CatastrophicFailure

Meanwhile, across the pond...

Wait, so... is this new? Didn’t Axiom already have a 4-kerbal Dragon launch planned for late 2021?

Ever feel like it’s all you can do not to fall off the world?

Whoah. In all seriousness, if you haven’t yet you may want to have a doc check you out. Hitting your head and losing consciousness like that can be indicative of a concussion, even if you feel fine after.

I didn’t know this was a cover...

Sitting out here enjoying a smoke and this small fluffy dinosaur keeps trying to eat it.

And then there were nine...

Oooooooooooh I see the stud-bot has been busy prepping for tiles. Question now, is, is that flight hardware or another mfg pathfinder? ETA: notice the pattern of the tiles, too. Hopefully this ends up next to the patio-wings...

So... that got old quick. Got so bad we had to start putting the little yellow fuzz ball to bed at night with an iPad playing bird videos propped up against the bars. Because you really only can spend so many hours per day cuddling with a baby chick, unfortunately. But finally we were able to hunt down these two additional slightly blurry fuzz balls: Red and Black (Pepper), a Rhode Island Red & Australorp to go with Ghibli, our little Polish Crested/Silverlace Cochin homebrew mix. They got along swimmingly after just a bit of “WTH is this?” wing-pulling from the chicken who’s never seen another chicken before and are now happily chirping away and kicking their bedding all over the living room. And pooping. This will bring the flock up an even twelve in a couple months. Plus the two ducks. We’re gonna have so many eggs... seriously anyone want some eggs? But, it’s 2020, so of course... there’s trouble on the horizon. We’re pretty sure Ghibli is a rooster. And There Can Be Only One. So, in the fullness of time, he may have to face the Dark Side and confront his father, and take on the mantle of... Chickens, yo. In the space of ten minutes earlier I watched four of ours go from eating styrofoam to [CENSORED] some poor little finch that got too close to eating styrofoam again.

Im sure he’s not referring to prototype flights... right?

There’s been a sizable gap between launches, so Prolly more are reaching their final altitude (where they’re less visible) before new ones show up. Like someone said, there’s also changes to the design to darken them and SpaceX is actively working with professional astronomers to tweak the sat’s attitudes so there’s less reflection from the solar panel. Well, they could tell you but then they’d have to, y’know... Question is, does that mean VIB/FH at Vandy or a Falcon Heavy polar dogleg launch? Cuban cows already running for the hills...

SpaceX has officially begun concrete proof-of-concept planning for a settlement on Mars. They're hiring a Resort Development Manager in Boca. Totally analogous Absolutely. Carries right over. Irate Martians will be nothing after dealing with a couple of Karens with broken ACs in their rooms...

But... I thought he just announced Buran 2.0..?

Addendum to addendum: NSF pic shows the legs right near there look to have bottomed out, so quite possibly a big off-norminal jolt shattered the tiles. Curious if SN5 will fly again after that, tho nothing else looks obviously damaged.

Dang. That was like the shortest burn ever. I think even static fires are longer.

Finally! Yeesh that liftoff-moment anxiety never goes away.

And some are outright missing, definitely not normial. Like the other guys said, this is why they're testing them like that. In related news, there's pics on NSF of one of the new robots gearing up to weld on tile studs in the future. ETA: that's also on the side with the crushed leg, so might have had more of an impact on landing than they otherwise would.

Hopping over Hopper, clearly a stand-in for the moon. Now they need to actually do this with a half-dozen stacks, just cuz.

Solo. Because it’s going to the equator. yup, you read that right. SpaceX is launching this little thing into a zero-inclination equatorial orbit. From Florida. I really cannot wait to see the flight profile for this guy.

The thrust puck is designed to (eventually) hold three Raptors, so none will be directly in the center. Test as you fly. Also gives them data on a single-engine landing if the other two were to fail.

Well, yeah, that’s generally how they count “flew” in aerospace terms...

They go all the way up.

Tweetstorm probability rising: