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  1. #1241
    Merely a Setback PACOX's Avatar
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    They caught Super Heavy with the chopsticks. First try. Insane work.

    What does that mean? The giant first stage on the bottom of the Starship launch stack returned to the launchpad and landed at the launchpad. But it didn't land on the ground. It landed in between two arms on the launchpad.
    Last edited by PACOX; 2024-10-13 at 12:39 PM.

  2. #1242
    Footage of the booster returning and being caught - https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1845442658397049011

  3. #1243
    Ship soft landed in the Indian Ocean right next to the target buoy

    https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1845457555650379832
    Last edited by George; 2024-10-13 at 03:10 PM.

  4. #1244
    Science fiction in real life right now. Truly amazing!
    Quote Originally Posted by Shadoowpunk View Post
    Take that haters.
    IF IM STUPID, so is Donald Trump.

  5. #1245
    Great job Space X, everyone who made it happen congratulations to them.

  6. #1246
    Merely a Setback PACOX's Avatar
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    Another clip of the catch because some people can't get it to play on Twitter or whatever


  7. #1247
    I never tought we'd actually reach and age of shining silver rockets able to land, like in so many ancient Sci-Fi and Pulp from the 1st half of the 20th Century...
    "It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks, and become one with all the people."

    ~ Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang, "Ethics for Tomorrow"

  8. #1248
    Sure was bizarre actually seeing the chopsticks pull it off. Even more so, if the tower didn't suffer any damage from the landing exhaust.
    Now you see it. Now you don't.

    But was where Dalaran?

  9. #1249
    Space X are having a busy couple days and have launched Europa Clipper, on its six year mission to reach Europa - https://science.nasa.gov/mission/europa-clipper/

    https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1845874986193723732

    I'm a little disappointed that the boosters were expended as the only thing better than watching two boosters land side by side is an even bigger booster being caught in some massive chopsticks!

    Let's hope that it doesn't upset the Europans.

    Last edited by Pann; 2024-10-14 at 05:45 PM.

  10. #1250
    Over 9000! ringpriest's Avatar
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    Bloomberg Op-Ed (in his own rag) on the Artemis program:

    NASA’s $100 Billion Moon Mission Is Going Nowhere
    There are government boondoggles, and then there’s NASA’s Artemis program.

    More than a half century after Neil Armstrong’s giant leap for mankind, Artemis was intended to land astronauts back on the moon. It has so far spent nearly $100 billion without anyone getting off the ground, yet its complexity and outrageous waste are still spiraling upward. The next US president should rethink the program in its entirety.

    As someone who greatly respects science and strongly supports space exploration, the more I have learned about Artemis, the more it has become apparent that it is a colossal waste of taxpayer money.
    A celestial irony is that none of this is necessary. A reusable SpaceX Starship will very likely be able to carry cargo and robots directly to the moon — no SLS, Orion, Gateway, Block 1B or ML-2 required — at a small fraction of the cost. Its successful landing of the Starship booster was a breakthrough that demonstrated how far beyond NASA it is moving.

    Meanwhile, NASA is canceling or postponing promising scientific programs — including the Veritas mission to Venus; the Viper lunar rover; and the NEO Surveyor telescope, intended to scan the solar system for hazardous asteroids — as Artemis consumes ever more of its budget.
    However, I think Bloomberg misses (or deliberately omits) a key facet of the Artemis program at which it has absolutely succeeded: delivering vast amounts of public money to well-connected companies and Congressional districts. Once you understand that Artemis is a spending program that is only very incidentally a space program, it makes far more sense. (Even as it also demonstrates a core failing of the modern United States of North America.)


    Editing to add: For comparison, the United States' total lunar program (not just Apollo, but Gemini and the Surveyors) cost $280 billion in today's dollars, with a score of manned spaceflights (and many more unmanned) delivered 12 astronauts to the lunar surface and returned them safely along with almost 400kg of lunar samples. To date, Artemis' has flown two unmanned missions missions to test hardware.
    Last edited by ringpriest; 2024-10-19 at 04:59 PM.
    "In today’s America, conservatives who actually want to conserve are as rare as liberals who actually want to liberate. The once-significant language of an earlier era has had the meaning sucked right out of it, the better to serve as camouflage for a kleptocratic feeding frenzy in which both establishment parties participate with equal abandon" (Taking a break from the criminal, incompetent liars at the NSA, to bring you the above political observation, from The Archdruid Report.)

  11. #1251
    I'm kinda late to the party, but what exactly is the significance of catching booster on chopsticks compared to just landing it on a platform like before?

  12. #1252
    Quote Originally Posted by Very Tired View Post
    I'm kinda late to the party, but what exactly is the significance of catching booster on chopsticks compared to just landing it on a platform like before?
    From what I have heard the pins that latch on the chopsticks are much lighter and simpler than the landing leg system that Falcon 9 boosters use.

  13. #1253
    Quote Originally Posted by Very Tired View Post
    I'm kinda late to the party, but what exactly is the significance of catching booster on chopsticks compared to just landing it on a platform like before?
    My guess is that their goal, ultimately, is to land on the chopsticks, refuel while there, and then take off again from the chopsticks.

  14. #1254
    Quote Originally Posted by Very Tired View Post
    I'm kinda late to the party, but what exactly is the significance of catching booster on chopsticks compared to just landing it on a platform like before?
    Main reasons:

    1. Performance (not having a landing system on the booster means the booster is lighter, therefore it can lift a heavier payload, spend less fuel and the cost per kilogram is lower)

    2. Rapid reusability (the booster is returned right where it will launch again, so you don't have to land it on a barge, spend days to get it to shore, then on the roads, then lift it on the orbital launch mount; they ultimately want to be able to launch the same booster multiple times in a day)

  15. #1255
    Merely a Setback PACOX's Avatar
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    Starship requires a lot of support (in orbit refueling) for it to do even the min it's slated to for the Artemis program, let alone what SpaceX envisions. That means they are going to want to cut down the turn around on the super heavy boosters as much as possible. Even if they can't service one at the pad, catching it means it's close to the VAB instead on a barge or being towed. Reiterating what people have said, landing fins for the boosters would be heavy so cutting down on a stack that's already extremely heavy helps. Rocket science is about balancing how much mass you have to sacrifice just lifting a payload. Less weight on the booster means more you can lift to obit or more wiggle room for flight planning.


    They really want to get to a point where they can just land a booster, place another Starship on top of it, and go, so they don't need a bunch of super heavy boosters/multiple pads/days/whatever the solution to fuel up the main Starship in orbit that's going to Moon or beyond.

  16. #1256
    The Lightbringer Tuor's Avatar
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    Knowing that red dwarfs made 70% of all star, we can conclude that alien life might not be as common has some people claim.

  17. #1257
    Quote Originally Posted by Tuor View Post


    Knowing that red dwarfs made 70% of all star, we can conclude that alien life might not be as common has some people claim.
    Reminds me of the saying I always heard in relation to space, We don't know how much we don't know. I do love me a good Anton video though.
    Quote Originally Posted by Xarim View Post
    It's a strange and illogical world where not wanting your 10 year old daughter looking at female-identifying pre-op penises at the YMCA could feasibly be considered transphobic.

  18. #1258
    "It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks, and become one with all the people."

    ~ Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang, "Ethics for Tomorrow"

  19. #1259
    Merely a Setback PACOX's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang View Post
    Not trying to jump on Boeings side, they are legacy company being allowed to get away with some nonsense, but much of the Starliner stuff ended up being overblown. The popular press abandoned the story when the capsule ended up not being a disaster like Boeing and NASA said and that the astronaunts being stuck was due to an abundance of caution they had the option to take and a feature of the US having two space capsules that can reach the ISS. Mistakes happen all the time. SpaceX's fleet has been grounded 3 or 4 times in the last 6 months due to mishaps but it doesn't make the news unless you're local or in tune with rocket stuff. SpaceX kind of deluded the public perception of spaceflight because it constantly launches LEO expendable Starlink sats that make all of this look routine. Rocket science is still rocket science. Russia still has the most reliable rockets but if you just pay attention to pop science outlets you'd think they've been messing up a lot. Media 100% shapes public perception.

  20. #1260
    The Lightbringer Tuor's Avatar
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