Space Travel & Exploration

[Pann]

"Propellant transfer demo complete"

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1768274089746256076

Brilliant!

- - - Updated - - -

It lost at least one heat tile, as seen on the main camera view on the way up, so it's likely it has lost more elsewhere.

Hopefully it won't prove to be fatal to re-entry but even if they lose Starship this launch has been excellent to watch.

[Nerraw]

Propellant transfer demo is complete. That is THE biggest hurdle for even getting Starship to the moon. Completing that on the first attempt is MASSIVE for the Artemis program.

- - - Updated - - -

No Raptor relight, onboard computer did not want to proceed. So we're going straight to reentry! That part will start in a couple of mins.

- - - Updated - - -

HOW! THE FUCK! Do they still have HD cams through atmo???

[Pann]

Simply stunning!

The telemetry data hasn't changed for a few minutes now, I'm hoping this is simply a blackout but I fear it has broken up.

[Nerraw]

Yeah, no way it was surviving that. It came in spinning real bad. But holy shit, what an advertisement for Starlink.

- - - Updated - - -

They just called the loss of Starship.

But man, what a spectacularly successful test flight.

[Pann]

They confirmed that Starship has been lost.

I can't wait for the next flight.

[George]

Amazing views and each test went further than the previous one. I can't wait for the next one, we should have quite a few this year.

Ad astra!

[Gabriel]

God... I want to see the booster hitting the ocean in HD so bad.

[Pann]

God... I want to see the booster hitting the ocean in HD so bad.

You're not the only one!

[PACOX]

The propellant transfer demo and hot staging is the most exciting thing. Starships size is absolutely impressive, but massive rockets aren't new. Hot staging takes skill, propellant transfer isn't new, but doing it at the scale required for Starship missions is unprecedented. Those two things actually represent the next stage of rocket science. The hardest part is simply getting something off the ground while still having room for a payload that's worth a damn, hot staging and propellant transfer will solve a lot of issues in the coming years.


Starship represents what we should have gotten after the shuttles, and has the potential to be just as impactful (also inefficient). The US government is already considering buying Starships from SpaceX, just in case it does end up being too expansive for SpaceX to operate for profit. Can't wait until they start prototyping working/functional interiors. They did have an opportunity to open the payload doors this flight, crazy.

[Nerraw]

Soooo... The pad seems to have survived. Again. Maybe they know a thing or two about what they're doing after all?

[Pann]

Slow motion footage of Starship's launch

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1768747417716101402

Stunning!

[Vakna]

Propellant transfer demo is complete. That is THE biggest hurdle for even getting Starship to the moon. Completing that on the first attempt is MASSIVE for the Artemis program.

- - - Updated - - -

No Raptor relight, onboard computer did not want to proceed. So we're going straight to reentry! That part will start in a couple of mins.

- - - Updated - - -

HOW! THE FUCK! Do they still have HD cams through atmo???

Combination of the power of Starlink, multiple redundant antennae, and Starship just being so fucking big that it can send a signal through the hole it punches in the atmosphere. This definitely wouldn't have been possible without Starlink though. Pretty amazing that this is the first time we've ever actually seen a vehicle experience reentry plasma live.

[ringpriest]

Meanwhile, over with SLS, Congress wants to dump $7 billion into the program (while cutting science missions by the same amount):

Both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees recommend earmarking around $25 billion for NASA for the next fiscal year (FY 24), which is in line with the amount of funding the agency received this year (FY 23). However, both branches of Congress recommend increasing the portion of that funding that would go toward the Artemis program and its transportation cornerstones, SLS and the Orion crew capsule.

Those programs would receive $7.9 billion per the House bill or $7.74 billion per the Senate bill, an increase of about $440 million from FY 2023 levels.

Meanwhile, science missions are looking at cuts of around that same amount, with the House recommending a budget of $7.38 billion versus $7.79 billion in FY 2023.

Also, while not directly connected to the SLS delays, "NASA, Boeing delay Starliner capsule's 1st astronaut launch to early May"

The test flight had been scheduled to launch last July. However, technical issues —chiefly, a problem with the suspension lines on Starliner's main parachutes and the fact that much of the capsule's wiring was wrapped with flammable tape — pushed the liftoff to this spring.

Those problems are under control, NASA said in an update in late January, which stressed that CFT was still on track for a mid-April launch. But ISS traffic issues can alter schedules as well, as Friday's news attests.

[Nerraw]

The death throes of the Southern states' SLS pork barrel. Starship coming online will put them out of business for good, so they're grabbing anything and everything they can on the way out.

[PACOX]

Meanwhile, over with SLS, Congress wants to dump $7 billion into the program (while cutting science missions by the same amount):

That's an old article based on Artemis plans before timelines had to be adjusted. Just to be clear, a lot of those adjusts are in relation to Starship HLS not being as far along as NASA would like. Other factors include still not have spacesuits, and concerns with the Orion capsule. Recently 1 out of two lunar landings failed, which means NASA is being more cautious (Artemis's timeline had already been pushed back).


It does mean SpaceX will have to deliver a better version of Starship HLS than initially speculated. No way they would have anything more than a barebones tub by next year.

The whole program is kind of bunk. We're going to go straight to the Moon without the iterative processes that Apollo went through. And Apollo was practically slapped together with duct tape. Apollo was built. There was an entire program meant to just prepare for Apollo. Artemis is supposed to put people on the Moon in just it's 3rd flight, 2nd with humans, ambitious doesn't begin to describe it. Some say even a bit reckless.

[Pann]

Docking with the ISS - https://twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield/st...62398564483560 - and crossing over the terminator from day to night - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa4m...3QkUKUDJmgMO0n

[plz delete account]

Congrats to SpaceX on a successful Starship mission.

Seeing live reentry like that is an absolute fear of engineering, much less propellent transfer

[Tuor]

New image of Sagittarius A*
https://eventhorizontelescope.org/bl...ral-black-hole

The new image despicts the polarised light, an evidence of strong magnetic fields.

A couple videos from the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

[PACOX]

LEO missions have been sort of routine for years but SpaceX and NASA (can't forget the supporting contractors as well) just prototyped the future of spaceflight flight control.

Two rockets were launched from the Cape within the span of 5 hours. I believe they launched one on the west coast too but I don't follow closely.


If you don't know, Cape Canaveral actually has several launch pads with room to expand. The use of the space is grossly inefficient. Even with SpaceX doing ~2 launches a week, the spaceport is heavily under utilitized. All the companies involved being able to send 2 rockets within 5 hours if a great test of future concepts. Imagine 4 to rockets going up daily instead of the normal blocking of 2 or 3 in the same week. Good stuff..
Albiet SpaceX mostly just spams Starlink arrays but the normalization of launches is good for the field.

[Nerraw]

I believe they launched one on the west coast too but I don't follow closely.

This one was delayed because Vandenberg weather decided to behave like Vandenberg weather.