tater

I don't even remember this concept:

The trick is that if they wait until a deorbit burn is cheap (dv wise), they'll have less control I would imagine vs a very intentional deorbit over the SoPAC. Dv to move it to GEO requires something like 600 tons of props as a reality check on somehow saving it as a historical artifact. Not sure if anyone else can plausibly come up with a vehicle capable of this any faster/cheaper.

https://twitter.com/SawyerMerritt/status/1806072406793937215

Nice John Kraus image:

As for SS/SH? They'll get it sorted, they have some idea what they are doing. ^^^^

That's the theoretical turn around, but he also explicitly stated that that rate could not happen because of orbital mechanics—you have to wait for the tanker/ship to fly over again, so limited to a few flights a day per pad.

The trades on using heat exchangers instead didn't cut it I thought. This dropped as well:

Friend joked this is the mission theme song:

His deep dives are also decent, honestly. The one about every Soviet/Russian engine, for example. It's just a bit much for me from a watching standpoint, I can listen to four 5-6 hour Hardcore History episodes, but I'd rather see text for stuff like a history of Soviet rocket engines than watch a 1 hour video with the same content. ObSpaceX: Tomorrow is FH!

"Demand?" This is operating under the assumption that Starship (or SpaceX for that matter) exists and/or creates products to serve a need in the marketplace. The marketplace is incidental to their goals, or is seen as a side quest to generate funding for their goals—the market is not the goal. 1000 a year is to build a self-sufficient city on Mars. Do I personally think such a goal makes sense? Um, no. Doesn't matter what I think or you think, though, it matters what Musk and his company thinks—they want to build a city on Mars.

The tours are fine (vs his other, long form content) in terms of length—just needs to leverage the opportunity.

Well said. Musk actually addressed elements of this in the recent tour video with Dodd. What you learn from tests vs flying, and what they are interested in characterizing needs flight testing.

There's great stuff in the tours, but mostly from video, and from Musk rambling. Interviewing people is a skill, but in the case of his access to Musk, it's kinda easy. Have some pointed engineering questions, and Musk will immediately tangent and start riffing. You'd think he would have realized that by now.

Dodd seems like a nice enough guy but wasting possible followup questions with "insane" every few seconds is... tiresome.

Second launch today in progress

FWIW, I've heard nothing about it being stranded from someone very involved with the spacecraft. So if that's a thing it's way above his pay grade.