless steel is a lot more capable of tolerating heat and I think the tiles are a bit less fragile. Still, would be ideal to figure out how to not drop any tiles.
- themafia 1y ago> every flight needed to have a perfect heat shield. Which is a little easier to do when your craft is shaped like a plane and not a simple cylinder. The loading and positioning were easier to model and then achieve in flight. The shuttle also flew with repair kits and glue that could be used in a vacuum. The astronauts could perform an EVA and work to replace damaged tiles and there were published plans on how to do so. NASA unfortunately figured out very late that using the Canadarm to image the bottom of the shuttle immediately on achieving orbit was extremely necessary given the icing problems of the external tank.
- dotnet00 1y agoI thought that while the spare tiles did exist, there was never an actual safe procedure for replacing tiles (that didn't require being docked to the ISS) they were only carried to be available when the choice was between losing the entire crew on reentry or risking a crew member? I don't quite understand how the airplane shape made it easier to model the loading and positioning? (Not saying you're wrong, just doesn't fit my intuition and I'm curious). My understanding is that Shuttle didn't have to answer the questions about tile gaps etc because it used glue rather than mechanical attachments, if that's what you mean by positioning.
- throwaway984393 1y ago[dead]
- apical_dendrite 1y ago[flagged]
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- gibolt 1y agoPretty sure the DOGE intent was good, but real efforts were mostly sidelined for the Trump pony show. Thus the 'fighting' words that followed when the BBB tax cut showed up.
- apical_dendrite 1y ago[flagged]
- gibolt 1y agoConsider what would have happened if Elon wasn't there. Likely the same. The people wanting those things cut are still present. I wish he hadn't gone along with them, but there likely had to be concessions before attempting to make progress. When it became clear cost savings and efficiency wasn't the actual goal in the White House, Elon left.
- stephen_g 1y agoWhat do you mean "gone along with them"? Seems like a strange kind of reality-distortion to try and convince youself that Musk was misled into doing those terrible things as part of DOGE, when he actually just wanted to do it himself...
- Qworg 1y agoCome now - you really believe that Elon saw DOGE as a good faith effort to cut costs in the government? For someone with such a vaunted intelligence, he was either dumb or complicit. "Working things out from first principles" would have had him leave after the very first step.
- 14 1y agoI can't help but think of one cray thing...This is absolutely amazing to watch. The fact that there are cameras at every stage showing exactly what is happening. Being able to see the curvature of earth all in hi-def. But the entire time I watch this I just keep thinking even with all this proof you still will not convince some people that the moon landings are real and that the earth is not flat. They will say these are just AI videos used to trick people from the truth. It just amazes me that technologies have come so far that at one end we can really show that the earth is truthfully a sphere but also at the same time technology has come so far one can claim this is just another video created by AI and is not actually true.
- pixl97 1y agoYea, I'm older and remember the shuttle days. It's the video all the way to the ground that amazes me every time (well at least when the orbiter is aligned properly and not turning into a meteor shower).
- ralfd 1y agoOnly possible through SpaceX Starlink, but technical progress aside they also deserve kudos to be so open to share some of their video streams publicly and not cutting away from explosions or burning flaps. Blue Origin didn't show with the first New Glenn launch their payload mechanism or reentry mishaps.
- sunnynewslite 1y ago[flagged]
- rkagerer 1y agoNice! I know they were intentionally stressing the flaps, but saw at least one was on fire again and deteriorating. How big an issue is this and how are they likely to solve it?
- pavon 1y agoThe damage to the trailing edge of the aft flaps was caused by whatever took out the skirt. You can see they are torn up and sheet metal flapping long before they start to descend and heat up. It is possible they would have held up to the heat if that hadn't occurred. I didn't see any burning through along the flap hinge like in previous flights (although they only showed direct side-on video of two of the flaps).
- dang 1y agoRecent and related: Starship's Tenth Flight Test - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45007907 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45007907 - Aug 2025 (233 comments)
- rsyring 1y agoAnyone know the best way to get the SpaceX video from Twitter/X onto Apple TV? My current method is to screen share from an iPad after starting the video on Safari. Trying to Airplay gave me audio but not video on the TV. But, the screen share has a pretty large letterbox around it, was hoping to get full screen video.
- Dig1t 1y agoYeah Airplay is probably the best option, I had no problems playing it from my Macbook.
- rsyring 1y agoDid you pull it up in Safari and then Airplay it? That's what I did on the iPad and couldn't get the video. I can try the Mac next time. It's not my fault driver and assumed iPad would be the same.
- np1810 1y ago> Anyone know the best way to get the SpaceX video from Twitter/X onto Apple TV? I don't have Apple TV but for videos on X, I download it temporarily to a intermediate server then stream using VLC [1] it's a hassle but I get great watching experience on all platforms. For now, you can stream this on VLC: https://bin.hrzn.pics/0AdLye8 https://bin.hrzn.pics/0AdLye8 Though I generally watch Everyday Astronaut's [2] coverage on YouTube. [1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vlc-media-player/id650377962 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vlc-media-player/id650377962 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtUMt0gsqrs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtUMt0gsqrs
- rsyring 1y agoThanks. I'd like to find something that works for the live stream too.
- irrational 1y ago> The flight test began with Super Heavy successfully lifting off by igniting all 33 Raptor engines and ascending over the Gulf of America. It took me a moment to remember what the Gulf of America is. What stupidity.
- bamboozled 1y agoYup
- stack_framer 1y agoYou're not stupid! It's a body of water south of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. It used to be called the Gulf of Mexico.
- verzali 1y agoStill is everywhere else.
- irrational 1y agoSo, it is surrounded by the least educated states. I guess that explains the stupid name.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- maxlin 1y agoExhilarating to see the V2 finally get its "fourth time's the charm" full success! My top reason for wanting to visit US has flipped semi-recently to wanting to witness one of these launches. I'd hate for the Boca Chica site to become more secretive as it marches on towards production quality.
- ralfd 1y agoThe crazy thing is that hopefully in 2-3 years a Starship launch could be as "boring" as a dime-a-dozen Falcon 9 launch today.
- chasd00 1y agoThe crazy thing is there’s a public road about 200 yards from the pad that also goes right by the front door of the factory. Like you can drive right up to starbase, park, and walk around and see everything. Also, you can go past the pad to the beach and walk up on the dunes and be within 500 yards of the pad and whatever is sitting on it too. I visited a few years ago and was amazed at the scale and how everything is literally right on the side of the road. One thing I didn’t expect, it’s pretty noisy because it’s an ongoing construction site. You don’t think of that when you see the videos.
- bilvar 1y agoWell done Elon! Very excited for the future!