Thread: SpaceX - On to Mars

Elon Musk on twitter


Successful ascent, switchover to header tanks & precise flap control to landing point!

Fuel header tank pressure was low during landing burn, causing touchdown velocity to be high & RUD, but we got all the data we needed! Congrats SpaceX team hell yeah!!

Mars, here we come!!

An impressive video of the flight and 'landing'.

An awesome video of the last few seconds of the flight. Starshipcoming down horizontally then flipping around, right until the fireball. View from right below, at the landing pad.

The view from a distance in the next tweet below is also awesome. Shows how low the flip happens.

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1336849897987796992

A great video of Scott Manley, with the full flight and detailed explanations of what happened. Not too long to watch.

Thomas Zurbuchen
@Dr_ThomasZ
Associate Administrator,
@NASA
Science Mission Directorate


#Congrats to
@SpaceX
for achieving this milestone. I stopped the NASA meeting I was in and we all watched the flight together. I walked away with a much better understanding of the profound differences of #Starship as compared to other rockets.

Responsible people at NASA are beginning to understand what Starship is going to be.

seems wierd that it comes down in a horizontal position like that.

It even looks like a grain silo from the inside

Originally Posted by Backspin

It even looks like a grain silo from the inside

Moron say what?

Originally Posted by Cujo

seems wierd that it comes down in a horizontal position like that.

It is weird, but necessary. Not necessary for this flight but later when it comes back from orbit. It needs to distribute the braking forces and the heat over a large area. For this flight the horizontal position makes it fall much slower, saving propellant for the landing.

The Shuttle was a little bit similar, except it landed horizontally, while Starship needs to flip into vertical a few hundred meter above the ground. This is what killed SN8. It has separate tanks for landing propellant and pressurization for this tank failed.

Just read that the next in line, SN9 will go to the launch site on monday. All dates are subject to slips, of course.

Originally Posted by aging one

Moron say what?

I said that the barbed sky dilldoe looks like a grain silo inside

^ Your picture is missing a couple of engines.

Originally Posted by OhOh

^ Your picture is missing a couple of engines.

The story of his life. Always something missing.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Along with two/three engines initially firing reducing to one/two.Along with the chemical mix % colour affects witnessed. Excellent images and commentary.

What is the weight of this test rocket when landing, compared to the rocket when returning from a normal mission flight?

I ask as the steering vanes looked a little fragile in action.

Presumably the vanes/engine firings are controlled by onboard systems rather than ground station assistance in this unmanned case or onboard pilots when in service.

We don't have exact numbers for the weight. They aim for initially 120t dry mass, hopefully less later. But that's with 6 engines, heat shield and stronger legs. The prototype may have 120t as it is not yet optimized. Plus residual propellant which may easily be more than 20t.

The flaps, as Elon Musk calls them are not yet the final design, good enough for early flights up to 15-20km. Probably much better ones on SN15. SN9 will have a lot more heat shield tiles than SN8. The mounting method was a weak spot in earlier tests, in SN8 they seemed to be OK until impact.

If manned Starship has a pilot, I won't fly. This is much too complex for humans to handle.

Crew Dragon can be piloted by the astronauts but it is much less complex. But they don't fly manual, all flight and docking is fully automated. On the demo mission DM-1 they did manual exercises before reaching the ISS but they had to keep their hands off for actual approach and docking. Some commentator said keeping their hands off may be the hardest part on the flight for those experienced test pilots.

Thanks, once again.

l knew your suggested rocket propellant book, would be handy.

A picture tweeted by japanese NASA astronaut NOGUCHI, Soichi 野口　聡－（のぐち　そういち）@Astro_Soichi

He is one of the first crew that flew to the ISS in a Crew Dragon and is presently at the ISS.

Boca Chica, #TX. Probably the closest place to #moon and beyond. Go, #SpaceX !!!

Originally Posted by OhOh

^ Your picture is missing a couple of engines.

That's all it is using for these tests

Originally Posted by Backspin

That's all it is using for these tests

Wrong the craft tested had 3. Your photo is not even of the right craft.

Originally Posted by Backspin

That's all it is using for these tests

Irony is lost on the colonials.^

The wildly successful flight of Starship SN8 let SpaceX double their value to now $92 billion and sell new stock to increase their financial buffer. Raise money not when it is needed but when there is the chance to get it easily.

At least that is what businessinsider reports.

SpaceX seeks to double company valuation in January, insiders say - Business Insider

SN8 completed the flight and exploded exactly at the intended landing spot. Next flight coming soon and hopefully it will land without explosion.

A nice new graphic on the status of coming Starship prototype builds.

SN9 seems to be ready after a slight accident that left one flap damaged. It is now replaced, with a flap from SN10. That's why SN10 has only one nose flap. To the right is BN1, that's components of the first booster, the first stage of Starship. Not that much bigger in total, but all tanks so 4 times as much propellant and 28 engines, compared to 6 engines on future Starships.

SN15 will have major improvements and will be close to what will be capable of going to orbit.

^ Are they a relation to the planned BFR, or are Starship and the BFR completely separate projects?

Whenever we think Elons ideas can not get any more outlandish, he proves us wrong.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1344327757916868608

We’re going to try to catch the Super Heavy Booster with the launch tower arm, using the grid fins to take the load

This is about landing the huge booster rocket of Starship. Goal is not just to reuse it but to fly it again after maybe an hour or two. So how to get it back on the launch mount that fast? His first idea was to land it directly on the launch mount but now he has a different idea. After fans got over the initial shock some tried to come up with a possible solution.

This is the one in most detail and I like it a lot. Still curious how the real solution will look like. It is posted on twitter and occasionally Elon Musk comments on such fan designs.

Remember, that booster is 9m wide and 70m high, app. 200t dry weight, without propellant.