Coming from the Test community, one of the hardest points to get across is that failure is always an option. Mine were no where near as spectacular, though.
Poetrooper sends.
Today’s explosive trial of the SpaceX Starship prototype was considered a success according to the company’s rapid development through testing model.
BY BRETT TINGLEY
Revolutionary spaceflight firm SpaceX once again proved to the world they’re capable of putting on a good show today with the launch of one of their Starship prototypes, Serial Number 8, or SN8. The test was by some measures a success, as the craft was able to reach high altitude and terminate its flight at a particular location, although the landing resulted in a fireball seemingly ripped straight from Looney Tunes.
Today’s flight in Cameron County, Texas was intended to test many of the systems and subsystems on Starship and comes on the heels of an aborted test yesterday. “This suborbital flight is designed to test a number of objectives, from how the vehicle’s three Raptor engines perform to the overall aerodynamic entry capabilities of the vehicle (including its body flaps) to how the vehicle manages propellant transition. SN8 will also attempt to perform a landing flip maneuver, which would be a first for a vehicle of this size,” SpaceX said in a statement on its website.
“Missed it by that much.” Read the article and view the video here: The Drive
Thanks, Poe.
The biggest success is that it was launched from Texas.
That was amazing. I still can’t believe Musk can turn rockets upside down in flight. Amazing what capitalism and free enterprise can achieve.
Lars disagrees.
Lars would disagree with gravity.
His empiric data shows that gravity is oppressive and a capitalist tool. His take is that all should be able to enjoy gravity equally. Wait, whut?
Welp, Marvin finally got him an earth shattering KA-BOOM! The move from Commiefornia to Tejas musta caused some shipments to get crossed up. The shipment from ACME c/o W.E Coyote got sent to Musk. Mr. Musk’s shipment is not to be found. Late breaking news has Mr. Coyote enjoying a roasted fowl.
“…failure is always an option.” “Mine were nowhere near as spectacular, though.” Not to worry Bro, you will have a chance to witness a spectacular failure on Saturday upcoming, when that (GO) Army Mule kicks that (BEAT) Navy Goat with an Earth Shattering Boom.
Goat butts Mule, pounds Mule into ground.
Go NAVY!!!!!!
I need better glasses.. I couldn’t see the “ACME” label…
I couldn’t see the coyote holding the tiny umbrella over his head.
Musk took Tesla da hell out of PRoC – genius.
Driving is easy. It’s the parking that takes practice.
Can a Ninja pull up the total $$$$ value of government grants that Space X gets?
Your tax dollars.
Well spent.
Looks like early on they got about $500 million in NASA contracts.
Aside from the fact Elon Musk is one industrial accident way from being a supervillian, I would say it’s a good investment.
If they’re going to push the boundaries failures are going to happen.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/18/18683455/nasa-space-angels-contracts-government-investment-spacex-air-force
Forgot to add a link for a rather interesting article on this topic.
Robotic overlords—$75 million?
I for one welcome our new robotic overlords…
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk
There shouldn’t be a problem about going to mars because in 1950, Americans flew to Mars in their Rocket ship X-M.
Elon Musk called it an RUD.
“Rapid, unscheduled disassembly”
Now that’s funny
That’s what caught my eye and the reason I sent it to Ed.
A guy with that kinda sense of humor can’t be all bad…
Do a Google or Bing search for “Tyranny of the Rocket Equation.”
SN-8 went straight up. At the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars — a billionaires toy — it climbed to an altitude only slightly higher than a WWII era B-17 bomber. More importantly, it climbed straight up. So when the fuel was exhausted, it came straight down. Such a profile will never get you into space.
Rockets never get into orbit by going UP, they get into orbit by going SIDEWAYS. By the time any modern booster has reached 40,000 feet, it has already made a perceptable pitchover move, as if it was falling on its side, to build up sideways speed.
In fact, some of the earlier launches of the Space Shuttle had the shuttle launch very vertical, so in case the engines failed, the Shuttle could glide down back to Cape Kennedy for landing. But once at high altitude, the Space Shuttle tipped over and actually DOVE back toward the Earth to gather sideways speed, because it’s that sideways speed that lifts any spacecraft out of Earth’s gravity well and into orbit.
Look at this flight profile for STS-88:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Ascent-Trajectory-over-Downrange-Distance-for-the-STS-88-Space-Shuttle-Launch-to-the_fig2_291521873
Once Musk’s Starship is going fast enough SIDEWAYS to reach orbit (about 17,500 miles per hour) it is too high and too fast to simply “tip over” and free fall back to Earth. His starship is now fully engaged in an orbital reentry, and it has neither a heat shield nor the structural strength to maintain physical integrity and resistance to the heat of reentry.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Going to the Moon or worse, to Mars, is not and never will be cost effective because it will never turn a profit. There is nothing on the Moon or on Mars, that would allow the launch company to recover the costs of getting there and returning any product to earth.
If the surface of the Moon were .9999% pure gold, and all you had to do was fly to the moon, land, carve out a chunk, fly it back to earth and land it somewhere on Earth, you will lose money. Pure gold is worth about $26,800 a pound today. We are spending $10,000 a pound to deliver food to the International Spece Station.
If it were possible to launch lead bars into orbit, make three revolutions with the Space Station, and upon landing back on Earth the lead had become pure gold, the rocketeer has lost money. And there is nothing produced in marketable quantities in space that approaches pure gold in value.