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9·17 days agoNSF Video Apologies for the X links!
Flight 4 ended with Starship igniting its three center Raptor engines and executing the first flip maneuver and landing burn since our suborbital campaign, followed by a soft splashdown of the ship in the Indian Ocean one hour and six minutes after launch.
I still can’t believe that happened! Gives me so much confidence on their in-space propellant storage too, for some reason.
Let’s go!!
I am beyond excited for this! Hope it goes off on the first attempt :)
I agree with everything you said and especially with the hope for competition (which in some ways there is, SpaceX is just miles ahead), but I just wanted to point out that basically every rocket ever developed was done with government funding :)
The renders for Starship V2 have a dramatically redesigned hot stage mechanism. My guess is as good as any, but it’s possible the current HSR is so bulky and has nothing in common with the future version that they feel it’s actually more representative to throw it away.
So no in-space engine relight just as we heard recently, but the interesting addition of jettison of the hot stage ring. I really hope that’s temporary!
I also LOVE to see that they want to attempt to relight the raptors and do the flip of Starship survives entry! I wonder how confident they are that it will.
Also in an update, SpaceX noted that both booster engine issues and RCS on IFT-3 were caused by filter blockages and clogged valves. Kind-of fascinating that’s still happening, but I have high hopes they will solve that soon!
Beautiful launch, gorgeous jellyfish, perfect landing :)
I can’t wait to see this lift off! I’ve been following closely, but I’m still not sure what was their main hold-up. I really thought they could make early May before, but now late May or early June seem like the closest NET dates.
Either way I hope we’re just a week or two away!
I understand the sentiment, but I’m sorry to say I have seen absolutely no data that supports this. Perhaps you’d like to share a source?
Right? That’s kind-of the weird thing, this milestone is very much attributable to Musk (and of course the countless engineers that make it happen) despite his… eccentricity, shall we say.
Some photos:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMvd5rMW0AAYdrO?format=jpg&name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMvYxi4WoAAFum_?format=jpg&name=4096x4096
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMvYxi4WsAARFW9?format=jpg&name=4096x4096
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMvYxi4XsAAZljT?format=jpg&name=4096x4096
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMvYxi4WQAEnMwP?format=jpg&name=4096x4096
Polaris Dawn page also features an update: https://polarisprogram.com/dawn/
More info on the suit on SpaceX’s Human Spaceflight page: https://www.spacex.com/humanspaceflight/
I think I may have an idea of why this has been down-voted?
How much you buy into this vision will undoubtedly depend on your predilection toward Musk and your sense of the difficulty of forging habitable communities on an uninhabitable world like Mars.
I wonder who didn’t click the article /s
With SLC-40 now ready for crew launches, there are four launch pads at Cape Canaveral designed to support astronaut flights, alongside crew-rated pads for NASA’s Space Launch System and ULA’s Atlas V rocket. A decade ago, there were none, and during the heyday of NASA’s Apollo and shuttle programs, there were two.
If Gwynne Shotwell says six weeks, that means they’re pretty damn confident!
Pretty sad that the coolest part of the whole video is what user effi on the NSF forum spotted: