Posted on 01/16/2025 2:51:12 PM PST by Yo-Yo
Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster!
That was just astonishing to see. Doesn’t look good for the Starship, though.
They just said that it’s very likely that they’ve lost the upper stage.
Motors failed one after another. It’s all gone.
The thing to remember that this was a block 2 Starship and so there was a whole lot of new things interacting with each other and maybe things weren’t quite the way they should have been. One of those things where you have to live and learn.
I guess Bezos wins this round.
Not really. Bozo lost his booster, but we caught ours. Yes, his upper stage did make it to orbit, while Musk’s very likely did not.
I’ll call it a draw.
Yeah, I was reading the launch info page and there were a LOT of new things. Maybe too many at once.
I’m quite sure that both Blue Origin and SpaceX will be studying the data that they received up until they lost comms with each of their ships.
Bezos and his space company failed to do this today. This is Elon Musk’s company that was successful.
This is the best, most inspiring competition of our time.
“This is Elon Musk’s company that was successful.”
Both companies were successful.
Bezo’s just lost a booster, Musk lost his payload and starship.
If you had to choose a winner, I’d pick Bezos. He got his payload into space which is what it’s all about.
The superheavy worked to perfection, it seems. The Starship Block 2, on it’s first flight, didn’t make it, but they’ll work it out before the next flight.
Or both failed ...
Blue Origin lost their booster, but put an experimental payload in MEO.
SpaceX lost their orbital stage, but caught their booster on its launch structure.
Rocketry is hard. It's harder when you're pushing the boundaries, as both companies are doing.
And for all the Climate Hoaxers, watch about 2-5 seconds after the SuperHeavy Booster comes to rest on the tower; a few hundred birds fly right by the tower, greeting and welcoming the SuperHeavy Booster back to the launch site. The birds obviously had no “issues” with any part of the launch and recovery/return.
Re: issues. We all grew up with weekly sonic booms in the sky above us. We loved it, and cheered on those amazing men with The Right Stuff.
“Payload” was a stack of metal cutouts to simulate starlinks. No big loss. The Starship is also the first of a new batch, with over a thousand changes. Not a big surprise, and several more Starships almost ready to launch.
Disagree. This is the first thing Blue Origin has gotten to orbit. For now Spacex owns the launch business. Glad to see some competition, but Musk is in the lead.
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