Brotoro

Nonsense.

I remember when we were told definitively and repeatedly in this thread that it was IMPOSSIBLE for a cylindrically shaped vehicle to maintain stability during reentry. This turned out not to be the case. Now we hear definitively and repeatedly that every eruption of flame or propellant distribution problem is the result of some catastrophic Raptor failure. This, too, shall pass.

Beautiful catch. Love it!

It matches my memory of the liftoff speed of a Saturn V (the only video I can easily find of the Saturn V right now are slow motion movies). I presumed they were doing it to go easy on the engines, since they had almost no payload. Or maybe so that somebody here could rant about how they are lying about the actual thrust capacity and reliability (since they failed to relight for landing) of the BE-4 engines. But I don't see that rant. Odd.

So slow. So blue.

Liftoff. Godspeed New Glenn.

Terminal count

Top 10 tallest rockets is missing the Apollo Saturn IB.

Getting frosty!

Loading propellants? Wow. Even if it’s just liquid nitrogen…I’m surprised the quick disconnect plumbing is still in working order, considering the way it was belching flame like crazy as the booster was landing (and for several minutes afterward). I guess maybe it’s supposed to flame like an angry dragon despite that looking like an undesirable anomaly.

Very impressive video.

In replays I can see where the part of the chine is breaking apart during booster landing burn…so that damage wasn't from hitting the tower.

How long are the Raptors supposed to keep smoking?

Weather looks nice. Should be fun.

The diagram posted earlier in this discussion shows the LOX tank in blue and the Methane tank in red. The volume of the V1 LOX tank appears to be about 7 rings (counting the space of the bottom dome and the space around the upper common dome as one ring), while the Methane tank is less than 5 rings (three full rings and two dome rings). The V2 diagram shows the larger LOX tank increased by one ring, and the smaller Methane tank increased by two rings? Are these accurate diagrams? I don't know. I also Googled "Starship tank volumes" and found a diagram where somebody calculated Starship tank volumes and got LOX tank volume of 793.48 m^3 and Methane tank volume of 604.93 m^3 (with header tank volumes of 14.65 m^3 for LOX and 13.14 m^3 for Methane...not counting amounts in downcomers). Are these accurate? I don't know, but the ratios look to be about correct from the diagrams.

Is that correct? The LOX tank of V1 Starship is larger in volume than the Methane tank.

Why increase LOX tank by one ring and Methane tank by two rings?

@Ultimate Steve My mission report site is just something I made with basic HTML and posted on whatever server I had access to at the time, posting mission reports in parallel with posting them on the KSP Forums. The content has been moved to a couple different servers over the years and is currently on my brotoro.com/ksp website. I'll be sad if the KSP Forums disappear, since not everything I posted is on my site (only the mission reports). I haven't been playing KSP for several years now, but I still hang out in the Science & Spaceflight forum here. In case the Forums do vanish, I would just like to say that it has been a pleasure posting with all you fine people. Per aspera ad astra!

I don't think you can count on having hot gas in the cryogenic propellant tanks to maintain pressurization for long, since the gas will cool in contact with the liquid. You need to generate enough gas that there will still be sufficient pressure in the tanks after the gas cools and the tank approaches equilibrium… otherwise you won't have sufficient tank pressure when you need to restart your engines.

I know. That's why you run the hot turbopump exhaust into this smaller tank of LOX and let the condensation and freezing of the water and carbon dioxide happen in this secondary tank (not in the main tank) Then let the gaseous oxygen out to the main tank pressurization line.

Because you can't replenish Helium on Mars. And a Helium tank has to be under high pressure, so would be heavy. You trap the the ice in this tank using filters (in this case you are filtering gas from the solids and LOX, which I think would be easier).

Double booster landing . Sooo cool!

Booster entry burns

If you are filtering at the LOX inlet pipes, you are separating solid ice from the LOX which is coming through at a high flow rate. If you filter through this special tank, you are filtering out gas from liquids/solids, and dealing with a smaller mass. The tank would not need to contain high pressures (it's at about the same pressure as the rest of the main tank that it’s embedded in… more like a sectioned off part of the main tank), so this tank need not be heavy. Go Falcon Heavy! Falcon Heavy boosters separated… Staging good.

How much LOX needs to be vaporized to pressurize the tank? Instead of a fancy heat exchanger, couldn't they have a smaller LOX tank at the bottom of the main tank (where they already have one…the header tank) and dump the turbo exhaust gas into that? Trap the water and carbon dioxide ice in the small tank and let out the gaseous oxygen.