Starship Orbital Test Flight

[next sierra]

https://tenor.com/view/those-were-the-days-curtis-payne-house-of-payne-good-times-good-memories-gif-22163985

Oh yeah, yep, claimed the moon landings were fake and the Challenger astronauts are alive and well

[vagrant moat]

Why the fuck would you deny the Columbia disaster that doesn't even make sense as a thing to deny

[undone gull]

https://tenor.com/view/hello-there-hi-there-greetings-gif-9442662

[vagrant moat]

Wait, so does he think this is fake too?

[next sierra]

I did say he's a head case

[vagrant moat]

Gotcha

[next sierra]

Oh yeah and he got so mad over us trolling him
https://youtu.be/qsXpOLHJxsc

[shell python]

that title

[next sierra]

Oh what now

[shell python]

oh it’s just funny lol

6 minutes of Paul have a hissy fit!

[white oyster]

Who is this guy?

[next sierra]

Paul S. Mamakos

^

[keen plover]

I might be mistaken but wasnt he the guy who is convinced Challenger didnt actually happen?

[white oyster]

Hmm space denyer it seems?

[keen plover]

also uhhhhhhhhhh

https://twitter.com/SpaceOceanCorp/status/1616308079133396992

Space Ocean Corp (@SpaceOceanCorp)

We are aiming to launch a private mission to Enceladus and generate up to $100 Trillion in profit from the initial investment of between $2 Billion and $8 Billion. We'd love to have you join us! https://t.co/lmjSMGCo7r

Twitter · Jan 20, 2023, 5:34 AM

[keen plover]

no he's not like a flat earther or anything like that, just other forms of weird

[white oyster]

Yeah went to the channel and he believes that the body has an "aura" like magnetic field or something.... uugg yeah...

[keen plover]

also has a weird obsession with water in space

https://twitter.com/PaulSMamakosCEO/status/1570387599407071234

Paul (@PaulSMamakosCEO)

Natural

Twitter · Sep 15, 2022, 12:22 PM

uhhhhhhhhhh

[white oyster]

I thought i got WWEELL away from all that crap 4 years ago , apparently not (as i actually saw one of their vids reccomended to me not long ago)

[sinful schooner]

scam

[whole hawk]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/577909263012462596/1099794772631244871/image.png

[umbral karma]

I bought it

Only the small ones, but I think its cool to have a piece of the launch pad

Not like I can go get some for my self

[hollow knot]

You can buy on eBay

For $19,694.20

[umbral karma]

lol

Ocean cam was selling 2 small chunk for $28 so I thought what the hell

Although shipping and tax made it considerably more

[sinful schooner]

bought what

[umbral karma]

The concrete

[sinful schooner]

what's special about it

[umbral karma]

It’s from the pad

That’s just cool

[sinful schooner]

ah

[white oyster]

Eh i dont think theyll ever be able to clean 100% of it, will always be a few bits if you look hard enough

I would have grabbed some of the sdrap metal
Though technically its still spacex property/material

[shell python]

call and report it, if it’s concrete they probably will just say you can keep it and then it’s not a legal liability

[hollow plaza]

Just redid the concrete in my garage, maybe I can make a few bucks on ebay...

[sharp flower]

Blow up the concrete then boom

[sinful schooner]

Did it miss something? WHY does everyone have the concrete

[pallid solar]

historic concrete

[umbral karma]

Is your garage the launch pad for the first test of the worlds largest rocket?

[umbral karma]

IMO its akin to having a piece of the pad from the first Saturn V launch

[hollow plaza]

No, but people don't have to know that

[whole hawk]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaLGrJ-14hs&ab_channel=TrevorMahlmann

[pulsar pollen]

120 fps isn’t something I see often in a YT vid title

[loud spire]

You can see the shockwaves

[umbral karma]

Yeah thats so cool

[loud spire]

I remember when lab Padre was muting people for saying f

They

They where saying it meant fallen soldiers

[mystic pilot]

There was a post from CNSpaceflight that they had already made a pathfinder/prototype of the LM9 so I would not be surprised if they kept the old design as well

https://twitter.com/CNSpaceflight/status/1595198196770226176?t=seia_RR9yVWfXMgryYmmsA&s=19

China 'N Asia Spaceflight 🚀🛰️🙏 (@CNSpaceflight)

👀 I think this is so far the most significant message we've heard about progress of Long March 9, from Dr. LONG Lehao at the China Space Conference:
✅ Prototype bas been built
✅ Short-duration hot fire tests of all 3-stage engines have been conducted
✅First launch in 8~10 yrs

▶ Play video

Twitter · Nov 22, 2022, 11:31 PM

[rich blade]

dayyyymmm

thats epic

[mystic pilot]

Oops

Wrong thread

Meant to post it in the #1025438364775747584

[whole moat]

how far above the ground is the starship launch mount

[rich blade]

20 metres i think?

[oak sable]

21.5 basically

[next sierra]

That's to the top of the table though, I think it's like 18m from bottom of the Raptor bells to the ground

[whole moat]

ok, so the LC39A launch pad base is 46 feet above ground level and the MLP adds 25 feet on top of that, for 71 feet or 21.6 meters total between the deck and the ground.

iirc those pads were considerably over-spec’d for Saturn usage, so I’d expect them to handle starship in their most basic form.

in other words, they might be able to get away without a trench if they just put in a flame deflector, which they should have the ground clearance to do at the current OLM’s height

[loud spire]

The audio is amazing from there when you turn your volume up wow https://youtu.be/az4v_9ez0Lk

[vagrant moat]

I saw this video

Fucking amazing

[loud spire]

Best noǹ professionally video of it

[sinful schooner]

what's the thing on the right

[keen plover]

Scott manley

[hollow plaza]

Scott munly

[whole hawk]

https://twitter.com/ercxspace/status/1650630740806193164

Erc X (@ErcXspace)

Fighting Gravity.

#SpaceX #Starship @elonmusk

Likes

2331

Retweets

236

Twitter · Apr 24, 2023, 10:40 PM

[loud spire]

I get goosebumps every time I watch it it sounds so amazing

[pulsar pollen]

yknow what
fuck it

spacex should just rob NASA's Pad 34 portable flame divergers

[thick sphinx]

I'm sure those will do fine under starship

And will be in one piece after launch

[true aspen]

good thing we have multiple

[whole hawk]

https://twitter.com/nickhenning3d/status/1650574392320225284

Nick Henning (@nickhenning3d)

Something like this could help reduce launch damage?

There may be too many environmental and engineering challenges to make this possible due to the high water table?

Thoughts?
@FelixSchlang @MarcusHouse @CSI_Starbase

Likes

1004

▶ Play video

Twitter · Apr 24, 2023, 6:56 PM

https://twitter.com/ryanhansenspace/status/1650494391071506434?s=46&t=SMbYM7wvp4yImXva6dTuCg

Ryan Hansen Space (@RyanHansenSpace)

Now that #Starship #S24 and #B7 have launched, while also damaging the launch pad fairly severely, do you think S26/S27 will ever fly or will delays due to pad repairs lead to the next flight test utilizing S28+?

Likes

682

Twitter · Apr 24, 2023, 1:38 PM

[vagrant moat]

Should this thread be closed now?

[proven field]

Nah, at least we can post investigation updates here

[oak sable]

also EM making "update" on Friday in Twitter

[next sierra]

HPUs

[vagrant moat]

Fair

[pulsar pollen]

funni Reddit meme

[sharp flower]

Haha

[hollow knot]

Lol

[shell python]

unprecedented my ass

[timber relic]

https://tenor.com/view/headache-stressed-gif-19608889

Jerks like that give me headaches

[rich blade]

[next sierra]

I can't even

[shell python]

can we please get stupid ass politics out of space 😭😭

bad people stop going into my niche!!

[rich blade]

THIS

[shell python]

leftists and conservatives who know nothing abt space but use it as some dunk or something annoy the shit out of me

like how abt just don’t pretend you know about stuff when you don’t??

[rich blade]

i always tell my friend something cool that has happened in space and then he somehow gets politics involved in the conversation and im like bruh, its actually so annoying

[keen plover]

I have friends like that and I feel the pain

[shell python]

there are plenty of things to dunk elon on but for whatever reason whenever a development flight fails that’s what they go for, not him being a horrible person???

[next sierra]

"no flag of blue origin on moon pls"

[keen plover]

his first comment about the starship IFT he was like "Oh is that the SpaceX rocket or a NASA rocket?"

[rich blade]

💀

[shell python]

take away government funding for spacex and give it back to NASA

[next sierra]

We have real issues here on earth

[rich blade]

no

stop

[next sierra]

[rich blade]

the amount of times ive heard that

[next sierra]

We're all scarred by it

[rich blade]

it gets on my nerves

[keen plover]

ah yes the real issues of funding the MIC

[next sierra]

I just send them this video and call it a day nowadays
https://youtu.be/lARpY0nIQx0

[rich blade]

worst part is when people say space is useless

[umbral karma]

Cool, cut the public funding then. SpaceX was gonna make Starship anyway

[shell python]

people don’t understand what a NASA contract is

[next sierra]

Stop subsidizing these billionaires so they can go for joyrides in their dick rockets

[rich blade]

beff jezos

[keen plover]

jiff nesos

[shell python]

america has lost its edge in space

[next sierra]

China and Russia are both beating us in hypersonics

||Just ignore the giant crewed hypersonics we flew 40 years ago over a hundred times (and only killed 18 people with them)||

[rich blade]

only

[keen plover]

18?

[rich blade]

how many deaths were there in space?

[shell python]

3 iirc

[next sierra]

9 to Colombia (STS-1, STS-107), 7 to Challenger (STS-51L), 2 from the PEPCON disaster

[rich blade]

cuz all the known ones have been in flight but not in space, i think there was a soyuz mission

where the crew died in space

[shell python]

yeah soyuz 11 i think

[rich blade]

thats the one

[next sierra]

Technically 19 if you want to count the guy who threw himself off the MSS in the runup to STS-134

But 18 directly attributable to Shuttle

[shell python]

that’s not in space though

[next sierra]

[keen plover]

Oh you are counting deaths of employees involved as well?

fair

but I guess thats kinda not how its usually counted

[shell python]

challenger, columbia, STS-1 incident, what were the other two?

[next sierra]

PEPCON disaster, a solid fuel factory was storing so much extra prop everywhere due to 51L that uhhh things didn't go to plan one day

https://youtu.be/pa8G51GuE0Q

[shell python]

yikes

[modest heron]

At this point you should also count all NASA employees that died during STS life to get an ever more biased point

Oh and add to that every single death WWII caused because STS wouldn't be a thing without V2

[shell python]

challenger/columbia and the STS-1 stuff is attributable but the pepcon stuff is a stretch

[modest heron]

So 17 deaths directly attributable to the STS program

Including 3 not by the vehicle itself

[next sierra]

14 by inflight failures + 2 by ground system failures + 2 from PEPCON + 1 from suicide due to the program ending

[shell python]

the nitrogen purge thing wasn’t a gse failure it was just a lack of safety procedure

[modest heron]

STS-1 pre-launch accident killed 3 people, and was due to a lack of safety procedures

PEPCON is an industrial accident, the fact they manufactured solids for the government isn't really relevant

Are you seriously using the mental health of an employee to prove your point ? That's disgusting & irrelevant.

[hollow knot]

There's no way this is true?

Is that even a reliable source?

Im nog gonna go into politics and not do I support Trump or Biden but I will say If this is true what they are saying I would say trump wouldn't do that

[next sierra]

I thought it was only two, I stand corrected

The industrial accident would have not have happened without the grounding of Shuttle -> unsafe storage conditions

This one is iffy but I still do count it

[shell python]

every program gets grounded after a boom

this isn’t political

it’s normal procedure but they’re taking advantage of the fact that the general public doesn’t know that

[modest heron]

The industrial accident wasn't caused by the storage conditions themselves (which were the same conditions already applied to solids before they got shipped anyway)

And why the fuck are you using someone's suicide to prove your point, it's utterly disgusting, even by your standards

[next sierra]

I'm not really trying to prove anything tbh, started with a joke

[pulsar pollen]

this tweet stinks of brain-rot

[modest heron]

Smells MAGA in bio

[umbral karma]

I'm so sick of politics in general now

[vagrant moat]

That's because it's an extremely misleading clickbait Tweet from a weirdo right-winger who doesn't actually know anything about the FAA

[umbral karma]

There is no way to escape it

[vagrant moat]

Yeah it really does fucking suck that we live in a social climate where literally every possible issue has been forced into a partisan divide, including completely basic normal parts of life

[umbral karma]

exactly

its toxic

[next sierra]

It's utterly exhausting yeah

[pulsar pollen]

It's hella annoying

"I love airplanes, they're so cool and majestic."
'Oh, so you don't care about the carbon emissions then, hm? You one of those climate change deniers?'

"I love space travel."
'What about my tax dollars, hm? If my guy was in charge that stuff would be in the trash.'

[vagrant moat]

I mean yeah

It is fucking annoying

It's really, really fucking annoying

[modest heron]

Poor annoying

[vagrant moat]

Especially when, to be frank, you're part of a community whose basic existence is enough to start a yelling match in a large portion of the state you live in

[umbral karma]

yeah...

Thats just infuriating

[pulsar pollen]

The Bible belt is fun like that

[hollow knot]

So that means Terran 1 although cancelled got grounded? And Astra after 1st orbital attempt got grounded too?

[vagrant moat]

Yes

[hollow knot]

Oh

[vagrant moat]

NASA entirely revoked the TROPICS launch contract from Astra after that failure too

[modest heron]

TIL a book needs a belt

[hollow knot]

Gave it to rocket lab instead yep

[vagrant moat]

And there's also the fact that Starship is way, way bigger than most launch vehicles, and its launch site is directly east of a major urban port and directly next door to a nature reserve, and the fact that concrete dust sprinkled all the way onto neighboring towns, and other factors which mean Starship has a way larger potential civil and environmental impact than most rockets and so will probably need a somewhat longer review process to get through all the standard regulations

You can argue that the FAA is slow just by virtue of being a federal government agency which is required to go through a lot more hoops than the private company it's investigating, but the idea that it's trying to be slow for political reasons is downright conspiratorial

For a number of reasons, not least of which is the simple question of "why would the Biden administration intentionally ground development of the rocket which is required for its own lunar program to function"

[rich blade]

so is there an investigation going on about the SFT mishap

[timber relic]

Yes

[shell python]

pretty sure that was due to astra cancelling rocket 3 without telling nasa first

[hollow plaza]

Basically every orbital flight failure from the US or involving US companies will have an FAA investigation

[rich blade]

yeah i was just making sure

[west umbra]

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1650957927950475264

SpaceX (@SpaceX)

The world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed

Likes

856

Retweets

127

Twitter · Apr 25, 2023, 8:20 PM

[rich blade]

ok wow

[brittle spire]

That might be the coolest to date

[next sierra]

Nah, the supercluster one takes the cake

Wait nvm it was space scout

I can't keep track of everyone

https://twitter.com/DavidJDPhotos/status/1649869628896604160

David D. (@DavidJDPhotos)

A window into the mouth of hell.

📸: Me for @WeAreSpaceScout

Likes

6683

Retweets

772

Twitter · Apr 22, 2023, 8:15 PM

[timber relic]

Rare Space Scout W

[shell python]

that was a spacescout one

[next sierra]

Yep

[brittle spire]

No plume tho

[white oyster]

So i saw they fjnally brought the chopsticks down and are on the pickers to work on the olm again, anyone heard or see any work on the... crater?

[shell python]

https://twitter.com/OpenSpaceFound2/status/1650716523483348992?s=20

Open Space Foundation (@OpenSpaceFound2)

Candlelight tribute to Starship

Likes

171

Twitter · Apr 25, 2023, 4:21 AM

that’s actually kinda cool

i need to get me some of those for next flight so i can snuff them out as each engine dies

[keen plover]

its not a crater silly, its the new flame trench

[white oyster]

The patterns incorrect

[plain sentinel]

The outer ring isn’t a perfect circle and it’s bothering me

[brittle spire]

Live candle engine status tracker

[past robin]

Wen

[white oyster]

Oh sorry that is correct, i thought there was 2 singles but its actuall 1 single i was thinking when the 6th flickered off

[fast terrace]

"I love trains"
"Wth stop trying to convert the US into communist Europe"

[pulsar pollen]

😭

[loud spire]

real

[thick sphinx]

People forget the US was literally built on trains

Like without them the country would be irrelevant

And still the few shorter-haul passenger lines in the US see very good use and end up seriously helping the towns along their routes

See the success story of the Northeast Extension, which I grew up near

It's just crazy to me that people dismiss trains as Un-American nowadays

[loud spire]

[whole moat]

the transcontinental railroad sure as heck wasn’t a step back

[loud spire]

People here actually dislike trains quite a few in my experience witch I assume is that there only interaction with them is beeing stuck at crossings

[timber relic]

America be like

develops the most complex and successful rail systems in the world
abandons a major part of it and the rest is used for cargo
moves most human transportation to slower, less efficient transport systems
refuses to elaborate

[thick sphinx]

(it was because of auto lobbyists and cold war politics, largely)

[loud spire]

TIIICBWGTSTIOLT

[thick sphinx]

I took an elective my freshman year of college that covered the massive shift the US went through during the cold war, particularly the beginning phases. We quite literally became a different country and it's actually insane.

Like not just culture and ideology, but city planning and infrastructure and everything

Trains included, sadly

[loud spire]

peoples reasons againts rail tranasport are dumb and wrong and their reasons cars are better are dumb and wrong most of the ones ive heeard

[loud spire]

also they belive trains are really slow well because they are here and amtrak takes ages cuz lack priority

[thick sphinx]

Cars are important for people who live and/or work in very rural areas that don't make sense to run public transport out to. But the fact that there are US cities with millions of people and almost non-existent public transport is just fucking insane

[loud spire]

i live in the largest city in the usa with no rail transport

[thick sphinx]

LA?

[loud spire]

wait no

[thick sphinx]

You don't need to dox yourself I'm just curious

[loud spire]

i thought it was the last time i checked

[loud spire]

san anotnio

[thick sphinx]

Yea that checks lol

Texas cities don't have shit

[loud spire]

last i checked it says it was the largest

weird

[thick sphinx]

I believe you

[loud spire]

ewell its one of the largest

[whole hawk]

LOOL

[whole moat]

yea

:boostbackburn:

[woven moat]

FAA wants to ground starship

Wtf

What are they thinking

Spacex is literally the only way to get Americans interplanetary quick and cheap

[timber relic]

...

[uncut mist]

[oak sable]

https://tenor.com/view/dies-from-cringe-meme-cringe-imagine-gif-23477312

[proven field]

[oak sable]

If FAA wanted to groud Starship, they could do it years ago

[modest heron]

You forgot to turn on your brain when getting up

[oak sable]

Just like ppl saying NASA delayed Starahip (meanwhile literally following the progress as one of customer)

[brittle spire]

literally every vehicle administered by FAA gets grounded after it had generally almost what kind of incident whatsoever
while the FAA and the operator together perform a proper investigation into what went wrong and make the needed adjustments
literally anyone after Starship went boom knew that the FAA was going to launch an investigation which includes temporarily during that investigation grounding Starship
it's the only prudent thing to do

[uncut mist]

Brain has finally entered the chat

[pulsar pollen]

Don’t have to kill the poor guy he probably didn’t know lol

[next sierra]

What brain

[hollow plaza]

Who's Brian?

[inner nacelle]

bro was not joking ☹️

[modest heron]

The guy in the kitchen

[loud spire]

Probably watched a game over Elon musk video or something

[loud spire]

But yeah

[inner nacelle]

very unfortunate

[hollow plaza]

I am in the kitchen

Making lemonade

[modest heron]

Is it KFC lemonade

[loud spire]

Stephanie

[hollow plaza]

Chick fil a

Which is 1000000× better

[loud spire]

Oh my name still has Christmas

[timber relic]

Yay homophobic chicken

[modest heron]

yes

[next sierra]

People who do this drive me crazy

ahem

[loud spire]

I keep forgetting to change it

[hollow plaza]

cough @undone gull cough

[next sierra]

He's never gonna change it at this point

[hollow plaza]

Lol

[next sierra]

Thankfully I have local nicknames set so I don't have to deal with all the stupid nicknames getting changed every week

[pulsar pollen]

Alright I’m changing my nickname to annoy Miranda eternally

Well shit nvm

[hollow plaza]

lol

[loud spire]

Stock discord should have that

[loud spire]

WHY IS CAPITAL E

[undone gull]

https://tenor.com/view/hello-there-hi-there-greetings-gif-9442662

[next sierra]

Okay

[loud spire]

Ahhhh

[loud spire]

Oh I almost forgot to change it again

[modest heron]

But you changed yours to Miranda

[proven flame]

We are all Miranda

[pulsar pollen]

Steve Harvey hates Miranda

..the moon

[pulsar pollen]

Am I the only one who remembers Steve bullying NDT about Miranda Tyson? Or?

Probably one of my fav bits in the entire show

[hollow knot]

As expected for every rocket that experiences a failure and does not need to be blown out of proportion (for the most part since it is starship aka dust storm Creator)

[umbral karma]

It’s going to be out of operation for months anyway

[hollow knot]

No

You exaggerate

OFT #2 next week

And then star link missions every 48 hours afterwards

[timber relic]

ESG Hound is already coping with the FWS initial study that no animal was killed and that all they saw was the concrete thrown around, the dust cloud, and a small fire near the pad - which was like 20 times smaller than other fires produced by way less energetic events such as Ship 24's six engine static fire

[surreal scaffold]

thats good

[umbral karma]

Very good

[hollow knot]

Awesome

[vagrant moat]

That's cool

[hollow plaza]

Lol

[mystic pilot]

great

[thick sphinx]

great

[ionic grail]

great

[whole hawk]

https://twitter.com/cnsawatcher/status/1651451872966762497

CNSA Watcher (@CNSAWatcher)

😮CNSA/CASC published a preliminary analysis paper on the first flight failure of SpaceX Starship/Super Heavy. It mentioned that the take-off drift around the launch pad might have been actively controlled for safety of the tower. Source: https://t.co/M5WXIJ904w

Twitter · Apr 27, 2023, 5:03 AM

SpaceX Report: Naaaah

CASC Report: Yeah

[river raven]

Lite Astra manuever

when prograde and AoA don't match at liftoff

[rich blade]

1 week since SFT

[past robin]

false

not yet

[past robin]

CASC??? why lmao

[proven field]

I mean, they are the ones who have the most concrete plans of following full rocket usability AND doing that at Starship's scale

[past robin]

true

[proven field]

There aren't a lot globally either. Blue Origin seems to wanna tackle it but they haven't done much outside of a prototype tank for the 2nd stage; Relativity Space has put 2nd stage reusability on back-burner; Rocket Lab isn't committed on recovering 2nd stage for Neutron and Firefly is still talking about 1st stage reuse as a medium term target
ULA/Arianespace/the Japanese:
Indians/Russians etc. falls into the "lack of enough skill to pull that off in near future" category
Which leaves the Chinese

Well, Stoke Space if they can survive the next few years, but they are still very far from making a real orbital LV

[whole moat]

would be really nice if SpaceX would publish a report on it eventually

well anyway I’m gonna be reading through machine translated Chinese to English for the next half hour so that’s fun

[brittle spire]

with FAA we probably will get something

[proven field]

Let's see if Elon says anything in particular on his private Twitter Space thingy on Friday

[whole moat]

(they don’t know)

[whole moat]

I’ll definitely look to see if anyone reports anything of note from that but “Elon musk talking to his twitter simps” wasn’t really what I had in mind when I said “spacex report”

[brittle spire]

what even are the official numbers on Raptor nowadays?

[whole moat]

We only have thrust, 230 tonnes-force for SL engines at sea level, 258 tonnes-force for vacuum engines in vacuum. As much as I hate using musk as a source, he’s the only one who said they widened the throat and took some specific impulse hit for thrust, so if you’re willing to believe that, the sea level engine gets less than 330 s.

They could have shrunk the throat again for the vacuum one but if they didn’t it’s got Isp < 370 s accordingly.

They figure booster dry mass of ~250 t and ship ~125, though I think they’re also just taking musk’s word on those rather than running numbers for what it would have to be

Here they reverse engineer the trajectory and say “yeah that makes sense”

Tables didn’t get translated by my browser 😭

They do indeed think the tilting on liftoff was an intentional tower avoidance manuever.
They also think there’s a LOX leak due to the displayed propellant levels.
The telemetry for engine out is inaccurate, no surprise there.
They find a liftoff TWR of 1.23, and find a slight thrust decrease at 32 seconds and a major one at 47 seconds. They had to reduce effective throttle of the operating engines from 90% to 71.6% to explain the trajectory from 47-78 seconds, then throttle back up to 90% from there.

[past robin]

wait I just realised that the vacuum nozzle is fixed

how do they rotate the vehicle

[whole moat]

They believe this was a preprogrammed throttle down, I’m guessing for max-q, and that there was no closed-loop guidance during that phase to tell it it didn’t need to.

[whole moat]

By using the sea level engines or RCS.

[past robin]

ah

[whole moat]

The stack loses control at about 129 seconds, but they think that at the time (or slightly earlier, 80-90s) the required gimbal deflection due to engine failures was only about 1 degree, well within the range of nominal controllability.

Two possible reasons for it to lose control are:

1. Partial or total gimbal failure
2. other forces on the stack - they say as the result of hardware failure or another kind resulting in a reaction force, rather than aerodynamic considerations.

The force, heat, and noise generated by the lack of a flame diverter and water suppression system are suspected to cause the damage necessary for the failures seen.

Also, this re: why the stages didn’t separate.

[modest heron]

Yeah sure

420 absolutely is linkable to H2G2

[brittle spire]

TBH I'm convinced that 4/20 launch still is the greatest coincidence, but just that

[brittle spire]

I think with the weird spin seperation, loss of altitude and higher resistances at the lower then planned altittude will have only made this all worse

IDK if this gets mentioned?

[whole moat]

I’m a general sense: the failure of the engines indirectly led to that, which seem to be the conditions violated that they thought should be met for stage sep.

[umbral karma]

ITS A CONSPIRACY

https://tenor.com/view/you-see-it-is-part-plan-explain-gif-20448886

[next marsh]

Do you guys think the Starship release did not work or that they or the software decided not to attempt an release because the Raptors didn't shut down, so they didn't want to do an 'unsafe' release?

[thick sphinx]

Ship clearly tried to release

Interstage appeared to collapse due to a pressure issue during ascent which is probably why it didnt separate

[white oyster]

"no animal was killed" hmm i thought i saw some bird-like object being flung out, but i guess it could be rebar in a "T"/cross" shape? as it was hard to tell with the camera?

i think they should have setup something like a gunshot thing to scare off the birds before launch though, like how farmers do for crows

[inner nacelle]

the camera directly below the raptors definitely got reduced to dust though

[white oyster]

they need to get a high speed camera below the engines at like 1,000,000FPS

you know... for science 😛

[timber relic]

I do not think stage separation was attempted at all

Too early, too slow, and too low

The thing just slid off to the side because it was failing

[white oyster]

they did anounce stage sep, but that could have been script or something, it doesnt nessecarrily mean they actually initiated it

[timber relic]

I mean I think I've talked about it here but the moment the rocket started deviating was at around T+2:09, that's like 40 seconds earlier than it should have for stage separation

And even if it weren't time-based, then it's worse cause if it were based on altitude and speed, it would have likely take past T+3 minutes to achieve the intended altitude and speed given that it had already lost several engines

[white oyster]

want it drifting sideways on launch though?

[undone gull]

from all angles i saw it did not look like that

[white oyster]

or would that to try and get it as far away from stage0 just in case of ANY RUD?

[timber relic]

Oh and also it can't be seen good from ground based cameras but the onboard cameras were showing the rocket to be yawing right rather than doing a pitch which is what we would expect it to do for stage sep

This is why the ground track ended up going literally south towards Mexican waters

This view in particular shows it

And then a few seconds later

Parallel to the coast

It was doing loops in the horizontal not vertical

And then started doing loopy loops in vertical as it lost altitude

[white oyster]

to be honest, that was still cool to see, aswell as how well built the thing is to withstand those stresses

[whole hawk]

https://youtu.be/NCYSVmSPM7E

[rich blade]

lol

[umbral karma]

Bigger lol

[timber relic]

Have you seen the piece of camera flying?

[rich blade]

the sound is absolutely stunning

ofc the video as well

[loud spire]

They got the sound of the explosion!!

Unless they added that

But I was wondering if it could be heard from the ground

Everyone was to busy screaming in any video for me to tell

Understandably though

[whole moat]

probably a tower avoidance thing imo, though I think it likely wasn’t meant to drift quite as much as it ended up doing

[obsidian spoke]

https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1651638991853088768?s=20

Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust)

Nelson says SpaceX has told NASA that it can repair the pad and prepare the next Starship in about 2 months. Last week’s failure is “not a big downer”.

Twitter · Apr 27, 2023, 5:26 PM

[rich blade]

cool

I'll believe it when I see it

[loud spire]

Minor setback

[thick sphinx]

I mean it's been pretty overblown and everything SpX has shown in the past says they have that capability to rapidly iterate

I'd expect 2-4 months is realistic

we forget ab this track record quickly since the program has been so bogged down with regulatory problems, but that's just a recency bias

[shell python]

eh

not really

spacex just plays chicken with regulator schedules so they can blame it on the FAA instead of elon admitting they’re not actually ready to launch MK1 to orbit

[proven field]

I just completed translating the Chinese official analysis article (except for the long video observation table, maybe soon):
https://twitter.com/Cosmic_Penguin/status/1651650185616068608

Cosmic Penguin (@Cosmic_Penguin)

So here's the summary of the article:

First part is a basic description of Starship/Superheavy & I don't see much that deviates from what we know.

They did give some figures in the flight profile that seems to be their estimates:

Twitter · Apr 27, 2023, 6:11 PM

The best part:
https://twitter.com/Cosmic_Penguin/status/1651667007392325632
https://twitter.com/Cosmic_Penguin/status/1651667632423325696

Cosmic Penguin (@Cosmic_Penguin)

Then (cough): "According to the web, "420" has special meanings to @elonmusk - in his favorite The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 42 is The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Musk also tends to link his activities to the no. "420", e.g. ...

Twitter · Apr 27, 2023, 7:17 PM

Cosmic Penguin (@Cosmic_Penguin)

...in 2018 Musk had suggested privatizing @Tesla at $420 per share. Given Elon Musk's absolute power (cough) in SpaceX, the chance that launching on 4/20 being Musk's own hopes cannot be rejected."

Twitter · Apr 27, 2023, 7:20 PM

[pulsar pollen]

I love profession analysis of memes so much

I still remember when a local news channel called Pepe "a creature that appears to be the Grinch wearing a hoodie"

[undone gull]

One thing the Chinese get wrong is super heavy doesn’t do an entry burn

[proven field]

I used the wrong term while translating, I meant “boostback burn”

[undone gull]

[proven field]

Shouldn’t have translate this at 2 am here…

[whole moat]

was “overweight” a literal translation or just a mistake made by the machine translator I was using

[proven field]

I mean “superheavy” is a metaphor of “overweight” even in English…they certainly are translated the same way in Chinese.

[next sierra]

Can't wait for Dummy-Thicccc Booster

[hollow knot]

https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1651638991853088768

Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust)

Nelson says SpaceX has told NASA that it can repair the pad and prepare the next Starship in about 2 months. Last week’s failure is “not a big downer”.

Likes

588

Twitter · Apr 27, 2023, 5:26 PM

Lmao

[whole moat]

I wonder if he’s just putting on a brave face or if he’s really that gullible

[pulsar pollen]

dunno

Elon said six, and that alone is pretty optimistic
so two months seems almost fanciful

[vagrant moat]

Probably the former, considering that he has a vested interest in Artemis III's fantasy timeline staying near 2025 for the time being

[hollow plaza]

This could be from wind, also could be from engines compensating for asymmetric thrust

Imo this is the likely explanation because the engines that failed were all on the same half of the rocket if that makes sense

[river raven]

Bagdad Beach, Matamoros

[brittle spire]

Now hear me out
What if we didn't endlessly speculate how long or short it's going to take
But in stead we wait a few weeks until repairs proper start and we see what pace they're working at and how it's going

[past robin]

yeah I thought it skidded bc of the asymettrical thrust

[brittle spire]

I think it's a normal pad avoidance manoeuvre slightly pushed to extreme because engine out manoeuvre

[hollow plaza]

Also plausible

didn't really do much though

[hollow knot]

I mean the tower istelf remains intact

The chopsticks work

[hollow plaza]

Yet the pad was obliterated

[brittle spire]

The main problem was it sitting there for 8 seconds, engines ramping up, digging a hole in the least of efficiënt way possible

[hollow knot]

Well yeah the pad is rather destroyed

[hollow plaza]

I'm really surprised they don't have a more sophisticated deluge system

It's just like yea throw some water under there it'll be alright

[brittle spire]

No that doesn't work

[hollow plaza]

vs SLS which throws a small lake's worth of water onto the pad

[brittle spire]

The needed infrastructure for that is giant

[hollow plaza]

Not really

Just a water tower

[brittle spire]

Because you need to be able to handle the water at max flow just before launch

And you need all the flow to hage any effect at all

[hollow plaza]

You just need it for 20 seconds

[brittle spire]

Also how are you dealing with the vapor? Does that cause issues?

[brittle spire]

Remember that it's still 2x the thrust of SLS at peak

And I'm not a rocket scientist in know the difference in effect between this liquid engine Methalox exhaust Vs SRBs in terms of damage and the like

You have around 9x the thrust of the SLS core stage

[hollow plaza]

Agaik deluge is more for vibration/sound absorption

Thrust wouldnt be a factor if they HAD A DAMN FLAMD DIVERTER

[brittle spire]

Yeah so it wouldn't help much

[brittle spire]

So what happened is they looked at the 33 engine SF (And FAA agreed with this assessment) and extrapolated that to how much damage a launch would cause
And presumed that
Time to launch + repairs < time to finish the flame diverter
So it was worth it

Just 1. I think people may be overexaggerating the damage a little bit 2. Of course damage was way worse then expecy

[hollow plaza]

damage was worse than expected

You can say that again

In other news, spacex now holds the record for the fastest time to dig a swimming pool

[brittle spire]

Want a swimming pool? SpaceX Superheavy system is able to quickly dig yours in only 8 seconds

[marble parrot]

https://tenor.com/view/skull-explode-gif-25528415

[marble parrot]

They are not exaggerating. I mean if it werent for the debree it would be fine but nah, it wasnt the hole they dug or the pad they destroyed that was bad damage, the aftermath that was left becuausse of the debree that was flung around is crazy

Spacex are prolly in a LOT of trouble becuause of the damage the debree has caused

[brittle spire]

Well we don't know

The debris certainly are bad

And certainly will cause some talking over

But how much it'll impact? No clue

[marble parrot]

Dayum

i feel like elon might weave his way around trouble ngl

Hes experienced enough trouble to know how to deal with it or get out with it

[undone gull]

Not from what information is public, it really seems like as long as this didn’t impact the wildlife itself which so far that looks promising, then everything will be ok

[raven scroll]

Another addition to "How to dig a hole" in How To by Randall Munroe

They've already got the start of a flame trench now

Shame they blew up their drill

[whole hawk]

https://live.staticflickr.com/video/52850772161/efb5576f95/1080p.mp4?s=eyJpIjo1Mjg1MDc3MjE2MSwiZSI6MTY4MjY3MDM3NCwicyI6IjFjODdlOTk4YzExYzFiMGRkZDI5NjE3NjQ1M2NmNTYyMjg0YThiNjIiLCJ2IjoxfQ

[next sierra]

Hehe

Steel it

https://vxtwitter.com/CSI_Starbase/status/1651970303768121346

[umbral karma]

what the hell

I have never seen anything like that before

[undone gull]

Held up pretty well, got popped off cleanly

[fluid bobcat]

serious question, is it against the law to take stuff like that?

[undone gull]

No technically

[loud spire]

Wen Flickr photos

I want starship launched backgrounds. They have some on Instagram but you know Instagram awful comprehension

[rich blade]

yes we need the starship images on Flickr

[loud spire]

I also want the internal coms

Probably not though but

Like you know In the sn5 video

They had like raptor callouts and sy

[oak sable]

so

did daddy elon drop updates last friday?

or he forgor 💀

[umbral karma]

how about you never say that again

[oak sable]

[hollow knot]

[proven field]

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652354292932648961?s=20

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

As for further updates, Elon Musk plans to have a Twitter Spaces discussion about Starship at 7 p.m. ET tonight.
https://t.co/auHXGfzNrc

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 4:48 PM

[pulsar pollen]

wtf is Twitter Spaces

[sharp flower]

Identical to discord stages

But on twitter

[whole hawk]

Club House on Twitter

[surreal scaffold]

its gonna be interesting

[oak sable]

SpaceX but w/o X

[sharp flower]

And add s

[fluid bobcat]

subscribers only again

for sure

[whole moat]

hope he doesn’t think that’s an ok substitute for publicly posted investigation results

[west umbra]

?????
https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652452520046780416

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "I'm glad to report that the pad damage is actually quite small" and should "be repaired quickly."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:19 PM

I'll send the whole thread

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652452379889893376
https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652452520046780416
https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652452734983962624
https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652453031466655744

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "The outcome was roughly in what I expected, and maybe slightly exceeding my expectations, but roughly what I expected, which is that we would get clear of the pad."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:18 PM

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "I'm glad to report that the pad damage is actually quite small" and should "be repaired quickly."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:19 PM

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "The vehicle's structural margins appear to be better than we expected, as we can tell from the vehicle actually doing somersaults towards the end and still staying intact."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:20 PM

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: From a "pad standpoint, we are probably ready to launch in 6 to 8 weeks.'

"The longest item on that is probably requalification of the flight termination system ... it took way too long to rupture the tanks."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:21 PM

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652453358689558528

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: Time for AFTS to kick in "was pretty long," about "40 seconds-ish."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:22 PM

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652453622850961411

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "There were 3 engines that we chose not to start," so that's why Super Heavy booster lifted off with 30 engines, "which is the minimum number of engines."

The 3 engines "didn't explode," but just were not "healthy enough to bring them to full thrust so they were shut down"

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:23 PM

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652453941433466880

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: At T+27 seconds, SpaceX lost communications due to "some kind of energy event." And "some kind of explosion happened to knock out the heat shields of engines 17, 18, 19, or 20."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:24 PM

[west umbra]

This one is interesting, guess Scott Manley's theory is disproved

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652454279188295680

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "Rocket kept going through T+62 seconds" with the engines continuing to run. Lost thrust vector control at T+85 seconds.

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:26 PM

Hmm, interesting
https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652454636991791104

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: Generated a "rock tornado" under Super Heavy during liftoff, but SpaceX does not "see evidence that the rock tornado actually damaged engines or heat shields in a material way." May have happened, but "we have not seen evidence of that."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:27 PM

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652454993432133633

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "It was actually good to get this vehicle off the ground because we've made so many improvements" in Super Heavy Booster 9 "and beyond."

"Really just needed to fly this vehicle and then move on to the much improved booster."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:29 PM

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652455342968643586

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: After AFTS, "the ship did not attempt to save itself."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:30 PM

https://twitter.com/Alexphysics13/status/1652455265038368768

Alejandro Alcantarilla Romera (Alex) (@Alexphysics13)

I'm never complaining again about NASA's press conferences

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:30 PM

[past robin]

wha

I do not get it

[sharp flower]

Way to think optimistically

[west umbra]

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652455644715274240

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: Big thing for next Starship launch is "insuring that we don't lose thrust vector control" with Booster 9."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:31 PM

[past robin]

big thing is making sure you don't cause an ecological disaster

[modest heron]

[west umbra]

Yeah

A bit telling that he hasn't even mentioned that yet beyond the rock tornado comment

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652456006302023682

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "We're going to putting down a lot of steel" under the launch tower before the next Starship flight.

"Debris was really just basically sand and rock so it's not toxic at all ... it's just like a sandstorm, essentially ... but we don't want to do that again."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:33 PM

[past robin]

god I love inhaling concrete dust I love damaging my lungs

[past robin]

awesome! molten steel rain!

[modest heron]

[west umbra]

Acoustics under that launch mount are going to be a nightmare

[past robin]

they're going to shred the vehicle lol

[west umbra]

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652456437472280577

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "We certainly didn't expect" to destroy the concrete under the launchpad.

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:34 PM

[modest heron]

"Debris was really just basically rock and steel so it's not toxic at all ... it's just like a volcano essentially"

[past robin]

and he's saying that like that's a normal and acceptable thing

for fucking texas

[west umbra]

https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1652456522482319368

Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589)

OK that's a more reasonable comment. Although saying that sand and rock is not toxic is pretty misleading - lots of opportunity for things like respiratory issues.

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:35 PM

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652456687922475010

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: Speculating, but "one of the more plausible explanations is that ... we may have compressed the sand underneath the concrete to such a degree that the concrete effectively bent and then cracked," which is "a leading theory."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:35 PM

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652457283727634433

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: Reason for going with a steel plate instead of a flame trench is that for payloads in the rocket, the worse acoustic environment doesn't matter to the payload since it's about 400 feet away.

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:38 PM

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652457599403524098

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: Flight was "pretty close to what I expected."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:39 PM

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652457822347579392

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "Got pretty close to stage separation ... if we had maintained thrust vector control and throttled up, which we should have ... then we would have made it to staging."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:40 PM

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652457977767403520

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "Our goal for the next flight is to make it to staging and hopefully succeed."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:40 PM

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652458408497360897

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "My expectation for the next flight would be to reach orbit." Next flight profile will be a "repeat."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:42 PM

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652458650647113729

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "The goal of these missions is just information. Like, we don't have any payload or anything -- it's just to learning as much as possible."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:43 PM

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652460130175184899

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "Definitely don't" expect lunar Starship (under the HLS project) to be the longest lead item for the Artemis III mission.

"We will be the first thing to really be" ready.

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:49 PM

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652460300577251330

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: Probably an 80% probability of reaching orbit with Starship this year, and "I think close to 100% change of reaching orbit within 12 months."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:50 PM

[whole hawk]

Bruh

[west umbra]

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652460413722804226

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: Slowed down Raptor engine production "because we've got more Raptors than we know what to do with."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:50 PM

Interesting

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652460523214995457

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: Expect to spend ~$2 billion this year on Starship.

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:51 PM

[thick sphinx]

This one I believe lol

[umbral karma]

Good opportunity to make more raptor powered rockets

[thick sphinx]

Yea just donate raptors to everyone else 🤭

[umbral karma]

Imagine a smaller rocket with 4x raptors

And two F9 side boosters

[west umbra]

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652460864186769409

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "We do not anticipate needing to raise funding ... we don't think we need to raise funding." Will do the "standard thing where we provide liquidity to employees."

"But to my knowledge we do not need to raise incremental funding for SpaceX."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:52 PM

[umbral karma]

Like 20-30% more capability than FH

[ebon stratus]

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652460523214995457

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: Expect to spend ~$2 billion this year on Starship.

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:51 PM

Catching up to the annual cost of SLS

[west umbra]

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652461180554735618

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: For the next flight, "we're going to start the engines faster and get off the pad faster." From engine start to moving Starship "was around 5 seconds, which is a really long time to be blasting the pad." Going to try to cut that time in half.

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:53 PM

Weren't they going for 8 seconds this time?

[vagrant moat]

So how's it going?

[ebon stratus]

6 seconds

[ebon stratus]

Apparently they lost communications with Starship at T+27 seconds

And the AFTS didn’t work properly

[umbral karma]

lol

That would actually be impressive

[west umbra]

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652461867414044673

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: Starship didn't get to what SpaceX thought was "a safe point to do stage separation."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:56 PM

[umbral karma]

It got really far if they had no comms

[ebon stratus]

Yeah it was flying pretty far sending not much data feeds back it seems

it seems some data feeds worked some didn’t

oh and Elon claiming Starship will be the first thing ready for Artemis III 💀

[zealous crystal]

https://twitter.com/DerekdotSpace/status/1652457927888732162

Derek Newsome (@DerekdotSpace)

I was hesitant to call Starship IFT a failure but after what’s being said right now?

7+/33 engines failed
Loss of comms at T+27
Loss of TVC at T+82
FTS failed to destroy vehicle in timely manner

Yeah no that was bad. Like really bad.

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:40 PM

damn that's like, really bad

[west umbra]

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652462628164321281

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "I thought the SpaceX team did amazing work."

"This is certainly a candidate for the hardest technical problem done by humans."

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 11:59 PM

[timber relic]

Wait loss of comms?

[ebon stratus]

yeah

[thick sphinx]

SLS that's already basically ready:

[timber relic]

How could the vehicles transmit telemetry then?

[umbral karma]

The SH lore keeps getting more and more impressive tbh. The sucker decimates the pad and loses multiple engines, loses comms, continues to lose engines and then does multiple flips at mach 2 without breaking up

[ebon stratus]

from what i've been theorizing, some feeds worked, some didn't

[timber relic]

I haven't seen a single report from the spaces saying he said loss of comms

[west umbra]

@timber relic

[timber relic]

But that's why I fricking hate this shit

[pallid solar]

maybe it was transmitting not recieving?

[thick sphinx]

^^^

[timber relic]

Starship doesn't need to recieve anything

[west umbra]

Single worst method of conveying information

[timber relic]

In fact their FCC permit is for downlink not uplink

[thick sphinx]

Fair enough

So then I'm confused lol

[ebon stratus]

maybe it communications with the booster stopped?

[west umbra]

...
https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652463256798208000

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk, on environmental response: "The rocket uses non-toxic propellants and ... scattered a lot of dust, but to the best of our knowledge there has not been any meaningful damage to the environment that we're aware of."

Twitter · Apr 30, 2023, 12:01 AM

[ebon stratus]

Starship could've been still transmitting the telemetry since I'd assume they both share data

[timber relic]

Falcon 9 is pretty much the same, only difference is the booster is sent a signal for safing and that's it. So the FCC permit says that there's at least one moment for uplink after landing

My take is that the comment was about a short loss of comms but then came back

I think you could see it on the telemetry at one point, let me look it up

[west umbra]

Yeah, that's the only possibility that makes sense.

[timber relic]

Oh yeah

[ebon stratus]

yeah seems like it

[timber relic]

When the engine explodes, the telemetry stops and then resumes

So that's what he's referring to most likely

[ebon stratus]

yeah

[timber relic]

There's another stop on the telemetry when another engine is lost a bit later

[ebon stratus]

for the AFTS system I'm surprised they only went with a hole puncher method

will probably have change it to unzip

[umbral karma]

It seemed to be very delayed

You can kinda see prop coming out well before it explodes

[west umbra]

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652464366497800192

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: SpaceX has yet to make a final decision on which Starship prototype and Super Heavy booster will fly the next launch.

Twitter · Apr 30, 2023, 12:06 AM

[vagrant moat]

Well the good news is that it seems like Elon is back to his normal delusional self. The period where Elon time was briefly behind the real launch date was very concerning.

[surreal scaffold]

very interesting thread

if they launch this year again that'd be insane

[west umbra]

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652464755427143682

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "Going to be replacing a bunch of the tanks in the tank farm, but these are tanks that we wanted to replace anyway."

Twitter · Apr 30, 2023, 12:07 AM

[surreal scaffold]

ok

[timber relic]

Yeah they're expanding the tank farm with new tanks

[surreal scaffold]

are they adding tanks too?

[west umbra]

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652464941457186821

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: "Tower itself is in good shape. We see no meaningful damage to the tower even though they got hit with some pretty big chunks of concrete."

Twitter · Apr 30, 2023, 12:08 AM

[surreal scaffold]

ah since theyre expanding i guess

[umbral karma]

I should hope the tower is in good shape

[timber relic]

Well the clearance south and west of the launch site is intended for tank farm expansion. First deluge stuff, of course, that's a pressing matter

[umbral karma]

Its built like a tank

[west umbra]

https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/1652464927825879041

Michael Baylor (@nextspaceflight)

Elon says that most of the homemade tanks at the orbital tank farm will be replaced with the more conventional "hotdog tanks."

Twitter · Apr 30, 2023, 12:08 AM

[timber relic]

But eventually there was going to be more tanks added. Hopefully they remove the crap vertical tanks they have and build big chunky ones like the LOX tank at 39A

[whole hawk]

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652465372820283395?s=46&t=SMbYM7wvp4yImXva6dTuCg

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk: Starship sliding laterally off the launchpad was "because of the engine failures."

Twitter · Apr 30, 2023, 12:10 AM

[surreal scaffold]

the round shaped one?

ball

idk how to describe

[timber relic]

The one between the Falcon ramp and the Starship tower

[west umbra]

That's a bit surprising

Guess they got lucky it went away from the tower

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1652465498381066240

Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz)

Musk is signing off, and says he plans to do another Starship update in "3 weeks-ish"

Twitter · Apr 30, 2023, 12:10 AM

Praying next update isn't through twitter spaces again 🙏

[zealous crystal]

Too angry to die

[timber relic]

After having an explosion under the engines and previously a crunched transfer tube

[umbral karma]

True I forgot about that

[zealous crystal]

Wait I need to find the image

[west umbra]

I'm still kind of shocked they committed to launch with three engines already out

Guess they knew that the launch pad was only good for one attempt

[timber relic]

Their LCC had that as acceptable

[west umbra]

You were right about the comms
https://twitter.com/ScottLikesSLS/status/1652465770402553856
https://twitter.com/ScottLikesSLS/status/1652466449393364992

SLSisok (@ScottLikesSLS)

@thesheetztweetz Micheal please correct your statement of comms lost at t+27 seconds, it was only 1 engine that lost comms not the vehicle

Twitter · Apr 30, 2023, 12:11 AM

SLSisok (@ScottLikesSLS)

@PaddyPatrone @thesheetztweetz Yes

▶ Play video

Twitter · Apr 30, 2023, 12:14 AM

[timber relic]

I had heard that option like the morning of the launch it was like oh well this is gonna be fun

[proven field]

Seems like "loss of comms" was a misquote. From the NSF server:

3 engines not started at liftoff, or hit aborts before liftoff
30 is the min
t+27 e19 lost comms
17/18/19/20 engine area covers exploded around then
asked if people know any better lol (e.g. 8K 90FPS video)
aft end visible fire after that event, t+62s more aft heat shield damage near e30, but it still runs
t+85s things hit the fan, e6 lost comms to TVC
Lost TVC at t+85s

[rich blade]

[rich blade]

knew it

[past robin]

fucking thought so

[whole hawk]

42K 420 FPS

[pulsar pollen]

interesting

Considering that this is the closest that we'll get to a post-flight press conference

I'm glad we got this information

[raven scroll]

That feels like a shit load of information from mr musk ngl

[whole hawk]

https://twitter.com/raptorstarship/status/1652100958799765504

Raptor Engine (@raptorstarship)

Introducing…. Supercone!

Likes

262

Twitter · Apr 29, 2023, 12:02 AM

Starship Abort System

[next sierra]

https://tenor.com/view/what-is-that-what-is-happening-sam-neill-remove-sunglasses-gif-15770358

[rich blade]

light speed potential right here

[umbral karma]

Can fire the engines for like 2 seconds before its out of fuel

[raven scroll]

If they light

[pulsar pollen]

Can’t wait for this thing to casually pull 20Gs of acceleration

[timber relic]

I hope next time they actually hold it down for engine ignition which is what they should have done from the beginning

[pulsar pollen]

I just hope that no engines shut down, causing it to remain on the pad for an extra three seconds before Astra-ing off the pad

[umbral karma]

Would have been funny if it bounced off the tower

[quasi crest]

https://youtu.be/iJ93kFiyPdc

Just found recent Twitter Space recording of Elon Musk.

[rich blade]

damn already been 10 days

[hollow knot]

It feels like a month

[zealous crystal]

It feels weird

That thing finally launched

[keen plover]

TBH the fact that it ended so quickly is messing with my brain

its like the moment ive been waiting for since 2021 and it was over in like 3 mins lol

I still sometimes am like "wow I did actually watch the most powerful rocket ever launch"

[rich blade]

it's also the fact that the whole process went so fast

like at the start of April I wasn't too sure if it would launch

[past robin]

and the fact that it ended when it did

because nobody was expecting it to end at a random time

everyone was expecting it to fail at a milestone not some random part of first stage flight

[pulsar pollen]

Yup, I was expecting it to screw up either at or sometime after staging

[whole hawk]

https://twitter.com/joroulette/status/1653077755951562763

Joey Roulette (@joroulette)

Environmental groups sued the FAA today in federal court over its approval of SpaceX's expanded Starship launch operations next to a national wildlife refuge in South Texas without requiring greater environmental study. On @Reuters wire

Twitter · May 1, 2023, 4:43 PM

[rich blade]

oh noo what are we gonna do

[next sierra]

Aaaand the award for worlds worst take goes to...

https://twitter.com/empireenjoyer10/status/1653080909506134018

Eurasian Emperor (@empireenjoyer10)

@ChrisCrosss98 @holliemaea @joroulette @SciGuySpace @Reuters Musk should just move SpaceX to China and renounce his US citizenship. This country is a joke.

Twitter · May 1, 2023, 4:56 PM

Well, "this country is a joke" is a good take but everything else... yuck

[rich blade]

[obsidian spoke]

is this gonna go anywhere

[vagrant moat]

Probably not

[rich blade]

https://tenor.com/view/mujikcboro-seriymujik-gif-24361533

[whole moat]

how does FTS punch holes in the common domes without the damn things immediately exploding? I guess that’s gonna be part of their investigation

[timber relic]

I want them to blow up holes on boosters and ships to demonstrate it

[whole moat]

yeah me too

[hollow plaza]

Wen FTS test on SLP-A

[keen plover]

SN15 makes a final hop to demonstrate the new FTS 😛

Actually nah make that S20

and B4 for good measure

[whole moat]

less cause “haha boom” but more cause this thing needs to work with their dev philosophy

and I wanna see them doing their homework on it

[next sierra]

I mean they have Massey's for a reason

Would be fun

[obsidian spoke]

https://twitter.com/AmericaSpace/status/1653426634907611136?s=20

AmericaSpace (@AmericaSpace)

@NASASpaceflight @NASA_Nerd Can’t wait to see when the ignition pressure spike shockwave of 31 Raptor engines hits the plate and reflects back on the launch stand and Starship. Certainly SpaceX has thought this through, just like it did the impact of the initial Starship launch on its launchpad.

Twitter · May 2, 2023, 3:50 PM

trollls

[shell python]

spacex did not expect the gse damage to be that bad lmao

[whole hawk]

Posts now on this forum only about the launch and updates of the forum, OLM repairs on #1025052459447619614

[vapid thunder]

ayy fun to see my memes have been making their way around. B7S24 was a beast

[whole hawk]

https://youtu.be/_2-Bs7TYUIw

[sharp flower]

Literally

[whole hawk]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdN5JhTeAI4

[past robin]

hmmmmm

[rich blade]

that is just really sad if that happens

[whole moat]

might make them put legs on the booster so it could still work out well

[past robin]

This almost certainly will not happen considering how fucking structurally rigid starship is

[umbral karma]

Agreed. Aint no way

It passed max-q then did multiple backflips at mach 2

If that didnt kill it, no way this happens

[next sierra]

Rockets in general just have stupidly high structural margins, do I need to point you to the other vehicle that just wouldn't die after repeatedly backflipping and had to be terminated

[rich blade]

heh Alpha did the funny

[umbral karma]

True, but that was a lot smaller

[ebon stratus]

To be fair Mach 2 at 40 kilometers does that have that much aero loads

[umbral karma]

It has a fair bit

More thinking about the tonnes of prop flipping around inside as well

[ebon stratus]

Eh, at that point it’s borderline vacuum

[whole moat]

dynamic pressure should be somewhere less than 3 kPa which isn’t a lot compared to a typical max Q but as someone else put it would be like 150 mph winds in sea level density air

[keen plover]

You also have the first Atlas ICBM test... lol

[whole moat]

but also, nah, they usually don’t have stupidly high structural margins. The fairing on Alpha blew off, proton fell apart due to aero forces on that one flight, there have been multiple cases of rockets just crumpling in flight due to improper pressurisation, and the reason that they don’t is because structural margin means you need more material, and more material is more mass.

[hollow knot]

How high is Warp-V going?

[ebon stratus]

10

[hollow knot]

Oh

Well make sure you don't tumble bad do summersaults or else your fucked

[ebon stratus]

If it cones I will cry

We hit our top speed at around 5,000 ft

[hollow knot]

Wow

Your coast phase must be really long theb

[loud spire]

Forgot to check staging

[tacit kite]

skill issue

[tacit kite]

https://twitter.com/starlink/status/1664717672104198147?s=46&t=XjAiMDA7j9Igtcj3YrKHUg

Starlink (@Starlink)

Starlink set an altitude and speed record for use in-flight during Starship’s first flight test, providing connectivity at 123,600+ feet and while traveling at Mach 1.7! 🛰️🚀

Twitter · Jun 2, 2023, 7:36 PM

[whole moat]

I like how there are no pictures of that thing in flight where you can’t see an engine or fluid system failure happening

[shell python]

because there basically was one the whole time

[loud spire]

on e long consistant faulure

[gleaming schooner]

wow starship is just like me

[crystal trench]

Are we still keeping calling this orbital in the title

[oak sable]

[proven field]

30 x 250 km orbit is still an orbit

[timber relic]

I always argue that it is an orbital test flight because they're testing the orbital configuration of Starship rather than like some of the earlier prototypes which wouldn't have been able to reach orbit nor were designed to do so

These could reach orbit they're just not fully getting there to avoid it being stuck up there

[oak sable]

IIRC 50 x 250

[past robin]

Can confirm

[thick sphinx]

Thank you for confirming you aren't dead by your own hand

Could you please also confirm that no one else has killed you?

[past robin]

I can also confirm that

[thick sphinx]

Thanks <3

[inner nacelle]

i would like to challenge the claim

[past robin]

man that kinda sucked but my adrenalin is through the roof