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Off-Topic Space, the final frontier, these are the voyages of NASA

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Also the Starship upper stage landed right where they wanted.. It still looks like the flaps got a little burn through, but didn't lose control this time. Next versions of Starship will already have flaps that are further backwards anyways, so this should hopefully not be a problem going forward. Still the top item preventing full reusability still seems to be issues with the heat shield and keeping them on the ship the entire way up and down. It sheds like 20k Km/hr of speed, and all that heat goes into the tiles... With them nearing completion of their 2nd launch tower already, once they fully figure out the heat shield issues that give them more confidence in fully controlling the vehicle, Don't be surprised if they go for broke and try to land BOTH the Superheavy Booster and Starship upper stage on each launch tower... That will be just insane.

Next MAJOR milestones are putting Starlinks into orbit, and testing orbital refueling. Good news is they already have Launch 6 approvals, and really if the Booster is already reusable then they can already start making profitable/revenue generating Starlink launches. And unlike Falcon 9 which they are size and weight limited on, Starship will allow them to launch their Full sized latest gen Starlink Satellites as well as just being able to launch more than 40/launch... perhaps as high as 5x+ more!

I honestly think if the FAA doesn't drag their feet much more, Starship won't be the limiting factor for getting back to the Moon with the Artemis program.
 
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SpaceX’s launch this weekend will reshape the space industry

October 16, 2024​
 

This weekend, Mars got one step closer.

I got goosebumps as I watched the SpaceX Starship booster slide into place, caught by the robotic arms of the launch tower. It was the first time SpaceX had attempted to land its Starship booster like this—an engineering feat initially suggested by Elon Musk that we only just learned was truly possible on Sunday. The livestream showed employees at SpaceX’s California HQ roaring with joy, arms raised and jumping up and down as if at a concert.

Delian Asparouhov, cofounder of Varda Space Industries and a partner at Founders Fund, one of the first venture firms to back SpaceX, was giddy as he recounted his Sunday morning, drinking coffee as he witnessed the landing via livestream.

It was “as fundamental of a leap forward as the first year of the Falcon 9 landing,” Asparouhov told me. “It’s just a clear pointer to a fundamental net new era in space flight, right?”

This was a historic flight for SpaceX, the venture capital world’s second most valuable startup. The booster landing was a huge step in proving that the Starship Super Heavy rocket can be reused, offering assurance that SpaceX will be able to send heavier payloads into orbit for customers, ship its own second, larger version of SpaceX’s own Starlink satellites into the skies, and eventually transport dozens of people at once into space.

SpaceX’s novel approach to catching the booster with what it called the “chopstick” arms is intended to allow the company to conduct launches quickly and to catch the booster on the uneven terrain of other planets. There’s a way to go before that becomes a reality, but Sunday’s successful test already catapults SpaceX far ahead of competitors like Blue Origin, whose mega-rocket New Glenn has yet to do a test flight; or Relativity Space’s Terran R, which is still in development.

Today, anyone who wants to send something into orbit—whether a company with a satellite to deploy, or a scientist who wants to send a probe or telescope for their studies—has to use expensive, light materials. Even SpaceX’s workhorse rocket, the Falcon 9, which was responsible for SpaceX doing 90% of U.S. launches in 2023, can’t carry more than 50,265 pounds to low earth orbit when its booster is reused. By contrast, the Starship, once in operation, will be able to carry up to 150 tons on a reusable rocket, or 250 tons on an expendable one.

“Starship will completely change what’s optimal for spacecraft design,” Karan Kunjur, the CEO of satellite startup K2 Space, wrote me in an email. Kunjur pointed out how his company, which has already started building mega satellites that depend on bigger rockets like Starship, will be able to deploy satellites with higher power and larger antennas that can give houses in rural areas better internet throughput and service, and that K2 Space will ultimately be able to use heavier, lower cost materials to build them.

Founders Fund’s Asparouhov expects a shift in what venture investors will be willing to write a check for, now that founders can set a roadmap that fits within their investment horizons. “The idea that somebody could land something that’s a multi-ton object on the moon is something that is actually viable in the timeframe that matters to investors,” he says, adding: “I’m not sure that we were totally ready to start to realistically underwriting business models that were dependent on Starship. Now it feels much more reasonable to do so,” he says.

SpaceX has been talking about its big plans for Starship for years: long-duration flights in between planets, developing a Moon base, and even point-to-point transit here on Earth.

We’re still likely years away from all that, as Starship has more test flights to go (including a sixth test expected later this year) before it is incorporated into SpaceX’s launch fleet. But SpaceX just laid the groundwork for all of it, and it’s pretty cool to see history in the making.
 
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SpikeUM said:
SpaceX’s launch this weekend will reshape the space industry

October 16, 2024​


​
 


This weekend, Mars got one step closer.

I got goosebumps as I watched the SpaceX Starship booster slide into place, caught by the robotic arms of the launch tower. It was the first time SpaceX had attempted to land its Starship booster like this—an engineering feat initially suggested by Elon Musk that we only just learned was truly possible on Sunday. The livestream showed employees at SpaceX’s California HQ roaring with joy, arms raised and jumping up and down as if at a concert.

Delian Asparouhov, cofounder of Varda Space Industries and a partner at Founders Fund, one of the first venture firms to back SpaceX, was giddy as he recounted his Sunday morning, drinking coffee as he witnessed the landing via livestream.

It was “as fundamental of a leap forward as the first year of the Falcon 9 landing,” Asparouhov told me. “It’s just a clear pointer to a fundamental net new era in space flight, right?”

This was a historic flight for SpaceX, the venture capital world’s second most valuable startup. The booster landing was a huge step in proving that the Starship Super Heavy rocket can be reused, offering assurance that SpaceX will be able to send heavier payloads into orbit for customers, ship its own second, larger version of SpaceX’s own Starlink satellites into the skies, and eventually transport dozens of people at once into space.

SpaceX’s novel approach to catching the booster with what it called the “chopstick” arms is intended to allow the company to conduct launches quickly and to catch the booster on the uneven terrain of other planets. There’s a way to go before that becomes a reality, but Sunday’s successful test already catapults SpaceX far ahead of competitors like Blue Origin, whose mega-rocket New Glenn has yet to do a test flight; or Relativity Space’s Terran R, which is still in development.

Today, anyone who wants to send something into orbit—whether a company with a satellite to deploy, or a scientist who wants to send a probe or telescope for their studies—has to use expensive, light materials. Even SpaceX’s workhorse rocket, the Falcon 9, which was responsible for SpaceX doing 90% of U.S. launches in 2023, can’t carry more than 50,265 pounds to low earth orbit when its booster is reused. By contrast, the Starship, once in operation, will be able to carry up to 150 tons on a reusable rocket, or 250 tons on an expendable one.

“Starship will completely change what’s optimal for spacecraft design,” Karan Kunjur, the CEO of satellite startup K2 Space, wrote me in an email. Kunjur pointed out how his company, which has already started building mega satellites that depend on bigger rockets like Starship, will be able to deploy satellites with higher power and larger antennas that can give houses in rural areas better internet throughput and service, and that K2 Space will ultimately be able to use heavier, lower cost materials to build them.

Founders Fund’s Asparouhov expects a shift in what venture investors will be willing to write a check for, now that founders can set a roadmap that fits within their investment horizons. “The idea that somebody could land something that’s a multi-ton object on the moon is something that is actually viable in the timeframe that matters to investors,” he says, adding: “I’m not sure that we were totally ready to start to realistically underwriting business models that were dependent on Starship. Now it feels much more reasonable to do so,” he says.

SpaceX has been talking about its big plans for Starship for years: long-duration flights in between planets, developing a Moon base, and even point-to-point transit here on Earth.

We’re still likely years away from all that, as Starship has more test flights to go (including a sixth test expected later this year) before it is incorporated into SpaceX’s launch fleet. But SpaceX just laid the groundwork for all of it, and it’s pretty cool to see history in the making.
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@JD08 @Calinative @IndayArtHauz
 
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15 mins away from Flight Test 6, 2nd try to catch booster.
Looks like ship is going to be way more aggressive to tests its limits returning as well as testing relight in orbit.

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Unfortunately bailed on Reentry catch attempt. Tower was go for catch, but booster was no go. Will be interesting to see what the reason it was. Doesn't seems like the 2nd catch was the main test this time - what they are doing with booster seems like the larger priority, but they definitely wanted another go at it.
 
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Calinative said:
Unfortunately bailed on Reentry catch attempt. Tower was go for catch, but booster was no go. Will be interesting to see what the reason it was. Doesn't seems like the 2nd catch was the main test this time - what they are doing with booster seems like the larger priority, but they definitely wanted another go at it.
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