-
#1020
by
Lee Jay
on 16 Apr, 2023 22:22
-
The Scott Manley video on this has a really interesting tidbit.
"...I'm going to be getting on a plane to fly out in that direction, but I'm not going there. Believe it or not there's something cooler that I have to go to. I can't tell you what it is."
WTH?
If it’s cooler than the first Super Heavy launch, it better involve space aliens
Or warp drive.
-
#1021
by
GmP
on 16 Apr, 2023 22:25
-
I'm an avid NSF content consumer. But I don't think any other content provider will deliver what Ellie delivered in this video; an interview with the Brownsville mayor involved in the entire journey of SpaceX in Boca Chica. And the mayor has a heartfelt recognition of what Starship means to her community and to the world (and to her son :-) Very much worth a view.
Just watched it. Very impressed with the whole interview.
-
#1022
by
alastairmayer
on 16 Apr, 2023 22:32
-
Looking at the SpaceX test flight timeline.
Anyone know why the ships fuel/methane load starts before the LOX load?
The boosters LOX loading and methane loading start at the same time.
Just went to the SpaceX website to look at the timing. (Fueling is about 1 hour, if you want to watch the excitement build)
Why is the flight diagram so god awful?
Booster flies back, and only then performs the flip and then boost-back burn?
Then it flies back, changes its mind, flies forward again (so why not just fly forward to begin with?)
What's happening?
It's Booster's first flight. Expect it to be a little hesitant and confused.
-
#1023
by
david1971
on 16 Apr, 2023 22:54
-
The Scott Manley video on this has a really interesting tidbit.
"...I'm going to be getting on a plane to fly out in that direction, but I'm not going there. Believe it or not there's something cooler that I have to go to. I can't tell you what it is."
WTH?
Clearly the Blue Origin factory tour.
-
#1024
by
wannamoonbase
on 16 Apr, 2023 22:59
-
I know it’s the first launch attempt and many things could happen to prevent liftoff.
However, I have a growing feeling that it’s actually going to fly tomorrow.
I think stage 1 will do its job, after that, no idea, could be anything.
I am shocked there hasn’t been more coverage about this but maybe that is by design with a late Friday approval and announcement. Keep it quiet in case of RUD.
-
#1025
by
Steve G
on 16 Apr, 2023 23:01
-
Re: Scott Manley's comment. In "that" direction and what could that something "cooler" (for him?). Destination: Corn Ranch. Cool for him? Going on the next New Shepard human flight. I'll wager a Molson on that one.
-
#1026
by
alphacentauri
on 16 Apr, 2023 23:09
-
I am shocked there hasn’t been more coverage about this but maybe that is by design with a late Friday approval and announcement. Keep it quiet in case of RUD.
I've seen brief articles about it on some of the mainstream news media websites. Despite all the hoopla among us spaceflight enthusiasts who think this is the most important event of the past few years, most people won't care about it unless it makes a huge fireball.
-
#1027
by
Surfdaddy
on 16 Apr, 2023 23:19
-
Starship uses supercooled propellants, correct?
Is there an ability to recycle during the window, or is it a one attempt and done situation? They certainly don't need the extra performance on this flight.
-
#1028
by
clongton
on 16 Apr, 2023 23:21
-
The Scott Manley video on this has a really interesting tidbit.
"...I'm going to be getting on a plane to fly out in that direction, but I'm not going there. Believe it or not there's something cooler that I have to go to. I can't tell you what it is."
WTH?
Perhaps the 38th Colorado Space Symposium? It runs April 17-20th.
He may have already purchased admission to the event.
https://www.spacesymposium.org/
-
#1029
by
alugobi
on 16 Apr, 2023 23:30
-
I know it’s the first launch attempt and many things could happen to prevent liftoff.
Look for a local yokel in a boat that scrubs the launch.
-
#1030
by
meekGee
on 17 Apr, 2023 00:09
-
I know it’s the first launch attempt and many things could happen to prevent liftoff.
Look for a local yokel in a boat that scrubs the launch.
The only way to guarantee that it goes on the first try is if I somehow oversleep.
-
#1031
by
meekGee
on 17 Apr, 2023 00:22
-
Nope. You are totally wrong.
To have perigee below sea level and be able to do 3/4 of the circle around the Earth after standard rocket launch (Space-guns, X-30 NASP-like spaceplanes or other Sci-Fi solutions notwithstanding) you must have apogee at ~320km or higher. Otherwise your trajectory would be too shallow.
Wrong. Impossible for a pure impulsive launch (e.g. space gun) but not for any real launch vehicle, which has tens of minutes of burn time, and outside the atmosphere can vector thrust arbitrarily. Whilst eccentricity and plane changes performed within the burn to orbit are expensive in terms of delta V, physics will not stop you. You can - for example - insert directly into an orbit with an apogee above your current altitude and descending, and thus never reach apogee.
Wrong. As I wrote, this applies to everything behaving like a rocket. In fact, it'd be more doable with a space gun (realistically it must be either some type of EM gun or nuclear) than with a rocket: guns always have perigee below ground level, you must raise it later. And no rocket burns for tens of minutes. The longest ascent burns approaches 20m and it takes less than 1/10 of the full circle to ascent. Way too little to cut the exoatmospheric part of the flight below half circle which would be required to play games with lowering perigee without raising apogee.
And yes, you can insert into an apogee of an orbit, that's not a problem at all (and rockets without upper stage restart capability did this in the past). The thing is, you can't then have the perigee not only under ground but even in the significant atmosphere (i.e. below 90km) and do a 270° around the Earth. If you wanted to go for less than half circle, then you're free to do so. But with 270° flight you're limited by the reality that perigee is necessarily 180° from the apogee. If you insert to an overhead apogee, your perigee will be at the antipode of your launch site, 180° away. Obviously, you're not doing 270° if your perigee is only 180° away and underground. It must be above the ground, and significantly at that.
The way to have the lowest perigee (if this is your particular goal; it's not even Starship goal to begin with) while keeping apogee below the set level (235km here) is to have it roughly half-way between your splashdown/landing site and your launch site (give or take 5°). Apogee then must be about half way of your flight.
Too many mental gymnastics going on in this thread. It is a suborbital ballistic trajectory, period.
Saying "period" doesn't make you more authoritative or your reasoning less flimsy.
This orbit is the same as if a spacecraft was in orbit and then lowered its perigee slightly to intersect the atmosphere, since it's going more than halfway around, and it's only burning once during launch.
-
#1032
by
ChrisC
on 17 Apr, 2023 00:29
-
Oh god NOOOO it's baaaaack, and with untrimmed quotes
-
#1033
by
Lee Jay
on 17 Apr, 2023 00:32
-
The Scott Manley video on this has a really interesting tidbit.
"...I'm going to be getting on a plane to fly out in that direction, but I'm not going there. Believe it or not there's something cooler that I have to go to. I can't tell you what it is."
WTH?
Perhaps the 38th Colorado Space Symposium? It runs April 17-20th.
He may have already purchased admission to the event.
https://www.spacesymposium.org/
I think, "I can't tell you what it is" should eliminate that possibility.
-
#1034
by
wannamoonbase
on 17 Apr, 2023 00:55
-
The Scott Manley video on this has a really interesting tidbit.
"...I'm going to be getting on a plane to fly out in that direction, but I'm not going there. Believe it or not there's something cooler that I have to go to. I can't tell you what it is."
WTH?
Clearly the Blue Origin factory tour.
“See this vast completely empty building? One day we will have machines that can make rocket parts, not the rocket itself mind you, let’s not go too fast.”
Blue Origin needs to show some results.
But back to the pre launch insanity for 11 hours from now.
-
#1035
by
alugobi
on 17 Apr, 2023 00:57
-
I hope that they do a Mission Control audio for this one.
-
#1036
by
BillB
on 17 Apr, 2023 01:02
-
I know it’s the first launch attempt and many things could happen to prevent liftoff.
Look for a local yokel in a boat that scrubs the launch.
There has been some speculation that some environmental group would like to stop SpaceX from using Boca Chica. I would not be surprised that since there was not time to file a lawsuit to stop this launch that such a group would put a boat out in the prohibited area.
-
#1037
by
kdhilliard
on 17 Apr, 2023 01:03
-
Oh god NOOOO it's baaaaack, and with untrimmed quotes
Hahahaha!
Not to flog that semantic dead horse, but as far as I've seen, no one here has offered a calculation showing a possible post-SECO trajectory which intersects Earth's surface when calculated without taking atmosphere drag into account (given the expected SECO altitude, approximate apogee, and reentry location).
In lieu of that, I'm trusting Jonathan McDowell:
https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1647321808658395136https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1647324115819278337Rand Simberg: Has SpaceX provided a planned trajectory?
Jonathan McDowell: No, but there are enough clues in the NOTAMs, the timelines, and some FAA statements to infer one.
Simberg: To what degree of precision? (And accuracy)?
McDowell: perigee is between 40 and 60 km with fairly high confidence.
apogee is between 200 and 245 km. inclination is 26.3 +- 0.1 deg.
OK, edited to prod the dead horse *only slightly* by reporting without comment McDowell's choice of terminology:
https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1647649762722603008No, I would say it will be "marginally orbital". For true orbital, I require perigee > 80 km.
-
#1038
by
DecoLV
on 17 Apr, 2023 02:37
-
I'm an avid NSF content consumer. But I don't think any other content provider will deliver what Ellie delivered in this video; an interview with the Brownsville mayor involved in the entire journey of SpaceX in Boca Chica. And the mayor has a heartfelt recognition of what Starship means to her community and to the world (and to her son :-) Very much worth a view.
Well, I don't think she is the mayor just yet. Ellie described her as a mayoral candidate. The point is she has been there from the beginning, and the Brownsville folks are happy to see this day finally arrive. Good video of that perspective.
-
#1039
by
oiorionsbelt
on 17 Apr, 2023 02:50
-
