tater

This. Absolutely. I was commenting merely on my feelings of rocket launches I have seen vs this one, not my thoughts. Emotional reaction.

Looks like the CH4 vent, it ignited away from the vent once mixed with enough air I guess. Yeah, needs addressing. The plus is the vehicle is back on the OLM, and they are moving a transporter to take it back to the barn and study it—recovering vehicles will massively increase the rate of improvement.

Not in terms of importance, for sure, but in terms of... vibe? Dunno, the landings have a science fiction sensibility about them that is just next level even with Falcon. I suppose early Apollo test flights might be more accurate—but I don't remember those.

I mean the "payload" section (or even just part of it) as a stage 3

Yeah, actually. My memory of Apollo 11 is incredibly vague—more about a bunch of people at the house (I was 4)—later Apollos I watched as well (all of them, my mom was super into it), and I remember the coverage, the different newscasters, etc. Hard since the video has been reused so often what's real and what I'm conflating with later rewatches I can't say. Shuttle I remember clearly, watched many early launches, and it was astounding to watch. This is absolutely up there with Apollo/Shuttle IMHO.

Dumping dead mass is smart. Helps to get more than 45t to LEO though. With SS expended getting 200t, there's a ton you can do with a stage based on that

I started thinking about a Starship staging off the nose again. A small upper stage—part of the curved nosecone—staging off the aero cover on a docking port, and with a 10% dry mass, 100 tons of props, and a single Rvac could meet Orion in LEO—with a 10 ton, comanifested payload—and fly that stack all the way to LLO with 400 m/s of margin to deal with boiloff/disposal. More payload if it's just going to Gateway and Orion is braking there. A 200 ton props class upper stage can get Orion, plus an entire lander (BO/Dynetics/whatever) to LLO. Both these work with zero refilling operations. Orion to LEO with NG. So assuming NG flies soon, SLS is a total waste of time.

The precision is astounding.

And they can inspect the vehicle, which is huge. The first recovered F9 booster informed all the booster decisions going forward. Out of reactions. +1!

Landed on target near buoy cam

Landed on target near buoy cam

Looks like the flap near the left camera is doing what it did last time. camera focus on rear flaps since front design already changed I bet

Ship tiles are 10.5 tonnes

My memories of Apollo exist, but are vague. I remember the event of Apollo 11 (family came over cause we had the best TV). I of course remember Shuttle, also amazing... this takes the cake so far though (booster landing). Insane.

Command send for catch

Woot! Tower go for catch.

Trying again this morning in about an hour

Future iterations will not need to jettison interstage ring. Hot stage ring will be integrated, and lighter. Also:

SpaceX live 7:25 central is liftoff. WB-57 is already there https://www.flightradar24.com/N926NA/3786279f