CatastrophicFailure

They did have a drone on some of the early landings, but basically it’s expensive, a potential risk, and not entirely necessary for “science” sake now that the landing campaign has matured. I think we will see much better landing footage once StarLink starts coming online, and they’re no longer reliant on a wobbly satellite dish on the drone ship for the feed.

My question was answerd

Any link to those? Also: This is for sure flight hardware, but... I don’t see any feet on the landing legs? It looks like it’s attached to the concrete...?

Shiny.

And also HWHAT SOURCERY IS THIS?!?

Year 13, Day 141... Buuuuuh... buuuuuuh... buuuuuuuuh... BUUH-BUUUH! BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM--BUM--BUM--BUM--BUM--BUM--BUM! Buuuuuh... buuuuuuh... buuuuuuuuh... BUUH-BUUUUUH! BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM-BUM--BUM--BUM--BUM--BUM--BUM--BUM! Buuuuuh... buuuuuuh... buuuuuuuuh... BUUH-BUUUUUH! Buh-buh-buh... buuuuuh.... buuh-buuh-buuuuh... buuh-buuh-buuuhhhuh... BUUUUUUUUH... BUUUUUUUUH...BAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! Ok, I'm gonna go outside and have a coke, the rest of you guys better have the horn section figured out when I get back. And someone take that bone away from Vlad before he hurts someone. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyways... Here, we have, without a doubt, our heaviest deadlift ever! Station Core #2 required a modifed Nero-X launcher, with two pairs of full-thrust SRBs and an upgraded tug just to get itself into low orbit. SRB burnout and separation at a mere 10 kilometers, their fuel gone in less than two minutes. First stage separation. Of course, at night. Still easily slow enough for full recovery. Tug separation comes while still very much suborbital. The tug needs every bit of thrust from four (!) Gandalf-DVs to keep from dropping back into the atmosphere, even at this late stage in the launch. But here it is in the parking orbit, massing at just under two hundred tonnes. And of course, quite invisible. Rendezvous comes a few hours later, after borrowing some stored fuel from the core stage. And, of course, we've got another problem. See it, yet? Some dunderhead has left a random docking port attached to the main docking port, facing the wrong way. Come on, you guys! You're supposed to be rocket scientists! As this is only revealed after tug separation we've got a big problem. Core 2 is only capable of flying on its own for a few hours before its batteries run out. Again. The engineering team suggest attempting to dock to an unused 1.25m port temporarily, which goes about as well as expected. Which is to say, not at all. That's when the janitor pokes his head in again and suggest simply decoupling the errant docking port, which the engineering team were convinced would require crew intervention on site. Oddly enough, the janitor's plan works, and for once docking actually goes off without a hitch! Well, except for the hitches that are supposed to hitch. It's a shame the uprated tug didn't get more attention, it was a thing of beauty. A few days later, the next liftoff follows. And, just like that, we're finally into daytime launches! Here, we can finally see the less-powerful but quite efficient three-engined Otho Lite launcher. This next load is still quite heavy enough to need a second stage. And finally, tug separation for the final burn to orbit. This launch is bringing in a quartet of chemical processors in an attempt at greater self-sufficiency in space, as well as more DSN comm dishes. And yep, there's a problem. While this configuration worked fine for cramming everything into the fairing, now those very expensive and surprisingly sturdy dishes are preventing the docking ports from meeting. This, once again, will require rocket surgery. But what to do in the mean time? It would be a complicated matter to re-rendezvous the module after a crew can be sent up. The Janitor is back with a solution. Someone give this guy a raise, already. We don't get paid in the first place? oh... The docking adapter is remotely decoupled... What follows is a slow-motion chase at thousands of kilometers per hour, as the new module goes after the docking port. Catching up is easy, but snagging the port will be an incredibly difficult off-axis maneuver for a thing already weighing close to a hundred tonnes. Any bump to the docking adapter at all, and it will start tumbling, making any further attempts impossible. In the end, with a lot of tweaking of the RCS to counter imbalances, the module finally connects with the adapter! It's then a schlep back to the station, where we can use the adapter to dock to one of the ESTI ports temporarily. The beautiful symmetry we had going is ruined, and without the ability to berth the equipment module in its proper place, we have to completely reshuffle the assembly sequence. We should send up a crew to fix this, but... ...I think we're going to send up MOAR MODULES first. And someone get that dang bone away from Vlad! He's still jumping around like some sort of crazed monkey!

Well, until last month building a rocket apparently out of tinfoil in a field in Texas sounded like a completely ridiculous idea, so...

Sooooo.... at what point does a Tesla actually become topical in this thread?

Dang. Another reason I live out in the country.

BF Hopper, now BF Crane... why do I foresee a BF Gift Shop selling BF Tchotchkes and the BF Snack Bar with BF Pretzels and BF Cheese? Tho that BF Flamethrower should be real impressive. And where the Big Falcon did my BF Cursor just go??

Missed it by *that* much... No wonder they’ve been having so much trouble, that looks painfully difficult to pull off. Love finally seeing the sense of scale between the fairing and the net.

Guysguysguysguysguysguys.... about flarping time!

y’arn’t.

No. This was clearly labeled THE JOKE. Probably what Marvin, there, would have caught if not for the sign...

ಠ_ಠ

I think not. Probably don't want any actual Martians sneaking aboard...

@sevenperforce you have to “paste as plain text” for Tweets to parse correctly.

Year 13, day 138... Moving right along... not at all stopping to analyze our miscalculations thus far... Maybe we should rethink.... nah. Today, we have... another nighttime launch. Only a few minute later, the crew leaves disappointed. The new station still has issues. So what's engineering's response? Launch MOAR modules! Surely the great, big, ginormous, silly one can fix this! ... right?

It gets worse.

[jealousy intensifies] Was this the two-motor performance model or the “base” version?

Aaaaaand now its early February. Because politics.

It’s official.

Starship.

Lol, nah, I think she’s another YouTube personality he’s done a few collaborations with. But as long as we’re on the subject... I knew there was something missing from my playlist lately...

Wait, that’s his wife??