Topic: Interesting stuff about SpaceX Starship (hate the name)

[Nemesis]

The FAA is once again delaying Starship launches. So instead of this month it will be November at the earliest.

I'm seeing claims of it launching this Sunday.  No details yet.

[Nemesis]

Booster CAUGHT.  Starship achieved it planned orbit.

More detail to come as the flight is still in progress.

Some but less burn through on the flaps.  Still a good ocean landing.

IFT 6 i now scheduled for December.

Some of the outer ring of engine bells seem to have damage and distortion from the heat/force of coming down from 96 km altitude tail first (hot enough to see them glow). 

The booster was sat back down the launch platform and locked in place, the quick disconnect arm was able to reconnect (possibly to drain/recover the left over methane). 

I expect this booster to be dissected to find every iota of damage that would need to be prevented in later models for rapid reuse and also of course the damage that can't be avoided but which will need to be repaired after each flight.

[Nemesis]

The orbital launch mount is already repaired enough that booster 13 has used it for a static fire test.

A raptor was tested for rapid ignition and shut down.  It ran 34 ignitions and shutdowns within 9 minutes.

[Nemesis]

IFT 6 Mon • Nov 18th, 2024  5:00 PM - 5:30 PM EST

[Nemesis]

Not happening this year.  The maiden flight is now scheduled for November.  I fully expect it to slip into next year, if they reschedule it for Dec 31st that will be (I think) the 4th year in a row that they scheduled it for that date then failed to launch it. 

Am I cynical about any Blue Origin announcements?  You bet I am.  They got my hopes up too many times only to dash them.

Maiden launch no longer November but December (no day just the month).  Bet on it being delayed into next year.  4 years in a row its launch has been delayed to December.  I doubt that they will do a launch without some one else paying for it.  No cargo no launch.

[Nemesis]

IFT 6 Mon • Nov 18th, 2024  5:00 PM - 5:30 PM EST

Delayed till Tuesday, same time.

Fueling in process.  IFT 6 has a payload - 1 banana.

[Nemesis]

Flawless launch.  They cancelled the catch for reasons I haven't heard.  Looked like a perfect ocean landing for both booster and Starship. 

The banana surprised me by surviving till the landing, I suspect it was frozen.

The Starship had heat tiles that were from the pre IFT 5 era and they were reduced by 2100 to see how the metal took reentry.  It looked like they had melt through's at the flaps and on one side where the tiles were removed.  They changed the attitude of reentry to test alternatives and at one point had it somewhat nose down to see if the rear flaps could recover - they did.

Yes they did manage an engine relight (briefly on purpose to stay in landing zone).

If any of this doesn't make sense my excuse is I'm feverish.

[Nemesis]

Rumored date for IFT 7 is Jan 11th.

[Nemesis]

Artemis 2 will include three astronauts from NASA and one from the Canadian Space Agency.  NASA commander Reid Wiseman, NASA pilot Victor Glover, NASA mission specialist Christina Koch and CSA mission specialist Jeremy Hansen will fly around the moon before returning to Earth. The roughly 10-day-long mission is tentatively scheduled to launch in April 2026.