RealKerbal3x

If a US company were to fly rockets from Mexico, they would still be under FAA jurisdiction. Look at Rocket Lab, they fly Electron from New Zealand, but since they're incorporated in the US, they still have to get FAA permission. But SpaceX is still operating in US territory and airspace.

Exactly. It's a trade-off - if Starship works as intended, then the implications of that are way more important than a tiny village and a few square kilometres of wetland.

I'm sure Cape Canaveral was a pristine wetland before they decided to build a ton of launch pads on top of it. There's only so much empty US coastline available to build launch sites. Unfortunately, a lot of that coastline is going to be wetlands. Launching from the desert is an option, but then you run the risk of flying over the continental US and/or having a limited set of orbital inclinations available to you.

'Might' is the operative word here. I remember when he said a similar thing about reflying SN5 and 6. The current prototyping is so rapid that by the time SN15 is ready to fly again it'll be obsolete, IMO.

Why are these so cute goddammit

We can't build a self sufficient Mars colony with current technology. But we're not building it now, realistically anything more than a small outpost crewed by trained astronauts is decades away. There's plenty of time for the technology required to come about.

What about protecting human life from some future catastrophe? If we have humans living elsewhere in the solar system, a nuclear war or asteroid impact won't wipe us out entirely. Bezos' plan for giant space stations would likely produce similar benefits - a backup for Earth's biosphere.

If he has a good reason for being obsessed with Mars, then what's wrong with that? If nothing else it's a good lofty goal to aim for.

The entire point of those flaps is to guide the vehicle to a precise landing point, as we've seen happen with these test flights. If they couldn't accurately steer Starship during entry/landing, it wouldn't be great for reusability.

Looks like fire is out! SN15 IS DOWN!

IT LANDED

Stream is unlisted but was leaked, about 35 mins until it's scheduled to start: https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/ was updated for the flight as well.

Cars back to the pad, evidently they're working an issue of some kind but that doesn't mean it's scrubbed.

Pad appears to be clear!

@Dr. Kerbal If they continue the part texture revamps I doubt they'll leave out random parts. So it's probably better to just suggest that they continue that process rather than creating threads for each and every part.

Do mods not count as content?

I'm gonna gatecrash this thread with something that doesn't fit into any of your categories, but I did spend a long time fiddling with it to get it just right: my stock Starship! Yes, the bellyflop descent works just like the real thing

Yup, the road closure was cancelled.

I don't know why but I just don't like the sound of 'time zoom'. Maybe it's just because I'm used to how it's named in KSP1. So, could we at least have an option to have it be called timewarp instead? Pretty please?

Woah, epic! The Mun looks a little more like the real Moon now.

NASASpaceflight for commentary as well as LabPadre Pad Cam for a closeup view.