Space transportation general. A general to cover all things spaceflight related. Since spaceflight is increasing exponentially, since we are up to at least a launch per week and since we are days away from a industry revolutionizing fully reusablesuper heavy lift launch vehicle. Upcoming launches:>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight_launches_in_January%E2%80%93June_2023Upcoming NASA operations:>https://www.nasa.gov/launchschedule/SpaceX Mars goal:>https://youtu.be/921VbEMAwwY>https://www.spacex.com/human-spaceflight/mars/Starbase 24/7 streams:>https://www.youtube.com/live/mhJRzQsLZGg?feature=share>https://www.youtube.com/live/60YnbafD6vY?feature=shareStarbase tour from last summer:>https://youtu.be/t705r8ICkRw>https://youtu.be/SA8ZBJWo73E>https://youtu.be/9Zlnbs-NBUI>https://youtu.be/3Ux6B3bvO0w
Starship launch scrubbed today, should attempt again in a few days
>>1904648Scrubbed for a single frozen valve
>>1904657Some valves are more important than others. Could have been on the rocket or the ground support equipment. If it was a 19" methane supply valve, you wouldn't want that gushing into the BQD box with the hood down at liftoff.
>>1904658>Some valves are more important than others#allvalvesmatter
it was always supposed to launch on 4/20
>>1904738I unironically belive this.
>>1904646Is it just me or does this look more like a model rocket than a real one? Maybe I'm just married to the Saturn V aesthetic
>>1904738Is that Hubble?
>>1904797It's because it is simplified for mass manufacturing and reusability. But honestly it will be so much more kino
>>1904849>It's because it is simplified for mass manufacturing and reusabilityThat makes sense. Thanks.
>>1904849Neat.
>>1904935Its honestly incredible how simple it is while being the cutting edge. Its the model T of rockets with a huge payload.
>>1905041To advance, the space industry needed this kind of simplification. Something that couldnt be done by boeing because they grew fat off of government subsidies.Lets hope it picks up pace and evolve the same way planes did, meaning we'll get warp capable crafts by 2060.I fully believe warp capable crafts using the alcubierre method are the space equivalent to jet planes.
>>1905100I don't think we need that yet desu.(also who knows if its possible) there is lifetimes of infrastructure to build in the solar system.
>>1905107It is possible, the energy requirements arent reachable yet.
>>1905153>It is possibleIt's possible in principle, but in reality there is the problem that you probably couldn't steer your ship (because there is no known way of sending a signal to the front of such a bubble from inside of it), that everything inside the bubble will probably be fried by hawking radiation and that you will destroy everything at your destination with a burst of highly charged particles when you decelerate.
>>1905100I saw a talk where an LHC scientist laughed at the plot of the DaVinci Code sequel. The total amount of anti-matter created by humanity if unleashed at once is barely enough to boil a cup of tea. Also since we don't even know how gravity works, I think there are a few gaps in our knowledge before we get to warp drives. The theories also rely on hypothetical exotic particles / matter that may or may not actually exist.
>>1905178>The theories also rely on hypothetical exotic particles / matter that may or may not actually exist.I think some German physicists argued that you could possibly create it without exotic matter by using soliton waves or something, but it's all highly theoretical.
A lot of workers at the booster today for there being a launch attempt tomorrow. Starting to feel like go fever setting to to blaze it on 420. Maybe a delay until next week is in order.
>>1904849the arms won't move downward while catching the rocket
Ends in FTS. Lost 5+ engines on the ascent, then went into a spin at 2000 kph. Pretty good for a first booster flight.Rover2 cam showed massive chunks of concrete flying near the camera.
"Your vehicle was damaged how?"https://twitter.com/i/status/1649050806577164293
Can the concrete survive a launch? Uh, no. Holy crater.
>>1905397Saved some digging work for exhaust tunnel.
>>1905416>ablative excavation
Holy shit that launch was sooo kino
Huge slab of concrete landed on the tank farm helium tanks.
>hey let’s launch the most powerful rocket ever built with no way to safely deflect/transfer the massive amounts of energy it releases in a safe manner>Newton’s_third_law.exe>”Oh no, how could this happen!?”Seriously, what were they thinking?
>>1905564If I had to guess they knew even their first flame diverter would probably have gotten fucked so they decided to go with the cheap disposable option. It'll probably take at least 4 launches to figure it out.
>>1905600Figures, they will have to make those flame diverters on Mars and even on the Moon if they want to do quasi regular flights to and from.You have to do it as cheap and simple as possible, the big operations are not an option here.
>>1905471Oh boy, they will have to rebuild the entire complex...
>>1905471Those cameras were a lot further back than normal too. The vehicles were temporarily moved to the back of the SpaceX parking lot. Usually they are up at the road where those cones are and towards the left.
>>1905619>cheap and simpleDigging a basic trench would help already. Tossing some steel mesh or fiberglass+epoxy to keep big chunks down would help immensly. Its not like they gonna launch from bare sufsce anyway.Water supression system OTOH might be trickier.
Saw on Twitter that non-SpaceX sources indicated that the Florida OLM ring is going to be sent by Barge to Boca Chica. Wouldn't be surprising as they are probably looking at a major redesign before they proceed with the Florida launch site.
Starship Gazer posted a bunch of post launch pics on Twitter. Here's the OLM door that got blown off, bent in half.
Some big chunks of concrete were flying. Entire slabs went airborne.
>>1905726>>1905960Even this is positive IMO
A few shots of the damage. Honestly it doesn't look that bad.
>>1906078See>>1905726Foundation is fucked, concrete was clean blown off the rebar support. Launchpad is very much in bad shape, it is unusable, can’t be fixed only demolished and rebuilt with a flame diverter trench
>>1906235Also chopsticks looked droopy after launch so there could be problems within the tower structure as well
why no launch table ?
It would be nice to see a sub-orbital Starship launch while they fix the orbital launch site. Might be able to do a ballistic trajectory into the gulf to test reentry.
>>1906278Regulations probably would require too much time and starbase is more of a test facility.
For those of you that don't know. Its called the Starship and its about to change everything. Normies are focusing on the launch pad breaking and SpaceX terminating the flight after losing control from engine loss(due to debris). But that is not significant. SpaceX just proved the concept and passed huge milestones in this test flight. Now that the concept is proven, it will simply take some time to perfect it. >but muh explosion That is how SpaceX develops so quickly. It is called iterative design philosophy. It fleshes out problems faster and more thoroughly than traditional methods. They did this with their other products, which are now the safest on the market. See https://youtu.be/bvim4rsNHkQ for proof. >but it's not even close to operational It is close. Maybe a year away from its first operational iteration taking commercial payloads. Pic related is a brief summary of the testing, iteration, and progress they have made(with their future vision).>Why is this important As calculated right now, it will put 250 tons in LEO and 150 tons to the surface of the moon or mars. It is entirely reusable, and they designed it to be mass manufactured. That means space infrastructure, habitation, and industrial ventures will become available/affordable. Starship is the caravel of the modern era. We are on the precipice of national expansion, nation building, solor colonization, earth domination, and industrial expansion on a scale we have NEVER experienced before.
>>1906279I really don't think they'll ever need to do one again..
>>1906556>>but muh explosion >That is how SpaceX develops so quickly. It is called iterative design philosophyIt's also what NASA did sixty years ago. Before Neil and Buzz walked on the moon there were A LOT of rockets that went pop.
>>1906575Exactly, its how things are done fast and done well. The shuttle era philosophy was out of necessity. It should never have been an industry standard
Any aviation nerds here have ideas on starship seat configuration?For reference 747-8F is ~ 750 cubic meters of pressurized volume and Starship is ~ 1,000
NEW LAUNCH PIC JUST DROPPED
Also, Skyora revealed some tech.
>>1906816
>ispace update:"the lander was in a vertical position as it carried out the final approach ... it has been determined that there is a high probability that the lander eventually made a hard landing on the Moon's surface."https://ispace-inc.com/news-en/?p=4655Oof
>>1906802park benches
>>1906076keep simping, you'll be just like elon some day! any day now!
Looks like RGV got some nice launch site shots today after being clouded out last week.
SpaceShipTwo makes first flight in nearly two years
We also got a picture from blue orgin. May be project jarvis
>>1906814Damn it's going to look sexy with proper pad without dust. Unless they go full Shuttle with water supressions and it's gigant steam cloud instead.
>>1905619Implying their actually using this logic when it come to testing a base ship for the 2025 lunar landing mission... Risk the biscuit for that.. Sure sure
>>1906802Not possible with current starship design and the required insulation/shielding. Plus there will be more tanks for a crewed version.
>>1907336>Unless they go full Shuttle with water supressions and it's gigant steam cloud insteadReally doubt theyd do that. its not cheap enough
>>1905619They won't be using superheavies on mars
https://youtu.be/mmIqSPux3FYMusk talking about the results of the Starship OFT
FH launch. This is insanely fast expendable.
Does anyone know what happened with the second Axiom mission?
They made Buzz Aldrin a Brigadier General.
NASA and @RocketLab are targeting 9pm ET Sunday, May 7 (0100 May 8 UTC), for the first launch of our cyclone-studying TROPICS CubeSats.Tune in here and at http://nasa.gov/live at 8:40pm ET (0040 May 8 UTC) for live launch coverage from New Zealand: https://go.nasa.gov/42xYE3n
>>1909455SUCCESS
Starbase construction is really ramping up. From today's RGV flyover it looks like instead of tearing down the production tents one at a time to build the factory, they are going to tear down some older buildings and build an entire Star Factory beside the tents. The first building segment that was already built will just be extra workspace.
Henlo!
Down at Starbase they did a booster FTS test on a barrel section filled with water, went boom, fell over.https://twitter.com/i/status/1658226544668553216
>>1911900>>1910553
>>1911913I signed up for RGV's patreon a few weeks ago which has been nice. The evening after each flyover / ground photos session they do a discussion on discord and stream it on youtube. The air photos one ends up being around 4 hours so I just skim through it on youtube. With even the lowest patreon tier you can watch the youtube stream which I find more useful than looking at the raw images, and you get to see more than the limit galleries available for the lowest tiers.
>>1911972How much did it cost
>https://spacenews.com/republican-senators-claim-nasa-being-distracted-by-climate-change-and-diversity-initiatives/Woke NASA element going down
>>1912052Cheapest tier is $2 a month, I went with a higher tier because I was thinking in terms of gallery size when I signed up.
>>1912057Not bad. Probably not worth it for me but decent
NEW PRODUCTION DIAGRAM
Immensely complex & high risk
Honestly the new BO lander looks decent and it seems that starship forced them to go bigger
For the lurkers, Blue Origin was named as the HLS for the Artemis V mission.
Still embarrassing compared to starship HLS though
>>1912559yeah but it looks way cooler and has a docking port. they're both so cool though, we live in such an interesting time
>>1912559But the wind loading.
>kill it with firehttps://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1659599720761950208
>>1912603Is that a raptor 3?
>>1912594Wind load this
>>1912650Nope just them testing the water cooled steel plate design they want to install under the launch pad.
>>1912659Very nice, but didn't the old launchpad fail because the earth underneath buckled? How will steel fix that?
>>1912661A bunch of new deep concrete columns under and around the OLM support the water cooled structure. The old columns were quite feeble with just a single piece of rebar in each.
It's looking like they are going to use a lot of huge nitrogen cylinders to push water through the system instead of pumps.
>>1912662Excellent. Thanks for the info. Sounds like a quick fix too.
Axiom AX-2 mission pre launch briefing (today at 6:00pm EST)>https://www.youtube.com/live/XrNaO9OXod8Launch stream (starts at 2:10 pm EST on the 21st)>https://www.youtube.com/live/dp2U6GG04Hs
I want to be on mars so bad bros.
2 RGV flyovers this week, did a second one today.
>>1913107Hows it look?
>>1913133I gave up watching their review tonight and the images aren't posted yet. The person streaming the images wasn't the person discussing them so things were moving pretty slow. I'll just watch their weekly show tomorrow which was rescheduled to tomorrow.Steady progress all around, more caisson drilling at the launch site, and concrete work at the build site. Moving pretty quick with the foundation for the factory expansion. Preparing a base for a stamping machine press is slowing things down on one end of it. The Florida site didn't get a base for one of those so bringing production of those parts (probably stringers) in-house must have been a recent decision.
Booster 9 and Ship 25 announced as next flight hardware.
RIP low bay. https://twitter.com/i/status/1662992937850904579All the buildings beside the fabrication tents are getting removed for the factory expansion. I guess they can't afford downtime so they are making a complete second factory before finishing the first one.
Full speed ahead on the OLM improvements. Looks like all the piles are done. Then sheet piles around the perimeter of the new cooling system. Starting excavate that out now so they can add rebar and pour a base to support the water cooled steel sandwich.
>>1915060Really? I thought they would go much further ahead.
>>1916000Honestly its been up for longer than it should have been. If anything they need to get rid of a lot of the more temporary structures on site.
Habitation tech is heating up!
>>1917087How quickly can they get it operational?
What I don't understand is how is boeing struggling so hard with this piece of shit. Like do they not understand how badly they are losing market share to spacex?
Reposting from /sfg/https://www.space.com/mars-express-livestream-esa-june-2023https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qyVNqeJ6wQ>On Friday, to celebrate the 20th birthday of ESA’s Mars Express, you’ll have the chance to get as close as it’s currently possible get to a live view from Mars. Tune in to be amongst the first to see new pictures roughly every 50 seconds as they’re beamed down directly from the Visual Monitoring Camera on board ESA’s long-lived and still highly productive martian orbiter.>“This is an old camera, originally planned for engineering purposes, at a distance of almost three million kilometres from Earth – this hasn’t been tried before and to be honest, we’re not 100% certain it’ll work,” explains James Godfrey, Spacecraft Operations Manager at ESA’s mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany.>“But I’m pretty optimistic. Normally, we see images from Mars and know that they were taken days before. I’m excited to see Mars as it is now – as close to a martian ‘now’ as we can possibly get
>>1917298> The livestream will showcase images snapped by the probe's Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC), which was originally designed to monitor the separation of Beagle 2. Once it did that, the VMC was turned off — but it was turned back on in 2007 to snap imagery for education and outreach activities, and for science work as well.>"We developed new, more sophisticated methods of operations and image processing, to get better results from the camera, turning it into Mars Express' eighth science instrument," VMC team member Jorge Hernández Bernal said in the same statement.Related stories:>Mars Express team members have spent the last few months preparing for today's livestream — for instance, developing the tools needed to get the VMC photos online as soon as possible.> "This is an old camera, originally planned for engineering purposes, at a distance of almost 3 million kilometers [1.8 million miles] from Earth — this hasn’t been tried before and, to be honest, we're not 100% certain it'll work." James Godfrey, spacecraft operations manager at ESA's mission control center Darmstadt, Germany, said in the same statement.>"But I’m pretty optimistic," he added. "Normally, we see images from Mars and know that they were taken days before. I'm excited to see Mars as it is now — as close to a Martian 'now' as we can possibly get
>Augsburg, Germany – June 2, 2023. Launch service provider Rocket Factory Augsburg AG (RFA) has successfully hot fired its upper stage for a full duration of 280 seconds. This marks the successful completion of the Integrated System Test (IST) campaign, in which a staged-combustion Helix engine was integrated into an upper stage tank system and hot fired several times up to full duration in the final test. This is the 1st time in Europe that a privately developed staged combustion upper stage has been successfully hot fired. https://www.rfa.space/280-seconds-rfa-completes-full-duration/
> SpaceX pushing forward hard on Starbase. The Orbital Index newsletter has a good roundup of activities happening at the Starbase facility in South Texas a little more than a month after Starship's debut flight. Work on the launch site has included the addition of a water-cooled steel flame plate, repairs needed to fill in the crater dug by Booster 7’s launch, and upgrades to the orbital launch mount and propellant tanks. The company also recently confirmed that Booster 9 and Ship 25 are the test articles intended for the next launch. The launch site and rocket will probably be ready to go in about two months.>The bigger issues are regulatory ... The hardware is only one side of the coin, of course. Approval to launch still relies on a few factors outside the direct control of SpaceX, including a lawsuit in which environmental groups are suing the FAA for what they claim was a cursory environmental review of the launch site’s impact on the surrounding wildlife areas. SpaceX has joined the case as a defendant since it feels that the impact on Starship’s development timeline will hugely affect the company’s financial future. The FAA is also looking into the delayed action by Starship's flight termination system. So fall, maybe?https://orbitalindex.com/archive/2023-05-31-Issue-220/
>>1917298>>1917300>>1917301It would be very nice if we could get some European competition for space expansion.
>>1917287B9 is furthest along of the boosters and the first with electric thrust vector control. Many of the newer boosters sat in pieces for a very long time. Speculation is they wanted flight data before doing any assembly that would make revisions difficult to apply.
The 1st Australian Made orbital rocket, Eris. Will be the 1st commercial orbital launch site in AUS at Bowen Orbital Spaceport. And starts a new G-class Satellite GSat program
>>1917306Right but I would think that they want a post flight data iteration.
>>1917311I'll bet anyone money that no more than 2 of the women in that picture did anything valuable on this project while the remaining 2 were actually just valuable, intelligent women who had a lot to contribute. Most probably work in HR or something, sending out mass spam e-mails about mandatory gender equality PowerPoint videos everyone needs to watch or they'll get written up.=
>>1917317Same with the 6 browns
>>1917297I'll give you one guess.
>>1906816Not enough rust
>>1917359Seriously, like did they pull that from a shipwreck?
>>1917332Nothing wrong with either groups you just know most are only there for diversity.
>>1917368That is what is wrong with them and I am sorry but after working with the 2nd category I can assure you that we gain nothing from it.
Beautiful launch
Successful Vulcan fueling test
Steel columns are going up for the Starfactory expansion, and first sections of roof frame being pre-assembled. They are wasting no time ripping out the concrete pads around the buildings they tore down last week.
Photon and friends
So much happens between flyovers. At the OLM they are hammering in sheet piles, excavating around the columns they poured, adding a layer of rock, pouring a thin concrete slab leveling the ground, cutting the columns flush with the slab. Once that is all done it looks like a 6-8 foot thick rebar cage will go in for a thick slab that will support the water cooled steel sandwich.This picture shows the preliminary work done on the right and in progress on the left. Since then more sheet piles were added completing the pit and excavation resumed to get down to the depth where they will add the rocks.
>>1919672Thats interesting, what are they doing with the tank farm? Have they changed the mounts near the old launchpad?
>>1919671Labeled
>>1919933Mission diagram
>>1919932They pulled out some of the dents from the tank covers and reinforced them. It appears they are sticking with the old tank setup for the next launch. But at the same time they are going full steam ahead on prepping to switch to horizontal tanks. They have been adding dozens of columns for a long pair of tank supports. They built a new wall blocking off the methane fill stations. Presumably to remove those, knock down the old wall and drop another tank in there.There is an ungodly amount of rebar stockpiled at the launch site for the OLM work.You can watch recordings their photo review live streams. They are under the "live" part of the youtube channel, not under videos. They run very long, so I tend to just scrub through them until I see them talking about something I'm interested in.https://www.youtube.com/@RGVAerialPhotography/streams
>>1919937Thanks, I really wonder what their plan for the tank farm will be because it seemed like their original plan wasn't very practical. >There is an ungodly amount of rebar stockpiled at the launch site for the OLM work.Cannot wait to see the new setup.
>>1905471justmaybe,,,LETITGO!!,,they held iton the pad for 10 seconds!,,,,also,whynot use rockets pointedup under the pad,equal=thrust?
Is this shit actually feasible or is it a gimmick company?
Mercury flyby on 19 June! It'll pass the planet's surface within 240 km altitude at 20:34 BST/21:34 CEST.
>>1919965Today's flyover showed rebar cage assembly has started under the OLM.
>>1920740RGV posted a short preview of the photos they'll cover on Saturday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzHnV4bONFM
Are there any series youtube channels, official newsletters, or educational sources about the military uses of space transportation? CIA Air Branch, Space Force, spy satellites, etc?
OLM work is a lot further ahead than I thought it would be. There is a 2 tier rebar cage assembled already lower outside the legs for the piping to come in and higher inside the legs for the steel plate structure to sit on. New cryo pipes getting connected to one of the OLM legs.Ground prep work has started on the second section of the Starfactory expansion. Laying conduit and preparing building footings.
Marcus House always has a nice weekly summary with air photos and ground video.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gSMvRMSDts
Starship is now going to use hot staging, igniting the second stage before separation. Elon claims it will boost payload to orbit by about 10%. Will require adding an extra ring to the top of the boosters for shielding and to vent second stage exhaust.
130 concrete trucks visited the OLM last night. Repair work is humming along.
SN25 static fire todsy.
Vulcan launch delayed a few months while the upper stage is destacked and sent back to the factory for modifications.
>>1925184
They are having to remove the back wall of the inventory tent to remove the water cooled plate they were building in there for the OLM. I think this is the large center plate, smaller ones that fit between the legs were built outside.
Virgin galactic finally started taking people to space.
SpaceX closes the 2nd quarter of 2023 with 43 launches since the year began - which is an average of 4.2 days between launches. SpaceX's year so far, summarised.
Good summary of the launch pad repair / updates with 3D renders.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09DDpHdIYgU
The big water cooling plate has threaded holes at the edge requiring use of a huge tap.
Mars helicopter is alive and well after a 2 month radio blackout due to terrain between itself and the rover. It did 1 preprogrammed flight after it was last heard from which was just finally relayed back to Earth.
Next big concrete pour tonight at the OLM.
Ariane V rocket is vertical at the Guiana Space Centre for the final time.
>>1926438Oh nice, how close are they to being done?
The Euclid launch was stunningly beautiful, its good to finally see the ESA making some moves.
>>1926941Thats insane that its still flying. I honestly wish there was more layman summaries of the mission work.
>>1927380Not sure, they could have the steel plate laid down within a week. They moved it to the launch site along with a jig to squeeze it between the legs on Friday. Another to 170 concrete trucks since last night which makes about 300 in the past week just for the OLM.Possibly booster testing in a month.
>>1927382https://www.youtube.com/@MarsGuy has regular videos.
Aanyone know why they made... these? They look awful.
>>1927470I kind of want one. #vanlife
>>1927395No wonder the old pad blew to smithereens. 300 truckloads of concrete laid in a week is not going to cure well at all.
Steel plate rising.
Going down.
Preview of Starbase airphotos taken yesterday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITuH5FFPSkE
>>1927954>>1927982Honestly its kind of crazy that noone has experimented with water deluge since the 60s
So wtf is Ariane going to do now?
With the steel deluge plate installed they were finally able to install the OLM maintenance platform for the first time in months now that there is a flat surface to roll it in.
Booster 10 getting rolled over to the Masseys site for testing. First booster to be sent over there.
>>1928613I'm more interested in this desu
New underskirt
Falcon keeps breaking records. Competition is dead.
>>1928484Excellent. Things are moving fast
Europeans are going to the moon!!
NSF's videos have become unwatchable lately. Its all about talking heads instead of showing what they are talking about. Most of their good presenters are gone and the new ones are all annoying. Never holding on anything long enough to get a good look so you need to pause the video before it cuts away. Maybe that's what the NerdySimpForum channel subscribers like, raking in the superchats and gift subs.
OLM deluge pipes connected and buried. By next week there should be a giant concrete hexagon surrounding the OLM, half of it is poured already. Going to be an inner hexagon of fondag outside the steel plate.With the Raptor maintenance platform installed they've begun calibrating the hold down clamps ahead of rolling down B9. Super fast progress.
>>1930389They're monetizing everything and their technology guys became engineers. They were always onions as fuck but not i'm sure its unbearable
India just launched their moon explorer but what I don't understand is why they didn't send an orbiter.
>>1930702The speed they did this in is very impressive. When will they be launch ready?
The crew modules for Artemis II, III and IV are in different production phases at NASA Kennedy in preparation for bringing astronauts back to the Moon.
>>1930718Forgot pic
Stuck valve during a Starbase test last night, dumped an entire tank of LOX. People were stuck on the beach for hours past the publicized road closure.
Water seen bubbling up from the deluge plate at low pressure. Probably filling system with water ahead of a test to avoid epic water hammering.
First deluge test. Probably not full power.
Electron parachuting after today's launch
>>1931522Did you see that bid in there? It got fucked
>>1931164Oof that sucks, not good PR
Rocketlab mission profile
B9 down at the pad for a lift.
>>1931801Who bid what? To what odds?
>>1932625>birdhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgTqqGaU-Bg
Somehow ship 27 experienced a fatal pressurization anomaly that crushed one of the domes requiring the ship to be scrapped. A screwup seems more likely than a destructive test as the ship was at the rocket garden at the time.
>>1932636Looks like it got up later on
>>1928304Make a new one, continue business. ESA needs their own launch platform and they have Ariane.Ariane 5 lasted a long time, now comes Ariane 6.
B9 cryo this morning.
OLM as of Thursday. You can see the deluge piping under the rebar. Some of the fondag for the inner octogon is already poured too.They even made concrete ponds this week for water and discarded cooling LOX.
After India launching a moon rover, NSF's livestream chat has been invaded by "sirs" posters.
>>1933891Good morning
Coming along
>>1933951Nicely
Nice and quick turnaround
Ship 27’s common dome imploded. Did they test it to failure? Or was it an unforeseen implosion? Hopefully either way it’s an older design
Render of potential hot stage full stack.
>>1933958Rumor is it was just a mistake. Lets hope it wasn't
>>1933958It was described as the dome being blown out like a frozen pop can. Went from being curved downward to popped up. Probably the upper tank lost pressurization and lower didn't. Should change storage procedures to vent lower tank if the top one goes.
Artemis II new infographic
So regarding this superconductor “discovery”… what’s the QRD?I understand room temperature superconductors, I just don’t understand what this team did differently
Space hoarders triggered by S15 getting scrapped. muh history!!!!
Today's flyover shows the Boca launch site concrete almost entirely done, both the base layer and fondag. All the rusty metal getting painted.
Launch site getting a good cleaning. Probably another deluge test, then into engine testing next week.
Cleanest looking I've seen the OLM, and not crawling with workers.
Full pressure deluge test announced for Friday.
>>1934968Yeah its looking very good
>>1934796It doesn't even look good. Just make office tables out of the steel
Full power deluge test.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqes7A7Ipns
SpacecraftOn 12 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin made the first human flight in space, and completed the first orbit of the Earth, in Vostok 1, in 108 minutes.The second and third orbital circumnavigations, the first two to have multiple orbits, were made by Gherman Titov (17.5 orbits, a little over a day, for the Soviet Union) and John Glenn, in Friendship 7 (3 orbits, almost five hours, for the US, first American orbital flight), respectively.The first woman to circumnavigate the Earth in orbit, and to also do so multiple times, was Valentina Tereshkova, who made forty-eight orbits between 16 and 19 June 1963, aboard Vostok 6.Frank F. Borman II, James A. Lovell Jr., and William A. Anders, 21–27 December 1968, first human circumnavigation of the Earth-Moon system, 10 orbits around the moon in about 20 hours, aboard Apollo 8; total trip to the moon and back was more than 6 Earth days.
In May, the LSP Electromagnetic Compatibility team traveled to the Neil Armstrong Test Facility at NASAGlenn to support the Shielding Effectiveness Testing of SpaceX’s long fairing. The results will be used to ensure NASA payloads are safe from outside radio frequency sources
>>1935514Thanks jupiter poster
>B-11 FWD RETAIN / HOT STAGE LOAD Looks like they've already figured out the hot stage.
>>1935789I wonder if they should just use the Russian open truss style hot staging adapter which seems a lot simpler.
>>1935794Doubt it works as well for reuse
>>1935014That looks like a butt haha.
Falcon heavy looks great.
How good is liquid ammonia and nitrogen dioxide as a storable propellant combo?If not for an orbital class rocket, maybe for a sounding rocket?
>>1936164>maybe for a sounding rocketIt'll work for a sounding rocket but it doesn't seem good for an orbital rocket
Last flight of the Antares
>>1936282Maybe the upper stage of an orbital rocket?
Yesterday's flyover shows all the concrete around the OLM is finished. Just some spots over near the deluge farm to pour. Everything is getting painted, even the tank farm.Framing up the pedestals for the first 4 of the new horizontal tank farm tanks, though that work doesn't appear to be a priority as they are sticking with the old LOX / LN2 tanks for the next launch.
>>1936304But why do you want to?
>>1936414It’s not cryogenic so it won’t slowly boil off in deep space.
Happy 11th landiversary to the curiosity rover.
Overpressure notice for Sunday booster static fire.
SpaceX has a stream going live for static fire in about 30 mins.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHxKhpFUOuo
Static fire looked pretty good but why did it shutdown prematurely.
New neutron picture
Latest Starbase flyover shows a big slowdown in construction at the launch site which is a good sign. Tons of cracks in the fondag marked with spray paint after the first static fire. Nearly all the steel up for the second building of the star factory expansion, and most of the slab for the 3rd section just about poured, aside from the chunk of land they don't own yet.
Damn, I was pleased the most annoying member of the RGV streams who constantly chimed in with irrelevant and idiotic comments disrupting the presentation flow decided to leave. But one week later they're back.
What
>>1939464Is this?
New diagrams
>>1939484
>>1939465There is a label on it that says HLS. S22 is getting a second life as an HLS prototype.
Good overview of the Starbase deluge system with 3d models etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqVLP3DKOk4
First potential date for second Starship flight is August 31. Though unlikely I suspect. Probably intended to light a fire under the FAA by saying, "hey we're ready to go".
2 of the 3 Starbase fabrication tents are going bye-bye. Mid Bay might be going too.
Hot staging ring for B9 rolled over for installation.
>>1940853Ship latches and protective dome inside.
>>1940853SN29 looking good.
This is insane, literally 10 times as much as the nation of China
Deluge test tonight looked like they might have been testing how long it can run for. Seemed to be about 25 seconds.
Booster play pen.
Random space pic
The RVACs are looking really different nowadays
>>1941591It looked very good, nighttime tests are kino
Luna 25 has crashed into the moon. It looks like the Russian presence in space is declining
Mission profile for rocketlabs launch today
>>1942022Yep and now the Indians are beating them, what a world this has become.
Another static fire expected today. Hopefully full duration and all engines so it will be the last test before launch.
2nd Starbase tent started getting torn down tonight. Mid bay prepped to be knocked over whenever they have time.
Shaka when the Midbay fell.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6g-D_m4Hwg
>>1943993Billions must fly
>>1943993Good, no sentimental bullshit only efficiency
>>1943510Its already showing conditions are good enough for launch. I hope the FAA is quick.
Probably going to be a full stack and maybe WDR this week. Some of S25's tiles aren't looking so hot, but they might launch it like that anyway.
soon
S25 had its name and a SpaceX logo applied.
>>1944074The sketchy tiles on S25 got something like a drywall mud smeared over them instead of them being replaced. Nice to see it won't get the S24 full scaffolding treatment which would have taken weeks.
Alignment pins used to steady booster during lifts have been removed. Next time B9 leaves the launch mount will be under its own power.
Sp𝗮ceX pl𝗮ns to oper𝗮te 𝗮 perm𝗮nent St𝗮rship sp𝗮ce st𝗮tion in E𝗮rth orbit.Per documents from NASA’s CSCC2, SpaceX has plans to operate a space station in low Earth orbit derived from their Starship spacecraft.SpaceX claims Starship has a habitable volume of ~1000m^3 which is already greater than the entirety of the International Space Station.However, SpaceX can greatly increase the habitable volume of Starship station by going down the Skylab route, converting Starship’s propellant tanks into habitable space for crew - in other words, the entirety of Starship would be habitable.The Starship space station should be expected to become operational in the 2030s, as the CSCC2 document aims for a only preliminary design review of the station from SpaceX in 2028.
>>1945823I think everyone expected that given the internal volume. I'm pretty sure lunar gateway is going to get a permanently docked Starship as well.
S25 rolling. No closure announced, but that doesn't stop them from rolling something out late in the evening.
>>1904849nice maintenance window
>>1945855I would hope so. The gateway initial proposal was almost cruel in its size.i do wonder why they plan though
>>1946270Good start
Its about to full stack
>>1946424I think NASA is quietly hoping Starship will be ready before they need to setup Gateway. You don't hear much about Dragon XL. Maybe NASA is letting SpaceX defer development on that in hope it won't be needed. Though there is probably a certain point that if Starship has yet met the orbital refueling milestone, Dragon XL will need to get built to not put the schedule at risk.
>>1946432With how much inside knowledge of starship development NASA has they had better be planning more than bullshit small stations. Think about spaceshuttle like deployment of station segments. An ISS made of starship sized modules would be incredibly useful. Dragon XL should just be a backup.
Stoke has completed a WDRStatic fire is next
Saw Crew 6 re-enter.
>>1946584No way thats awesome! Was it better than video irl or about the same.
>>1946598It was much better in person! Looked like a large meteor. That's what I thought it was at first but then I remembered they undocked the day before.
HLS test nose cone is getting painted white for no particular reason. Even though it has tiles on it and HLS won't.
With S25 fully stacked how likely is it that we're looking at a launch in at most the next 2 weeks?
>>1946882I think they'll be ready. Question is if FAA is happy enough to give them a launch license.
>>1946922From what I've been hearing, the FAA is working with SpaceX. Apparently close enough that they are going to release the license close enough that there won't be time for others to counter it before the launch.
FAA released report of 63 things SpaceX need to address before next launch. I imagine most are probably done already since the FAA doesn't just wait until the report is done and spring them on the company.
>>1904646Will the future space farers become the new Sailors?
>>1946869Just because it's a mockup I'm sure and little details help with visualization.
>>1947347Yes, but also no. They probably wont have the same freedom/roughness.
>>1947341>>1946941>>1946922Seems like it was a good report. Hope the 63 are finished quick.
new close up.
Apparently, Moxie generated 122 grams of oxygen – about what a small dog breathes in 10 hours. That is huge in regard to colonization.
Wasting no time ripping out all the concrete where Tents 1&2 and the Midbay were. It will be interesting to see what they are building next. Some say they will build a 3rd megabay near the road facing the one under construction and move the site entrance over a bit.
Parker Solar Probe is heading in for another series of solar flybys. Going to hit 176 km/s for this series of passes, or 633,600 km/h.
Musk tweeted that SpaceX has already completed all 57 FAA requirements for the next flight. 6 additional requirements pertain to future flights. Should see marine notices come out soon.
B10 going for a ride to Masseys on the new mobile can crusher so they can get away without having a big crane over there.
>>1947467This is pretty significant considering Moxie is tiny.
>>1947531Its fantastic that they just aren't afraid to destroy and build
>>1947849That is insanely fast
One weird bit of work last week was Ship 20 having its lift points tiled over. It has Raptor 1 engines and a mating system incompatible with current boosters. Maybe it will be on display for a long time. Booster 4 and Ship 20 having engines installed would make scrapping them more effort. They'd have to tie up work stations removing engines instead of working on new hardware. Then the engines would probably have to be shipped back to McGreggor for scrapping due to ITAR security concerns.
>>1948114Everyone knows SLS is shit but NASA is waiting on starship.
Some updates from Jeff Faust>Arianespace's Stéphane Israël: the US has invested billions in human spaceflight, while Europe has been more shy. Will this change? I don't know; see what happens at the Space Summit in November.>ULA's Tory Bruno says the Vulcan Centaur, with modifications to the upper stage, will roll out to the pad in November for launch in December>Blue Origin's Jarrett Jones says in a World Satellite Business Week panel that he expects "multiple" New Glenn launches in 2024. Have four boosters in various stages of production and other testing going well>SpaceX's Tom Ochinero says the company is "real close" to the next Starship launch; "working closely with the regulators" at this point.I apologize for the reddit spacing but they need to be seperate.
Axiom AX-3 crew revealed. All European >https://www.axiomspace.com/news/ax3-astronaut-crew
>Air Force satisfied with SpaceX services, not concerned about its growing dominancehttps://spacenews.com/air-force-satisfied-with-spacex-services-not-concerned-about-its-growing-dominance/
Thanksomuch,,,for thisthread.,,Hughappy seeing peoplelivate justatiny bit.,,,,sorry i droped theball,,the Sushi was more temptation then i could handel,,,,Basedummy@!,,,HITHE,,,moon.
Funny this thread has been around since before the first Starship flight test, and potentially might not roll off the last page until after the second one.
collagefag... we miss you
Test of a Raptor Vacuum engine chilled to mimic conditions after a long coast period in space>https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1702382139331977713Raptor engine demonstration of a descent burn to the lunar surface>https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1702382407004070183It would be amazing to see the list of NASA checklist items SpaceX is blowing through. The amount of productivity they have is staggering.
>>1948492Their turnaround time is certainly impressive. The next page being an image of the successful launch would also be very nice.
>>1948080Why would they do that?
Firefly slow mo engine ignition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0srs5jZ1qdg
Stoke space just hopped successfully!!
Rocket Factory Augsburg@rfa_space·45mLoad Up, Lift Off! We are excited to introduce Argo, our heavyweight cargo service to the ISS and future commercial space stations!
Starship HLS now is stationary
Looks like fish and wildlife might throw a wrench in the timeline for the next Starship launch because some of the water deluge might splash around.
>>1950728What have they been doing for the last few months?
Close up of starlink V2 posted by SpaceX on X.com
Ship stacking today, hopefully for the last time before launch.
What are some good newsletters\podcasts\periodicals in the topic of space tourism and private-person use of space travel and even space\outer-planet exploration?
