Brotoro

Nice day for a launch. And we have liftoff...

Would they scrub a launch because of high winds at the recovery ship site?

The engine shutdown was the emergency. If the other (liquid fuel) engines had not stepped in with longer/stronger burns, the shuttle would have fallen back to Earth. But the other (liquid fuel) engines did the job of saving the day and made a successful Abort to Orbit. That was the type of abort option available at that point in the flight regime (they could also have done a transatlantic abort at that point).

...Except for STS-51-F that made an Abort to Orbit using the SSMEs.

I just watched the Starlink swarm pass overhead at 5:28 PM. The prediction listed at Heavens-Above website was accurate, with the swarm passing close to Vega. I counted 50 of them...but they were going in and out of view, so I could have easily missed some. There was one object that was brighter than the others, but was dimmer than Vega. The sky was still pretty light, so these were not particularly easy to see (I could see them well overhead at 75° altitude, but they were harder to see as the moved away from overhead). Hmmm...maybe the swarm was spread out as much as 60 degrees...but I couldn't measure that well, since I couldn't see them all at once.

What the heck is on their heads?

I like that they are landing the Superheavy on a pad near the launch tower instead of that landing-on-the-launch-clamps stuff.

All three Apollo 15 main chutes deployed properly. But one of the chutes was apparently damaged during the RCS fuel dump, and that chute collapsed.

When it released, an extra line that was attached around the capsule cased it to tumble nicely.

I know a guy who has a reservation for a Virgin Galactic flight (not an actual ticket with a date...but he has paid some amount of money, but not the whole thing).

This is the Best Idea. Because... a) Failures WILL eventually happen to Starlink sats in operational orbits, some of which will involve loss of command control or propulsion system failure, b) The extra 'janitor' sats can be functional Starlink sats in the meantime, and you wouldn't need specialized janitor sats, c) It would be cool.

That tent thingie is really hurricane-proof? i guess we'll see.

Very nice. Does the Starhopper's use autogenous pressurization for its propellant tanks?

Meh. The ashes still went to orbit. The difference is how long before they re-enter.

The entry burn is relatively short, so they can't be counting on the deflecting effect of the exhaust to be the primary effect that keeps the stage from overheating...that only works during the burn.

I think the FAA has to issue a Certificate of Authorization for the Waiver request before SpaceX can legally fly, but you can have a NOTAM issued through the contractor that does such things for the FAA a week ahead of time (without having the COA yet).

I have no clue what I'm looking at there.

Yeah... That looks to be quite a bit slower on the ol' abort switch than I would like.

Do the propellant tanks on the Starhopper use autogenous pressurization?

Appears to be some sort of fire on the ground.

It hopped.

Woot!

This stage landing stuff never gets old.

Dragon looks nice. Do they re-paint it?

Live!