CatastrophicFailure

Thanks guys, a manual install did work and seems not to have broken anything. So as a token, have this eye-watering unholy lovechild of Chamberlin and Chelomei.

ULA hired themselves a new sniper…

Doesn’t help that pretty much every Saturn V video ever is in slo-mo… Can’t find it again but I saw a tweet the other day of some hardware at the launch site labeled FLAME DIVERTER or similar, but looked like deluge tubing. Take w/ a grain o salt. Tho a giant tungsten slab would be pretty awesome in general.

Of course. Gwynne. Said. So. but having said that now the tank watchers will find some critical bit relocated to the next zip code…

Could be worse. I dreamt I was being chased through an apocalyptic wasteland by a giant banana reminding me I was late to work.

‘Tis official. Also also:

Good write up of Ms. Shotwell’s comments from the thing today: https://spacenews.com/shotwell-says-spacex-ready-for-starship-static-fire-test/ Also, confirmation of what needs no confirming, Gwynne is, in fact, the Queen.

ItsHappening.gif

Hey can anyone recommend a RP-1-compatible mod pack for nuclear reactors? I like the Near Future ones but it seems Dynamic Battery, a dependency, conflicts with the install.

Really a non-issue. One 11-min stop charge. Plug in, go take a leak, unplug & go.

That could put a nuclear reactor on Pluto. just sayin…

Prolly old news but…

Its Texas, tho. Even the humidity is bigger.

That’s what they did with N-1, and we all know how that went…

Perhaps more accurately called “acceleration” here (even though it’s decelerating), as the engine is firing and the force is quite a bit more than 1 G.

Dangit, those are the pages I was actually looking for!

It is extraordinary indeed. 2021 set a record for most rocket launches in a year, beating out previous records from decades ago, and I’m sure 2022 has already beaten that. Infographic below, there was a real dearth of launches around the turn of the century, picking up greatly once SpaceX came on the scene (not saying it was entirely their doing). Things have greatly picked up in the last 5 years or so, and streaming makes it much more accessible. Other than the odd Shuttle launch, live rocket launches were rare during that dark age, at most there might be a quick blurb on the evening news. as the saying goes, what a time to be alive. [SOURCE]

I wouldn’t say Musk is distracted, if anything, the usual media sources are. The guy is the king of time management and delegation. He draws some extremely talented people to his circle, turns them loose… then lights a fire under their butts. He also basically never sleeps, not like us normies: During this whole Twitter kerfuffle, both SpaceX and Tesla have managed to deliver some pretty impressive accomplishments, not the kind of thing possible with a “distracted” leader… unless the leader really knows exactly where his time resources are needed. The best part is no part, right? If you’re not adding things back in you’re not deleting enough The Starship project has switched to be a bit more risk-averse the last few months, and that’s very understandable and prudent. Whatever else happens with the first orbital attempt, it’s got to get clear of the pad. If it takes that out the whole project is set back months or years. Another booster is easy, another OLM is not, so they’re taking their time to make sure it gets that far the first time. Also: ArmageddonShuttleLaunch.gif AlsoAlso:

Eek.

Tim Dodd mentioned in his latest video that there were a number of interviews as the process went on, so certainly some mental screening in there, as well as a medical evaluation. and now DearMoon’s Twitter account has been suspended…

Wait, is it going to the asteroid belt or Kuiper Belt?

Doesn’t have to be perfect to be a success, it just has to be good, and if they’re already hitting 500 miles at full weight, I’d call that pretty good. For a single driver, driving 350 miles (8 hours), charging/resting for 30 minutes, then putting another few hundred on will pretty much fill out their mandated workday. Even with a team, they can cover a lot of miles just making shorter, more frequent charging stops. That charging network has a long way to come yet, but the operational savings are gonna blow minds, and be worth a little more time for most cases.

Not needed, it’s already doing 500 miles with a full load. Maybe hook them up with chains in front like a giant cyberchariot.