Starship Test Launch Today.

[Thomas Walker]

For those so inclined towards space as an interest; there's a chance we may see human spaceflight take a quantum leap forward in a few hours.

 

 

For those not following this mission, a little background. SpaceX has revolutionized the space industry by creating a reusable booster. if you've ever seen an Apollo flight on TV, or the Space Shuttle go up, you know that the place where humans sit is usually a really small part of what's launched, but the boosters and fuel tanks always fall into the ocean. You need to build new rockets for every launch. Even the much talked about Artemis missions will be doing the same.

 

SpaceX's 'mission statement' is that spaceflight should be like an airport. You land a craft, refuel it, and take off again on the next flight.

 

They've been able to do this with satellites. The rocket puts the satellites in orbit, and then lands to fly again with the next batch. Starship aims to do that on a hugely upgraded scale. The rocket in this YouTube video is planned to be completely reusable itself, with a 100 Tonne lift capacity per flight.

 

Put another way:

 

 

For those who don't follow spaceflight, let's put that in perspective: The only trick to getting into space is getting off Earth. When Apollo 11 went to the moon, they used up 90% of their fuel getting to orbit. The Lunar Lander was made of chicken wire and tinfoil, because weight was everything. Once you get into orbit, it's literally 'all downhill' from there.

 

The cost of putting a kilogram of weight into orbit on the Space Shuttle was $54,500. SpaceX has reduced that cost to $2,720 per kilogram.

 

If Starship works, then the cost will be less than $10 per kilogram. You could send anything you wanted to the Moon, or to Mars, and do it every day.

 

This is as big a leap technologically as the Apollo missions were in 1969. The first attempt to pull this off is today.

 

Nobody's ever tried anything like this before, so there's a better than average chance that it will fail. The first half dozen Falcon rockets that SpaceX launched all failed, and last year they had fifty launches and landings, all successful. SpaceX routinely learns from failure. So nobody's really expecting this to be flawless. In fact, it's possible they'll scrub the launch with seconds to go. Even more likely the thin will explode somewhere along the way.

 

Even so, it's the biggest rocket launch attempt in history.

[Dages]

I'll watch it. I love space  

[jayrtom]

Watching right now 😃

 

[Friends just call me Ross]

Scrubbed the launch for today.

[Thomas Walker]

11 hours ago, Friends just call me Ross said:

Scrubbed the launch for today.

 

It was likely. They've never done this before. I just wish timezones made it a few hours earlier, my time.

[Friends just call me Ross]

Test flight is rescheduled for Thursday morning, April 20th.

 

 

 

[Thomas Walker]

 

 

Second attempt in just over 20 mins!

[Thomas Walker]

Wow. That was wild to watch.

 

The news will probably report it as a failure, but this was an integrated sysyems test. No cargo, no crew. The only job of this mission was to gain data for the next one.

 

They said a thousand times that the only goal was to get off the pad, and the rest was icing. The thing flew for almost five minutes with twice the force of a Saturn V., and made it to the manoeuvre stage. That's a fair bit of icing.

 

They've already built the next three or four Starships, I believe. Bring on the next flight!

[Tortuga]

I missed the live coverage. It's a shame that it wasn't more successful.

Edited April 20, 2023 by Tortuga

[Loopy]

https://l.smartnews.com/p-rkxE4/rJm61B

 

 

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas (AP) - SpaceX's giant new rocket blasted off on its first test flight Thursday but failed minutes after rising from the launch pad.

Elon Musk's company was aiming to send the nearly 400-foot (120-meter) Starship rocket on a round-the-world trip from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. It carried no people or satellites; both the booster and spacecraft on top were to be ditched into the sea.

Throngs of spectators watched from South Padre Island, several miles away from the Boca Chica Beach launch site, which was off limits. Space's first try to launch the rocket was called off Monday because of a stuck valve in the rocket during fueling.

 

 

[Tortuga]

"...experiencing a "rapid unscheduled disassembly," as SpaceX terms it"

 

A Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly Event.

How RUDE...

Edited April 20, 2023 by Tortuga

[Hope]

2 hours ago, Tortuga said:

"...experiencing a "rapid unscheduled disassembly," as SpaceX terms it"

 

A Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly Event.

How RUDE...

 

Because "exploded" is too succinct?    They must be paid by the word! 

[Tortuga]

12 minutes ago, Hope said:

 

Because "exploded" is too succinct?    They must be paid by the word! 

I read that it was a tongue in cheek stab at NASA. 🤣

[Lee49]

What goes up, must come down! 

[Dages]

It was incredible. So nice !

[Thomas Walker]

For those who are interested, the next test is in just under two hours.

 

 

They've made changes, rebuilt and redesigned/rebuilt the launch pad, and the permits were finally approved.

 

Remember, SpaceX is willing to fail, specifically to learn and fail better. This test flight is all about data. If it works, it'll get a lot further than April's launch. If everything works, it'll land in the Gulf about 90 minutes after take off.

 

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by Thomas Walker

[Thomas Walker]

Official Live Feed is up.

 

 

[Tortuga]

"SpaceX's next-generation megarocket — the largest ever built — launched on its second-ever test flight today (Nov. 18), a highly anticipated jaunt that took the giant vehicle to space for the first time, but it didn't last long. Shortly after stage separation, the rocket's massive Super Heavy booster exploded, with the Starship upper-stage vehicle itself detonating before reaching its target altitude in what SpaceX called a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" - 

[Tortuga]

RUDE- Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly Event. 

 

In other words - Boom!

[Dages]

It was amazing ! 

[80snewwave]

Fantastic experience.

 

I was there in the area watching the Starship launch. 

I live in Texas.

I have a friend who has a SpaceX connection.  We didn't get to make it on time to the SpaceX facilities, but we were close enough.

 

Wonderful event.  Very loud.  A lot of fun watching the rocket go up.  We could feel the rumbling.

I was able to capture video.

 

Planning on attending the next launch.

Edited November 18, 2023 by 80snewwave

[bobby]

we where never meant to be or live in deep space in this system 

[Qapla]

11 hours ago, 80snewwave said:

I was able to capture video.

Can you post the video?

 

[80snewwave]

Sure thing.  Here's the video.

We were scheduled to be at SpaceX but were too late.

We were within about a 10 mile radius from the launch site.

I was able to capture video by the side of the road.

You can hear the rumbling.

For the next launch we hope to be there at SpaceX.

There were very many space tourists from all over the United States in the area watching the launch.

It was a pleasant experience having breakfast afterwards and talking about the event.

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by 80snewwave