Space X

Shlippery

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121892914#Comment_121892914

I couldn't believe how much of re-entry we saw, the plasma was insane!

Onto the next one....they're definitely making progress and learning as they go. Problems from IFT-2 solved, now to look at the new ones.

3d4life

Is this some sort of insane attempt to meet first quarter targets ? :)

https://www.pprune.org/space-flight-operations/554107-spacex-falcon-9-live-landing-attempt-24.html#post11626187

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121955719#Comment_121955719

PR stunt.

But it shows the direction they want to go.

3d4life

Seem to have some Starlink anomalies over Ireland today. Bit far fetched that they are related to the launches ?

Quantum Erasure

SpaceX

@SpaceX

Targeting Thursday, June 6 for Starship’s fourth flight test.

A 120-minute launch window opens at 7:00 a.m. CT →

http://spacex.com/launches

That's from 1pm to 3pm Irish time,

Quantum Erasure

If Starliner fails to launch tomorrow, I think the instantaneous 'window' for launch on the 6th is around 3pm

Edit: it's 4:29pm,

rameire

SpaceX now targeting 1.50pm today for the Launch of Starship.

emo72

The bastards. I was looking at a AI YouTube site that I thought was SpaceX. Tried to do a Bitcoin scam. I thought it was a genuine channel. I missed the take off. Sickener

ItHurtsWhenIP

I just tuned in and they were talking about how it was so great, that they had a feed via Starlink … until the feed suddenly went dead. 🙄

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G-L0u_L0qU

I think it's 30 minutes to re-entry now.

Shlippery

Booster touch down in the Gulf!!! Tower catch soon :D

emo72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122226675#Comment_122226675

I don't think they are attempting the catch today?

josip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122226836#Comment_122226836

I think 'soon' was 'Musk-soon'. Like blinis on Mars in 2026.

Shlippery

this is absolutely insane

ItHurtsWhenIP

That was pretty incredible … how that flap kept going was unbelievable.

Cookiemunster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122226836#Comment_122226836

Well obviously if it has already splashed down it can't be caught. They may attempt it on IFT 5 though.

Shlippery

It was reference to Elon saying recently if it splashed down successfully on IFT-4, they'd think about attempting the Tower in 5, can't find the tweet now though.

Still shocked at that flap performance. Cannot wait to see more footage. Would be great if someone somewhere caught the landing..

https://twitter.com/CSI_Starbase/status/1798717664870953426

MayoForSam

Whoever welded that flap assembly should be proud of themselves, stainless steel for the win baby! How did the heatshield maintain structural integrity? The engineers will love that one, huge amount of data collected.

Shlippery

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122227252#Comment_122227252

https://twitter.com/CamBamJamFam/status/1798493339958055045

also;

grain of salt and all that

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1798732390313218305

Quantum Erasure

Just seen this clip, didn't think they'd cameras out there

@SpaceXSuper Heavy landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1799458854067118450

Quantum Erasure

thread keeps jumping around waiting for tweets to load, took me a while to post the above, so I didn't embed the tweet

jogdish

SpaceX posted a video of the Booster landing in the ocean on X (won't link as it forces page to jump too much on loading)

1. They picked a spot in the ocean and seem to have nailed it.
2. The landing looks soft and all good. Small bit of engine bay fire, maybe pre chilling gases etc but nothing serious to my eyes.
3. I think they will go for catch on IFT5. By landing the booster is thin metal and little pressure, the tower can take the impact - i hope :)

Ghost Train

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122234967#Comment_122234967

was hoping for this, must take a look.

If you want to link the video, maybe try change the X in the address to twitter

jogdish

See that Tim (Everyday astronaunt) has an Elon interview up, will watch in parts. Always amazes me that Tim who makes excellent well editied tight explainer videos with zero fat, completely loses the ability to edit Elon.

Quantum Erasure

🚀🔴

Poulgorm

SpaceX are going to attempt to catch the first stage of the booster in that chopsticks structure. Astounding, if they can pull it off successfully.

The second stage is planned to land offshore, somewhere off the West coast of Australia.

My question is: what is the long term plan for the landing and recovery of the second stage? Surely not on top of the first stage booster?

Even Musk would not be that bold - or would he?

josip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122535893#Comment_122535893

I don't think it would make sense to try to bring the 2nd stage all the way back to the launch pad? Would require too much fuel if even possible. But I suppose every launch is different, so the optimal location to come down for each launch will be different. Is it going to be a fleet of bigger ocean-going barges again?

Poulgorm

Is the second stage of starship much bigger than the first stage of Falcon?

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122540483#Comment_122540483

For Starship Version 1, the upper stage is about 1,300 tonnes, nearly the same as a full Falcon Heavy, the one with three Falcon V boosters which is 1,420,788 kg

Version 2 is slightly bigger

Capt'n Midnight

from https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=50049.280 Version 3's upper stage ship propellent of 2,300 would be heavier than Saturn V's first stage's total mass of 2,214 tonnes

Poulgorm

Good heavens, stage 2 of Starship 3 will be a monster. Can't see them landing that on a barge in the middle of the ocean. I think (I am not certain), that Musk said that they will get to the stage that when both stages return to base, they will just refuel them and be ready to go in 4 to 6 hours again.

Which would indicate that he will land stage 2 at a chopstick type structure beside the existing chopstick structure.

I don't know.

ItHurtsWhenIP

Polaris Dawn has launched.

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2024/0910/1469301-spacex-civilian/

josip

Seems like there's a lot new with this mission. First time doing a spacewalk in these suits and possibly first time depressurising the capsule? Further out than anyone for 30 years. These are not career astronauts, have any of them been to space before let alone done a spacewalk before?

Cookiemunster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122600862#Comment_122600862

They're not exactly amateurs either though. This is Isaacmans second flight. The pilot is ex USAF. The other two are senior SpaceX engineers.

Shlippery

https://www.spacex.com/updates/#starships-fly

Meanwhile in Starship news..

"The Starship and Super Heavy vehicles for Flight 5 have been ready to launch since the first week of August. The flight test will include our most ambitious objective yet: attempt to return the Super Heavy booster to the launch site and catch it in mid-air."

"We recently received a launch license date estimate of late November from the FAA, the government agency responsible for licensing Starship flight tests. This is a more than two-month delay to the previously communicated date of mid-September. This delay was not based on a new safety concern, but instead driven by superfluous environmental analysis."

Cookiemunster

There's to be a live stream of the space walk. The actual space walk is due to start at 10:58 Irish time.

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1834103482930135100

cj maxx

He’s standing up now , It’s more of a space peek than a walk like you saw with Apollo .

josip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122608257#Comment_122608257

Yes, I don't think they ever fully exited the capsule? Lower risk than I had originally thought.

Cookiemunster

They were in vacuum and outside the protection of the capsule in unproven spacesuits. That's about as dangerous as it gets really. Floating freely on a tether wouldn't have added much to the risk.

Poulgorm

I saw somewhere that in the next Polaris Dawn flight, they will have the space equivalent of jet packs. Don't know if they will still be tethered to the capsule, or not. Maybe that is for the next mission after that.

We are dealing with the lives of human beings here, so baby steps…

Itssoeasy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122609608#Comment_122609608

Jet packs ? As in like Bruce McCandless did where he wasn’t tethered to anything and there’s that class picture of him in the foreground and the earth in the background ?

I have watched the stuff from today and fair enough they didn’t float outside the capsule but if given the option I’d take just standing where they did.

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/conducting-experiments-skylab-august-1973/

Testing the M509 Astronaut Maneuvering Equipment in orbit over half a century ago.

Here's hoping starship will bring back large habitable volumes in space.

Quantum Erasure

Integrated Flight Test 5 could be as soon as Sunday, the FAA are saying approval not likely until late November, but there are rumours that NASA might step in to speed that up

Shlippery

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122697387#Comment_122697387

Actually sounding good for Sunday…Eric Berger indicating ideal weather conditions too.. Could be a cracker if it goes ahead!

jogdish

ooooh Sunday please!!! Not wanting another, flight on split screen on the phone prentending im working.

Westernyelp

Flight termination system being installed now. Looks good to go

Quantum Erasure

FAA license issued

@SpaceX Targeting Sunday, October 13 for Starship’s fifth flight test. A 30-minute launch window opens at 7:00 a.m. CT →

Thats 1 pm Irish time, backup dates Monday and Tuesday same time I think (May be a longer launch window, according to Air Traffic Control advisory)

Quantum Erasure

Saw a post on twitter the other day along the lines of

everybody's asking is the tower ready for the catch, nobody's asking "am I ready for the catch?"

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC87WmFN_As

1 pm Irish time, window is an hour

from https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=61646.20

Capt'n Midnight

https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1RDGlyognOgJL SpaceX link starting at 12:35

Capt'n Midnight

two minutes to go if needed they can hold at T -40 seconds for a few minutes.

fog looks like a spillage