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Pondering a bit about how to land starship. 

Landing at Boca Chica has the problem that you not only need to overfly Texas but that only limited orbits avoid you overflying Mexico. 
Landing at KSC and you have to overfly US. 

Not sure how easy its to get permission for this, but at least here the flip and landing burn will be over KSC.
Another issue is that the catch arms are set up to catch something going to the west as in the first stage after boost back. 

One option might be to land offshore on one of the converted oil tankers. Refuel it for an jump back to pad? 

Yes the first landings will probably be on some island in the Pacific.  The US has some islands they use for missile testing for one. 

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4 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Another issue is that the catch arms are set up to catch something going to the west as in the first stage after boost back. 

This one shouldn't be too much of a problem, as Starship will probably have little to no horizontal velocity during the final part of the descent - if that's correct, the direction Starship will turn doing the bellyflop depends only on the direction  the engines are pointing. 

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2 hours ago, magnemoe said:

Another issue is that the catch arms are set up to catch something going to the west as in the first stage after boost back. 

It would probably overshoot the pad and do the flip over water (or at least over the shoreline) and then come back in for landing from the east.

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Propulsive landing is always going to be extremely risky both for the vehicle and anything nearby.

Even an aerodynamic lift landing is generally considered to be the most dangerous part of any flight. A propulsive landing? Much more so.

Edited by mikegarrison
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19 hours ago, tater said:

FTNUKagXoAYvD0b?format=jpg&name=large

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Shoulder pad, clearly.

But seriously WTH?

There's nothing currently on Starship that is this shape and needs to be covered up. I know they have discussed adding lift/catch points that pop out, but that would require an opening of some kind. Is this thing hinged on the top somehow? Because that could actually work.

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I think its something purely decorative, not meant for a space craft, especialy with that logo. It looks like a turtle shell, maybe its related to enviromental stuff?

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49 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Shoulder pad, clearly.

But seriously WTH?

There's nothing currently on Starship that is this shape and needs to be covered up. I know they have discussed adding lift/catch points that pop out, but that would require an opening of some kind. Is this thing hinged on the top somehow? Because that could actually work.

Highly doubt it's an actual component, the obvious resemblance to a turtle shell suggests to me that this buggy belongs to SpaceX's environmental team (given the abundance of turtles in the area).

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On 5/21/2022 at 12:19 PM, Elthy said:

I think its something purely decorative, not meant for a space craft, especialy with that logo. It looks like a turtle shell, maybe its related to enviromental stuff?

Clearly one of the requirements for the environmental review is to install heatshields on all local wildlife. 

Also this is fun. Those walkthroughs with Everyday Astronaut were great. Wonder if they'll take him up on venting gas to protect the flap hinges too. 
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/one-of-the-biggest-improvements-elon-musk-fixes-starship-rocket-after-youtubers-query-2982535

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On 5/21/2022 at 7:37 PM, CatastrophicFailure said:

Metalworkers with sufficient quantities of scrap, downtime, creativity… and possibly fermented beverages. -_-

Late to this party but I, for one, welcome our RoboTurtle overlords.

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Okay forgive the lazy screengrab but can we have some real-talk for a minute among amateur interested parties?

R4EHMMX.png 

Look, so off the bat I don't comment in this section much, but let me blare through some disclaimers: a) this isn't about politics, but personality and ethics matter when a CEO is so involved in the process, b) Elon is a notoriously awkward and obnoxious weirdo who steps on his own feet as often as he makes (arguably brilliant) decisions; and c) you can love a thing and still criticize it, maybe even more so, for instance I can make fun of Tolkien for being a racist who's got some weird issues with women and still love LOTR to death--this isn't incompatible, you should love and be honest with family too,  etc. etc.

But can we talk about overpromising for a moment? Seriously watching starship's development has been like nothing in my life and I think its among the most amazing machines ever constructed, but... 3 launches a day? Like I love (and hate) you man but that can't be feasible. Stick to 3 a week, right? We're talking achievable averages and I know you're trying to get to 100k/ton and you've got to be optimistic but like give people reasonable, achievable claims that you can deliver on so you build confidence and sustainable growth and stability in your stock prices so there's some reliability there and the whole thing doesn't go Theranos (Poof) or spruce goose (poof) for all of those amazingly talented engineers and craftspeople actually making these incredible things, right? Like have some respect for your people and stop *ahem* roostering around with their lives and futures?

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