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#100
by
FutureSpaceTourist
on 14 May, 2021 05:35
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#101
by
joek
on 14 May, 2021 05:46
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We saw F9 first stages crash onto the drone ship and cause some damage. Seems that the much higher mass SH booster would be a substantial risk to a drone ship. Not all that surprising that they would want at least one dress rehearsal landing on water before risking a ship.
Likely depends on how much confidence they have dealing with off-nominal landing situations. We have seen F9 boosters divert-abort (from drone ship) when it puts the drone ship at risk. If they think they have that covered, expect they might go for it.
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#102
by
Robotbeat
on 14 May, 2021 05:48
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So this is interesting and seems to imply they're just gonna get rid of the SS and SH at the end of the flight.
Though I'll admit, I'm a little surprised they don't even seem interested in recovery... not even going to try and land the SH on a drone ship? Maybe even if they did land it, it would be too much effort at this point to properly secure it and return it to port and they can learn enough from a 'disposable' flight. (I am hesitant to say 'expendable' as they are choosing to get rid of these stages)
We saw F9 first stages crash onto the drone ship and cause some damage. Seems that the much higher mass SH booster would be a substantial risk to a drone ship. Not all that surprising that they would want at least one dress rehearsal landing on water before risking a ship.
Again, nothing in the FCC thing suggest they will be dumping the SH booster into the drink. It suggest the opposite.
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#103
by
FutureSpaceTourist
on 14 May, 2021 06:02
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#104
by
tater
on 14 May, 2021 06:03
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Again, nothing in the FCC thing suggest they will be dumping the SH booster into the drink. It suggest the opposite.
Exactly.
Starship says "splashdown" and the booster says "touchdown." That can't be accidental.
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#105
by
su27k
on 14 May, 2021 06:22
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Again, nothing in the FCC thing suggest they will be dumping the SH booster into the drink. It suggest the opposite.
They'll probably expend the first few SuperHeavy boosters, this is in the
latest NSF Starship article:
The Launch Tower will also sport a crane for mating Starship atop Super Heavy and eventually large mechanical arms that will “catch” the booster when it returns to the launch site.
The latter is not expected to occur during the first few flights, likely resulting in SpaceX undertaking the path it used during the first Falcon 9 booster landings, with a soft touchdown on water.
Same info from reddit sources, they'll probably only fly 16 to 18 Raptors per booster, so not a big loss, they pancaked 12 Raptors just to figure out belly flop.
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#106
by
steveleach
on 14 May, 2021 07:44
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Again, nothing in the FCC thing suggest they will be dumping the SH booster into the drink. It suggest the opposite.
Exactly.
Starship says "splashdown" and the booster says "touchdown." That can't be accidental.
I wonder if SpaceX make things deliberately ambiguous and then sit around laughing at all the arguments that result on forums like this
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#107
by
Slarty1080
on 14 May, 2021 08:40
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So this is interesting and seems to imply they're just gonna get rid of the SS and SH at the end of the flight.
Though I'll admit, I'm a little surprised they don't even seem interested in recovery... not even going to try and land the SH on a drone ship? Maybe even if they did land it, it would be too much effort at this point to properly secure it and return it to port and they can learn enough from a 'disposable' flight. (I am hesitant to say 'expendable' as they are choosing to get rid of these stages)
We saw F9 first stages crash onto the drone ship and cause some damage. Seems that the much higher mass SH booster would be a substantial risk to a drone ship. Not all that surprising that they would want at least one dress rehearsal landing on water before risking a ship.
New vehicle and all that must introduce a degree of risk, but I'm not sure its that great a risk. They should be able to model the landing fairly well by now and in general it should be a lot easier to land Superheavy than Falcon 9 as they have the ability to hover SH unlike F9.
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#108
by
Star One
on 14 May, 2021 08:45
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How about launching a Crew Dragon just a bit later in order to shadow and photograph the partial orbit and re-entry
Sounds very expensive. Cheaper to launch a Falcon 9 with literally nothing but a camera on the second stage. If they want a picture of Starship on orbit, I don't see why they couldn't have a camera which is ejected from starship and sends the images back as it floats away.
Or they will just task a commercial reconnaissance satellite to do the job.
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#109
by
Humuku
on 14 May, 2021 08:56
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Kauai has the Pacific Missile Range, so it is a good place to get information about your EDL performance, esspecially if it takes you above the Reagan Test Center on Kwajalan beforehand. A full orbit would be problematic, because a malfunction could result in a crash on inhabited land. So I would say: Awesome planning!
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#110
by
libra
on 14 May, 2021 08:58
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#111
by
DreamyPickle
on 14 May, 2021 08:59
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I can't believe they are going to attempt this. All the hardware for BN2 and SN20 is at most a few stacked barrels, how are they going to weld them into a full stack in a few months?
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#112
by
uhuznaa
on 14 May, 2021 09:04
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Again, nothing in the FCC thing suggest they will be dumping the SH booster into the drink. It suggest the opposite.
Exactly.
Starship says "splashdown" and the booster says "touchdown." That can't be accidental.
This is just an FCC document, don't read too much into these words. Heck, in the image in this document the ship even has windows...
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#113
by
Jarnis
on 14 May, 2021 09:56
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I can't believe they are going to attempt this. All the hardware for BN2 and SN20 is at most a few stacked barrels, how are they going to weld them into a full stack in a few months?
Just like they welded BN1 and SN15 in just a few months.
I'm far more worried about the obital launch pad infrastructure and July is obviously an optimistic target, but launch this year seems pretty likely.
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#114
by
CMac
on 14 May, 2021 10:19
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They might reduce suborbital testing and focus on getting the orbital facility up and running. All hands on new facility?
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#115
by
nacnud
on 14 May, 2021 10:29
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They might reduce suborbital testing and focus on getting the orbital facility up and running. All hands on new facility?
Building stainless starship skins is one set of skills,
Building steel framed buildings is another set of skills,
Building ground support equipment and plumbing is another set of skills,
as is building rocket engines, and software, etc
So all these things can happen in parallel.
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#116
by
capoman
on 14 May, 2021 12:06
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I’m pretty sure they are not going to do a hop and likely no SH drone ship landing. If they were planning a drone ship landing, they would want to do a hop to test whatever legs that would use. We have seen no evidence of legs AFAIK.
Not sure a hop of SH would tell them much. It’s really just a larger version of SN5 or 6, and the early hops were really about testing Raptor, plumbing and avionics. SH is just stretched version of SN5 and SN6.
Primary goals for this mission are likely:
SS and SH stacking and integration
SH launch and staging
SS reentry and heatshield testing
Secondary goals are likely:
Boost back and targeted return using grid fins for SH, likely on water
Targeted soft landing on water
Not sure what they might do about potential recovery. Safing the vehicles for recovery, partial recovery or sampling heatshield e.g. may be problematic. Might end up as target practice.
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#117
by
spacenut
on 14 May, 2021 12:14
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Would they have one of the platforms ready to put out in the Gulf for the SH landing?
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#118
by
kevinof
on 14 May, 2021 12:22
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Doubt it. Nowhere near finished and also needs propulsion, control and positioning. Think they are at least 8/12 months from having anything near that.
Would they have one of the platforms ready to put out in the Gulf for the SH landing?
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#119
by
CorvusCorax
on 14 May, 2021 12:27
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Doubt it. Nowhere near finished and also needs propulsion, control and positioning. Think they are at least 8/12 months from having anything near that.
Would they have one of the platforms ready to put out in the Gulf for the SH landing?
The platforms in question already have propulsion, control and positioning, that comes standard with free floating oil platforms. All they need to do is remove all the stuff so there's a clear, level deck.
Like this:
https://twitter.com/Herbo/status/1392556639434256390
how far in time does that sounds) - it could certainly image an even larger Starship.
how far in time does that sounds) - it could certainly image an even larger Starship.