NSEP

Posts comparing Starship to 50s/60s Sci-Fi book covers aren't new here, but it does say that the time we live in is somewhat special.

The rest of the Spaceflight community seems to have adopted in the past few years. Especially ESA, JAXA, and CNSA, im not sure about Roscosmos, NASA, and ISRO though.

Wasn't CRS16 payload of the Aquabraker? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_9_booster_B1050

I enjoy.

Speaking of explosions, im really looking forward to when this thing explodes. Because well, its gonna, it must happend sometime, right? No explosion no lesson.

Why do they need three taps on the bottom for the water tank? Why do they have to bell shaped?

Falcon Heavy Demo is definitely the coolest rocket launch of 21st century. Nothing tops the Starman reveal and the two core boosters landing at the same time. All other launches were rather typical and uninteresting compared to the madness that was the Falcon Heavy Demo flight. Expect for Soyuz MS-10. As for my favourite actual space mission, it would have to be the Hayabusa 2 landing and its rovers. It was completely unexpected for me since i didn't follow the mission earlier, and neither did i expect it had tiny rover carrying with it. I also loved the InSight landing, that i watched live with my Dad.

A little, but remember, its still is supposed to have 30+ engines on the first stage and would need to do propulsive landings in order for it to be reused. Big, but not exactly dumb.

There are several advantages spaceplanes have over regular cone/bell shaped capsules, they reduce the g-forces, but they also also have more control over where they land, regular capsules usually land in a desert/ocean and have to be transported from there all the way to the place it has to be refurbished, while spaceplanes can just glide back, to a runway right next to the place its supposed to be built. There also is some sort of 'size limit' for space capsules. At some point, the parachute for such a thing is simply going to be too heavy and would have to resort to a propulsive landing, and the diameter would too large to fit on any existing rocket. The 'size limit' of a spaceplane is much higher, since it doesn't need to use parachute in the first place and can slowly glide to a soft landing, and because spaceplanes are more elongated, they have a much higher volume per diameter.

So bassicly the Starship Grasshopper is just a big tin can, with a rocket inside of it?

Does that also mean the BFR that will fly to the Moon and stuff will also be reflective and shiny (expect for the maybe black heatshield)? Cool!

Thanks @Tristonwilson12! Considering the Test hopper is full diameter, but not full length, i wouldn't be surprised if this actually would be it.

Im going to say this again, the "steel" structure isn't a water tower. There are differences between a watertower and the 3 legged structure in the image. First of all, it has 3 legs, and tripod water towers don't see to be common is usually 1 single structures supporting it all, or 4+ legs. Then there is the angle of the legs, wich point more outwards than a regular water tower does. Remember, a water tower needs to be 40m tall in order to suck water up, and those legs, when extended to 40m will snap when filled with water. Normal water tower legs point straight down or a litte bit outwards, but not as extreme as the one in the image above.

I think its unikely for it to be a water tower, now considering it has a nosecone, that exactly resembles the Starship and the legs don't look like they are made to support a structure that has to be 40m above the surface. Although that would make a fancy water tower... Its alot more likely is a mock-up for testing. Doesn't look like it has any holes for testing the cranes of the spacecraft or anything but it could be used test filling (from the ground) and to see if it explodes or not. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the actual Grasshopper. It isn't carrying anything beyond LEO in places it can contaminate, or has any crew or special payloads inside it could get sick or contaminated , so building it outside wouldn't be that bad. Grasshopper missions are rather crude.

Beings me to another question: Does RO or maybe even stock KSP model the temperature difference in sunlit/shaded areas?

Some people are saying its just a mock-up but considering Elon tweeted that there will be cool pics of Suborbital Hop Starship in """"""""4""""""""" weeks, so you would think they would have made some progress on the Suborbital Hop Starship and not waste it on something else.

Where where?