The SpaceX Starship launched and was caught.
This is a new age for space with the booster catch. Fully resuable starship booser. If there is no incident with the orbital starship which should have no reentry damage with a massively improved heat shield then flight 6 should be in weeks and flight 7 could reuse this booster. We will need only 6 new raptor engines and new Starships. Likely flight 6 or flight 7 will have a catch attempt for the Starship.
I expect the rest of the STarship orbital mission to be good as they improved the heat shield for re-entry and they got Starship 4 into its planned ocean landing last time despite a lot of damage.
If they have half centimeter accuracy and a good heat shield. This is going to work amazingly. I am very confident of the consistency of this going forward. Starship catches will work. Fully and rapid reusability will work.
The SpaceX Starship launched 5:25 PST.
Booster is going back to the launchpad. Catch was good.
If all goes well the booster should return and land on the Mechazilla launch tower about ten minutes after launch. IF this launch is scrubbed then it will be attempted in 48 hours.
The Starship will land in the Indian Ocean.
They have improved the heat shield so the burnthrough problems of the fourth launch are prevented.
The 1-million square foot Starfactory brings many parts of the manufacturing process under one roof moving as much system integration work as possible earlier in the build process, with the goal of eventually producing 1,000 Ships a year.
The 1-million square foot Starfactory brings many parts of the manufacturing process under one roof for the first time, moving as much system integration work as possible earlier in the build process, with the goal of eventually producing 1,000 Ships a year pic.twitter.com/vz44XcTTN8
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2024
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Boeing doesn’t want their rockets to blow up so they overengineer everything. SpaceX blows stuff up and improves on the weakest part. Best use of time and resources.
One would think a gust of wind could easily move the booster off the 1cm accuracy? Not sure of that number.
[ possible doing a gravity assist (slingshot) maneuver around moon for Mars, that opposes Earth’ and Mars’ movement around the sun (seen from top on Sun’s planet system) to a clock-wise course to Mars? ]
Hope this will convince FAA to speed up things.
This was amazing and congratulations to SpaceX.
Not sure why it would convince FAA to speed things up though.
This event was about a big step forward for SpaceX but it is a new thing and pushing the limits. New things need to be tested and evaluated for safety.
While I would agree with some on here who think the FAA is too much stuck in a decades old mindset and, yes, maybe they need to cut some red tape and update and speed up their processes. Nonetheless I want to feel that aviation safety is paramount and well regulated. They cannot just bow to the demands of private enterprise. Especially when some parties, such as Boeing, have been seen to cut corners, resulting in aviation incidents. No doubt Boeing think the FAA is a pain in the rear.
And yes I realize that rockets are different to commercial aircraft, but NASA will want to be sure that risks are minimised for their astronauts. Which is another reason why Boeing is in a lot of trouble at the moment and NASA is not happy.
So Booo Boeing and Yay SpaceX.
“Safety is paramount” equals “do nothing” or even equals “unsafe.” You should read the book by Rand Simberg of trans terrestrialmusings.com titled “Safe is Not an Option”.
FAA is not made for this new age. This needs presidential and congressional oversight to make the required law amends and make it much faster.
Of course, only a president and a congress that aren’t enemies of Elon Musk will do that.