RCgothic

More like C4, but yes, basically. It's a line of charges up the side of the tanks that can be automatically triggered by the on-board guidance system if it detects the rocket straying from its planned flight path. It can also be triggered manually by remote. When triggered the charges unzip the tanks and let all the fuel out so there can be no explosion on the ground and the rocket can't stray even further from its planned safety area (because the engines are starved of fuel). It also compromises the structural integrity of the rocket, which then tends to be ripped into pieces by aero forces. I'm not completely clear on whether many bits scattered over a wider area is intentionally preferable to a single large bit, but perhaps small bits slow faster and are more likely to be contained within the safety exclusion zone. Edit: I've only now realized that the comment I was replying to was probably meant facetiously. I'm not firing on all gas generators yet this morning, clearly. My bad.

Might get a flight of SN15 today:

Pretty sure expendably it can. Reuse eats a lot of margin both in dry mass and fuel reserved.

Same second stage. Heavier payload = less DV. So first stage has to drop the second stage off higher and faster, reserving less margin for landing.

Well I wouldn't go 2.5 stages for starters. I'd go for a full three stages. 2 to LEO and a 3rd for earth departure. Lugging that huge core to LEO really kills it. That said, the US didn't really have any good engine choices back in 2010.

Ouch.

Additional info

Then SpaceX get a stern talking to and serious questions to answer about how they allowed that to happen and how they're going to stop it happening again. This would count as a mishap and permission to launch SN16 and 17 could be revoked.

The FAA has granted launch licenses to SN 15, 16 and 17.

Starlinks are pretty heavy payloads, so it would make sense if MECO is a little later than for lighter payloads. Booster has to do more work.

That sounds more likely now that Tianhe-1 has launched successfully, but I presume there wouldn't be any point in launching Tianhe-2 if either of the laboratory modules were to fail.

Nose cone survived its first day of testing:

Borman Lovell Stafford Scott* Aldrin* Schweickart Anders Schmitt* Mattingly Swigert Haise Duke* With Collins' passing the list of people who have been beyond LEO is down to 12/24. I hope all these guys live to see us land again. Time is getting tight. The youngest, Anders, is 83.

And SN8 melted one.

It had more to do with being unable to convince NASA that propulsive landing of a crew capsule was a good idea.

2nd static fire:

Protests dismissed, license modification granted.

I enjoyed this talk with Eric Berger about SpaceX:

It's a fixed price contact and they get paid on milestones. Don't deliver? Don't get paid.

Lol. What were NASA supposed to do? Buy a lower-rated product at twice the price with a budget they don't have? Suspect Jeff doesn't have a leg to stand on here.

Also, on the subject of rare views and cheeky artwork:

Very lucky photo: