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
It surprises me that nobody has mentioned that an other launch is also scheduled for NET July 20th. I wonder which one will get more media attention should they both occur on that day.
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?
It surprises me that nobody has mentioned that an other launch is also scheduled for NET July 20th. I wonder which one will get more media attention should they both occur on that day.

It surprises me that nobody has mentioned that an other launch is also scheduled for NET July 20th. I wonder which one will get more media attention should they both occur on that day.
It surprises me that nobody has mentioned that an other launch is also scheduled for NET July 20th. I wonder which one will get more media attention should they both occur on that day.
July who?
I think it's safe to say there's very little chance Starship will actually launch in July, so Blue Origin is pretty safe from being overshadowed.
But do they? Were they fixed platforms or station keeping and if the latter, do they still have all the gear to sit active in one spot?
It surprises me that nobody has mentioned that an other launch is also scheduled for NET July 20th. I wonder which one will get more media attention should they both occur on that day.A humble suggestion .... instead of "that other launch", please just specify which launch you're talking about (ideally with a reference). The latter would make you seem helpful and informative, the former conjures an image of "Nah nah nah nah! I know something you don't know!!" from the lips of a bratty child.
Please note that I am unequivocally not saying that is how you intended this to come across, it's just the first thing that came to mind as I wondered what mission you were talking about. Id really appreciate it if you could enlighten me!
SpaceX's FCC flight plan yesterday is one piece of the regulatory puzzle before Starship's orbital flight.
The FAA today notes "SpaceX must meet all licensing requirements before Starship/Super Heavy can launch," with an environmental review ongoing.
https://www.faa.gov/space/stakeholder_engagement/spacex_starship/
Admittedly, I only have a KSP-level knowledge of orbital mechanics, so please gently educate me if I'm wrong here.
Can this actually complete a full orbit? Looking at the times (SECO @ 521, Ship Splashdown @ 5420) I'm having a hard time seeing how they launch from Boca Chica, orbit all the way around past Boca Chica, and then make it another 300 degrees around to Kauai.
Assuming the answer is "No, it doesn't go all the way around"... Will this achieve orbital velocity and then do a de-orbit burn? Or will it just be a very long ballistic trajectory? (The lack of a second burn of the second stage would suggest it's the later.)
So , since it's getting real , What could be the final orbit of Starship after insertion. Will they keep it low to minimise TPS heating for the time being , also since the landing (or splashdown) is 90 minutes after liftoff , from Boca TX to Hawaii in eastward direction could mean the it will complete a single orbit before re-entering.
Also will they be testing the R-Vacs for the first time in Orbit?
I think the flight will be suborbital, but only just, like a shuttle eternal tank. Then you can target the landing zone even if the raptors fail to complete the deorbit burn.
Edit: Also starship landing occurs at T+90 minuets, so exactly like an ET
OK Orbit but one that is just barely such that it will rapidly decay to the point it will reenter around Kauji. If on the way up it is off target (this is just a few 10s of m/s) then it will either splash before or after Kuaji into the Pacific somewhere.
I can't reconcile "achieve orbit" with rapidly decaying around T+90mins. That just doesn't compute for me. Achieving Orbit necessarily means a full once-around.
"until performing a powered, targeted landing" suggests to me that they would achieve a meaningful orbit insertion and then perform a deorbit burn, or perhaps even a deorbit-acceleration burn to test EDL at a higher than orbital velocity.
how would it work to have a few high altitude blimps in position along track to monitor. Tow them out East from Hawaii and release. Have some station keeping ability. Fairly equatorial so maybe upper level winds not very strong?
They could actually try landing on one of their regular droneships. They’re building a third one, and so they’ll have a bit of a spare (soonish).
Similar height as a Falcon 9 booster, so for the same stability, the landing footprint would be about the same. The weight of the booster shouldn’t be too much for the barge. Although it might be a bit of a hazard to have such a huge booster with crew on board trying to secure it. But 20 miles off the coast of Texas should have much calmer waters than the middle of the Atlantic, so that would help keep it safer.
It seems more Starshippy to try to sprint to get Phobos finished in time, but I’m not sure it’s really that feasible.
My real opinion is they haven’t actually decided yet to splash SH or land it on some droneship (ASDS or Phobos), and so they wrote the FCC document to keep open all those possibilities (to spur their crew to work more quickly if nothing else).
BTW, just as a complete shot in the dark, but has anyone checked if there’s an existing platform on the spot on the map where SH is shown to be landing? What’s the water depth there?