If they were doing a recovery, then I'd agree, but there is no planned recovery for either booster or Starship, and an intact landing for either is very unlikely.
Is it just me, or did spacex update their page and remove the graphic?Chris' tweet and the post here https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=47352.msg2473864#msg2473864 includes the graphic. But when I go to the page on spacex at https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-test it has the countdown/timeline but not the graphic?
Quote from: neoforce on 04/11/2023 08:15 pmIs it just me, or did spacex update their page and remove the graphic?Chris' tweet and the post here https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=47352.msg2473864#msg2473864 includes the graphic. But when I go to the page on spacex at https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-test it has the countdown/timeline but not the graphic?I see the graphic and timeline
Quote from: whitelancer64 on 04/11/2023 05:33 pmIf they were doing a recovery, then I'd agree, but there is no planned recovery for either booster or Starship, and an intact landing for either is very unlikely.According to the materials SpaceX released today, they will not even attempt a vertical landing of Starship. The diagram shows it landing horizontally on the Pacific Ocean. Apparently, they will let it "float" horizontally until splashdown, with no landing burn.
So the ship is 'landing' horizontally? That's not really a landing and more like a belly flop, right? Is it known why it wouldn't attempt to move vertical and repulsively land?.
Quote from: alphacentauri on 04/11/2023 07:58 pmQuote from: whitelancer64 on 04/11/2023 05:33 pmIf they were doing a recovery, then I'd agree, but there is no planned recovery for either booster or Starship, and an intact landing for either is very unlikely.According to the materials SpaceX released today, they will not even attempt a vertical landing of Starship. The diagram shows it landing horizontally on the Pacific Ocean. Apparently, they will let it "float" horizontally until splashdown, with no landing burn.I'd be extremely surprised if they didn't do the flip maneuver. There's no reason not to gather more landing data, especially since there have been so many changes since the SNxx series of tests. I suspect the graphics designer simply didn't want to make the chart too busy.
The NSF team is live discussing the release of the flight profile for SpaceX's Starship Flight Test!
Quote from: Malisk on 04/11/2023 08:19 pmSo the ship is 'landing' horizontally? That's not really a landing and more like a belly flop, right? Is it known why it wouldn't attempt to move vertical and repulsively land?. Possibilities1) graphic designer forgot2) they decided they didn’t want to bother doing all the mods needed to enable a successful flip. Remember, this is probably the most challenging part of the whole mission for the suborbital tests, and it failed multiple times in multiple ways. They may have just deleted those mitigations on this vehicle since it was already tested on suborbital flights and this is an old design of Starship anyway.3) they want to do sideways landing now. If they’re already potentially adding auxiliary thrusters for the Moon, they could just avoid flipping at all for Earth landings. This would be the first we’ve heard about it.I’d say 2 is more likely than 1, and 3 is by far the least likely.
2) they decided they didn’t want to bother doing all the mods needed to enable a successful flip. Remember, this is probably the most challenging part of the whole mission for the suborbital tests, and it failed multiple times in multiple ways. They may have just deleted those mitigations on this vehicle since it was already tested on suborbital flights and this is an old design of Starship anyway.
They might think that they've fixed the door for max-q stress, but aren't confident about torque on the frame during a flip.
https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1645875678657810439QuoteTeams are focused on launch readiness ahead of Starship’s first integrated flight test as soon as next week, pending regulatory approval – no launch rehearsal this week spacex.com/launches/
Teams are focused on launch readiness ahead of Starship’s first integrated flight test as soon as next week, pending regulatory approval – no launch rehearsal this week spacex.com/launches/