Space Travel & Exploration

[Nerraw]

Also FAA investigation on Starship, and they're now saying they're investigating reports of property damage from falling debris.

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[Gabriel]

https://x.com/realcamtem/status/1880026604472266800
https://x.com/deankolson87/status/1880026759133032662

Couple more angles of the debris field. I note that the two clumps of debris as seen in the first of these two links are at dramatically different altitudes. Wonder how that happened.

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Massive explosion footage!

https://x.com/FlyerXT/status/1880027458642350095

If I saw that and didn't know what it was, I would have had to change my underwear.

[Nerraw]

If I saw that and didn't know what it was, I would have had to change my underwear.

Reminds me of the time that this triggered some panik that North Korea was launching nukes:

[Gabriel]

Reminds me of the time that this triggered some panik that North Korea was launching nukes:

Yep. That'll do it.

[PACOX]

Reminds me of the time that this triggered some panik that North Korea was launching nukes:

[video=youtube;tE5C3O71Xqo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE5C3O71Xqo[/vido]

People in FL said Falcon 9 launches were drones when drones were hot in the news. Theres 1-2 visible launches in FL a week...

[Nerraw]

Starship on Friday.

[ringpriest]

Starship on Friday.

I asked Grok[sic] for a picture of what Musk with the Trump administration officials who will be watching the launch would look like:

[Flarelaine]

I asked Grok[sic] for a picture of what Musk with the Trump administration officials who will be watching the launch would look like:

Can't help but wonder what your exact prompt might have been.

[Nerraw]

Firefly's Blue Ghost lunar lander landing in just under 20 minutes:



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Successful landing! Not tipped over or anything!

First low-res picture has been sent back: https://bsky.app/profile/dutchspace..../3ljf3ldzpvk2o

Mission is planned to last roughly 2 Earth weeks.

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Post-landing press conference starting momentarily:



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https://bsky.app/profile/michaelshee.../3ljfbfm6s2c23

https://bsky.app/profile/michaelshee.../3ljfd3utl5k2f

Couple more pictures fresh from the moon!

[PACOX]

Starship attempt today. Launch window opens at 6:30 EST. Basically same objectives as the previous test.

[Nerraw]

Just under 30 minutes.

Spoiler: 

https://prod-fastly-us-west-1.video....m3u8?type=live

Paste the above into VLC or similar.

[Pann]

Launch scrubbed.

[Nerraw]

48-hour turnaround was just announced. So tomorrow at the time it was yesterday.

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[PACOX]

All these smaller companies having success on the Moon is exciting.

[Pann]

Flight 8 postponed until tomorrow - https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1897268163911540778

[Nerraw]

Busy day tomorrow. Ariane 6 launch, IM-2 moon landing an hour later, and now Starship 6 hours after that.

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List of stuff going down today, in UTC:
16:24 - Ariane 6 launch
17:32 - IM-2 lunar landing
23:30 - Starship Flight 8

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Today's first event happening in 10 minutes.



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Launch went well, into first coast phase now.

In the meantime we're 37 minutes away from expected touchdown of IM-2:



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Descent burn has begun. Lander will be on the surface one way or another. Just under 13 minutes until expected touchdown.

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Ariane 6 mission successful.

IM-2 appears to have landed but signal has been cutting out so the situation is still being evaluated.

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It has landed on the moon and they're communicating, but they're still not certain of the vehicle's exact status. And now they just ended the livestream.

Press conference in 3 hours.

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Press conference for IM-2 in 5 minutes.



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They are currently in full contact with the vehicle but they don't believe it is standing upright. Pictures are still to come. Non-critical systems are being powered down while they assess how the situation is and what they can accomplish with what they've got.

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Spoiler: 

https://prod-fastly-us-west-1.video....m3u8?type=live

Paste into VLC or equivalent for Starship Flight 8. Window opens in 30 minutes and remains open for an hour.

[PACOX]

Got to watch some of the lunar landing. Stepped away for a bit and was confused when the stream just ended...

Appreciate the updates.

[Pann]

Another successful booster catch!

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Ship not looking so good though!

https://x.com/JustFlyAndRock/status/1897795683840823799
https://x.com/acolan1006/status/1897795510804582476

[Nerraw]

Booster caught by the tower for the third time, out of three attempts. Incredibly work by the teams working that problem which seems to be solved already. Major step forward for reusability of the booster.

Losing the ship in this way for the second time in a row is a major setback however. Not only is it indicating they've got a serious problem with the engine bay on this Ship 2.0, they also have yet to collect any of the absolutely essential reentry data with the modified heat tiles and new front flaps of the ship. Definitely the worst setback SpaceX have had in a very long time, outside of losing CRS-7 and Amos-6 in the previous decade.

[PACOX]

Another ship likely gone. This is what R&D looks like. Maybe the cultish side of SpaceX fans finally get it.