Ultimate Steve

Will this be continuing?

Hmm. Maybe that would work then. But what would this new super heavy launch vehicle offer besides higher payload capacity over Angara? Spy satellites can only get so heavy, and I can't imagine any other legal payloads.

I truly hope this happens. If they can get a super heavy rocket off the ground with the capability to actually do something, that would be amazing. And if they can get people to the Moon... I'm worried about funding, though, given the current state of Russia.

Are you sure? Because he showed off the carbon fiber stuff pretty heavily at that presentation.

The idea behind the engine cutoff thing was as an "if-possible" thing. The abort system was designed to function even with all engines running. If I remember correctly, the Falcon 9 (in light of the upcoming Dragon 2) will shut down engines in case of an abort if still possible (if the booster hasn't already disintegrated).

Alright, here is my submission. It was designed for safety, reusability, and looks. As a result, I suffered in the initial cost department, as well as the fuel usage department. I may make another submission that is better points optimized, and not a shuttle. So, long story short I was in a shuttle mood. Now I know what your thinking, "A safe shuttle?" Well, I did my best to make it safe. For one thing, it has a working abort system with three different modes. EDIT: My bad, cost is 99636, not 99036.

So very late March you mean? Yay, a birthday present!

Plot twist: Jeff Bezos buys the tooling.

I thought about that, it would be a good design compromise if you had the booster metal and the ship composite (mass ratio is more important on the ship I think) but then they have to design two completely different methods, and you couldn't really use the same equipment for metal and composite.

Pro: Reduced Dev time, better understood materials, possibly cheaper construction, maybe better radiation protection. Depending on the metal, they might be able to get away with using the hull as a heat shield. Con: Heavy, either reduced payload (AGAIN!) or a much larger rocket, reduced benefit from orbital refueling, possibly less cool. And all of the current infrastructure must be scrapped. If it gets BFR on the table earlier for cheaper, then yay, but if they match the size of the old BFR then they only have FH levels of payload, but if they go back up to 150t payload then they will have a huge rocket, which is great because it looks cool, but would be even harder to build.

Aaaargh. I'm not sure whether to be happy or sad about this, but we'll see.

Ah, so Martin found a large-scale buyer! Breaking news, SpaceX abandons barge based recovery in favor of splashdowns and galvanic corrosion resistant T-shirts...

Unfortunately it's cloudy and there are no more sighting opportunities before Dragon berths.

If they had gotten it out of the water yesterday, I'd have expected them to at least test it on a stand, but now I'm wondering if the salt has already done its work. I still think we'll see individual engine tests, though, although they probably won't be public. Flying again is a big leap, but if it happens I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Looking at the NSF thread, they stationkept overnight, have something under construction at the dock to help with recovery, and have hired divers. They have a sling over one end of the booster, a line hooked up from the base (?) of the booster to Go Quest (I think) and the divers are about to start clearing the area.

Credit: u/SciVibes on r/spacexmasterrace

MASSIVE headphone warning. Seriously.

I wonder what that burst of flame was.

Does this count as a landing? Because if not, it's abnormal again.

Well this was certainly more interesting that I would have hoped for. Hopefully it was just that hydraulic thing and not anything else, and hopefully it's an easy fix that won't lead to grounding. From what we can tell, it definitely doesn't sound like a major problem, especially if the booster managed to land. Holy Jeb!

No.

Well, I've seen a semi-exciting failure live now. Dragon is okay, so yay. I'm thinking it was a problem with the grid fin control system from the brief video I saw.

2.5 minutes to go!