Posted on 05/05/2021 4:12:07 PM PDT by markman46
paceX launches Starship SN15 rocket and sticks the landing in high-altitude test flight By Mike Wall 8 minutes ago
"Landing nominal," Elon Musk says.
Click here for more Space.com videos... SpaceX's SN15 stuck the landing.
The private spaceflight company's latest Starship prototype aced a high-altitude test flight today (May 5), checking every box from takeoff to touchdown for the first time.
"We are down! The Starship has landed," John Insprucker, SpaceX's principal integration engineer, said during live commentary.
Today's uncrewed test came on the 60th anniversary of the United States' first-ever crewed spaceflight, the suborbital jaunt of NASA astronaut Alan Shepard. The historical parallel is coincidental but appropriate, for SN15's success marks a big step forward in SpaceX's plans to help extend humanity's footprint out into the final frontier.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
I think that your comments show why Elon is really wanting to leave the Earth. :)
When Worlds Collide?
I’ve seen Elon sweat each manned launch. I don’t think he will get complacent. My opinion.
Just a few years ago these sentences would have made no sense what-so-ever!
Elon said early on ‘I was born on Earth, but I don’t want to die on it’. I think that sums it up. His life wish is to go to Mars and die there. To me, that’s one of the greatest ideals you can have.
No. Probably few people actually involved become complacent. Let’s hope no one puts scheduling ahead of lives, as in the case of the Challenger launch when someone had concerns about the O rings in the cold.
The only reason Elon wasn’t there physically today was that he was in New York, rehearsing for this weekend’s ‘Saturday Night Live’.
I had just ended my work shift for the day and watched the whole thing on my smartphone while driving home from work. I finally pulled over into a parking lot and watched the finish. I was screaming like a banshee when it came down and didn’t explode.
I’ll take it! Beautiful landing, none the less!
And without the Government!!
Even better!
I think I’ll watch SNL with him. Last time was when Trump was on, and it was real bad. I hate to see my heroes do themselves in like this. Elon has a few built-in Dogecoin jokes though.
SNL is a bit like twitter, suicide-bait for those doing well.
Yeah, they almost stuck the landing in the dirt off of the edge of the pad!
Check out SN 15’s position relative to the landing pad edge in the video of the rocket once the exhaust smoke clears and they turn on the remote control firehoses to deal with the post-landing methane fuel fire.
BTW, I am a big SpaceX fan. So this is embarrassing and, as Jürgen Prochnow (Das Boot, Dune (1984)) has said: “Damn Sloppy!”
They’ll fix it, they land Falcon boosters dead center every time now. I was mostly concerned about the fire, but apparently that might be something they might have to fix later. Lots of methane leakage apparently.
No matter what, this was a huge achievement. SN16 is rolling out and they’ll probably have software updates to make it more centered.
IIRC, I first heard the phrase “Stick the landing” while watching gymnastics events. It is used to refer to a landing at the finish of some aerial routine where the gymnast lands precisely and cleanly without the hop that can happen when you are off balance and not dealing effectively with momentum and rebound.
They have got a long, long way to go before this ship can be certified for human space flight. I'm confident they will get there.
I’m confident too. Give it another few years and they’ll have Super Heavy and Starship man rated. I don’t know if they’ll do it by 2024, but that’s not their goal now. They just need the lunar lander by 2024 (I’m sure that’ll be delayed a few years). If the platform can work in 2021, I think Musk can reach most of his goals.
I saw it it hopped a bit.
Just wait till the booster is ready, the oribital launch mount will be massive
Thanks. I was not familiar with the expression which seems foreign and clumsy to me.
SpaceX and musk are developing starship on their own dime
Yep that is very true, sci-fi becoming reality in front of your eyes
Agree. The long game here runs well into the next century. We’ll be long gone. The important thing now is not to let the profit-driven engineering mentality suck all the youthful energy and enthusiasm out of our efforts. Because the Chinese will gladly replace the West if it can catch up with and pass us. The CCP knows exactly what it wants.
And all it will take is us losing our focus now.
Even worse, the legacy aerospace companies will ...no, I should not even think or write down what just flashed through my thoughts. After all, they are not Hollywood or the NBA. Right?
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