Posted on 10/13/2024 11:36:53 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Elon Musk’s Starship rocket has completed a world first after part of it was captured on its return to the launch pad.
The SpaceX vehicle's lower half manoeuvred back beside its launch tower where it was caught in a giant pair of mechanical arms, as part of its first test flight.
It brings SpaceX’s ambition of developing a fully reusable and rapidly deployable rocket a big step closer.
"A day for the history books," engineers at SpaceX declared as the booster landed safely.
The chances of the bottom part of the rocket, known as the Super Heavy booster, being caught so cleanly on the first attempt seemed slim.
Prior to the launch, the SpaceX team said it would not be surprised if the booster was instead directed to land in the Gulf of Mexico.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Among the issues raised were Musk’s decision to insert himself in the presidential race ...“Elon Musk is hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods and attacking [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] while claiming his desire to help hurricane victims with free Starlink access to the internet,” Commissioner Gretchen Newsom said.
Commissioner Gretchen Newsom is the “Political Director” for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 569.
“It brings SpaceX’s ambition of developing a fully reusable and rapidly deployable rocket a big step closer.”
Falcon 9 anyone?
Isn’t this was fascism would look like, if ever there were to be fascism here?
I saw that in the video.
The model NASA is working under is "contract our rocket-building work to SpaceX". It's working spectacularly.
It's the same model NASA worked under to for Mercury. And Gemini. And Apollo. And Space Shuttle. And every unmanned spacecraft they ever launched.
China’s Long March rockets will be on the moon long before NASA/SpaceX’s Artemis, maybe by a decade as things are going now at NASA.
California rejected
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Musk does not care what some coastal commission thinks and has said so.
Falcon second stage isn’t reusable. The original plan was to recover the second stage and hot-land the Dragon. Both of those goals were dropped as too ambitious even for SpaceX.
Falcon 9 is partially reusable system, and reuse isn’t as rapid as they intend for starship and booster. This next step is still in development, but they hope to launch, catch and reuse within a few days, depending on fuel farm capacity.
I doubt your premise, but even if China gets to the moon before SpaceX, the Starship fleet within a few short years will have orders of magnitude more launch capacity than the rest of the world combined and thus in a position to completely control low earth orbit, if necessary.
The world may not have fully absorbed the military implications of a spacecraft able to deliver tons to orbit on demand and on short notice
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The military is well aware of SpaceX’s capabilities, and they have used Falcon Heavy to get one of their satellites in to a Direct to Geosynchronous Orbit.
However, the fairing on Starship is too small for their future wants, and Starship would have to be refueled to get from LEO to Geosynchronous, which is why the contract for Direct to Geosynchronous Orbit went to Blue Horizon which does have a much larger fairing and theoretically can go the distance, at some point.
Falcon Heavy has reached its maximum capacity as far as large military satellites go. The military cannot wait for a refueling mission to complete. And cannot wait for Must to provide some sort of lash up. Starship is out of the question as the current version can only lift 50 tons to LEO. Version 2 and 3 can lift more, but are still on the drawing boards.
I watched the video and am amazed at what Space X has done in such a short time span. First rate results when unhampered by graft and corruption which permeate anything our governmental agencies control.
That was a slam dunk, an end zone spike, and a grand slam home run all packed into one. The boy’s got style.
Plus Starship 5 launch has been ready to go for months and the FAA would not give them a license to land it off the Texas coast. Congress and NASA stepped in and told the FAA to shove it and let Space X launch.
The premise is simple - right now NASA’s moon program is almost 5 years behind schedule; China’s program is on schedule.
NASA’s lunar program has not decided how to proceed - its completely unraveled. Set backs on Starship have pushed it back further.
It will take 15 refueling to get one crew to the moon and more to get them home. Starship is too heavy - the stainless steel weighs many many times the more expensive composite every one else uses.
How many refuelings will it take to get one crew to Mars? Far too many to even contemplate.
Musk will have to switch to composite at some point to achieve the goals he has set. Its all about mass and weight.
“thus in a position to completely control low earth orbit, if necessary.”
Define “completely control”. No one has the ability or could have the ability to do that.
Somehow Musk and SpaceX have assembled a niche engineering team every bit reminiscent of NASA in the 60s, just as competent and even more innovative, but a bit more casually dressed!
“Its all about mass and weight”
Well, weight is not an operational property in space and mass is really only relevant during launch and thrust maneuvers. 33 rocket engines can overcome a lot.
bump
That was awesome!
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