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2 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

...!

I thought when he said "next week" he meant at least a week, but here we are three days later...

We could see static fires this week! And if all goes well, a hop test next month should be less likely than a hop test this month!

Thanks to stainless steel, Elon time doesn't apply anymore.

At least with Starhopper.

Starship Time?

Edited by NSEP
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2 hours ago, NSEP said:

In awe at the size of this thing. Absolute unit.

Massive.

And even moreso given that it could literally lift a house. Like, if you strip a typical two-story house and mount it on blocks, and then mount that very Raptor underneath (plumbed to tanks of course), the house...will...rise...into...the...air.

A monster of an engine for heavy lifting purposes, the Mainsail's power rivals that of entire small nations.

The Raptor has more than DOUBLE the thrust per unit area of the F-1.

 

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25 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Massive.

And even moreso given that it could literally lift a house. Like, if you strip a typical two-story house and mount it on blocks, and then mount that very Raptor underneath (plumbed to tanks of course), the house...will...rise...into...the...air.

A monster of an engine for heavy lifting purposes, the Mainsail's power rivals that of entire small nations.

The Raptor has more than DOUBLE the thrust per unit area of the F-1.

 

And in terms of raw thrust it has more than the mainsail and about the same as a Twin Boar. Also, do you think that the Vector is overpowered for its form factor? Well, Raptor is twice as powerful, more efficient, and most likely way lighter than it while fitting in almost the same size!

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5 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

And in terms of raw thrust it has more than the mainsail and about the same as a Twin Boar. Also, do you think that the Vector is overpowered for its form factor? Well, Raptor is twice as powerful, more efficient, and most likely way lighter than it while fitting in almost the same size!

This is random, but in terms of scaling near-future vehicles to KSP in stock, I use the Vector for both Raptor and the SSME (they have nearly the same thrust IRL), the Mastodon for BE-4, two Mainsails for the RD-180, the Cheetah for the RL-10, and eight Bobcats arranged concentrically (to form 9 visible nozzles) for the SL Merlin 1D. Works very well; just scale approx. one size down (3.6m rockets become 2.5m ingame, etc.).

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3 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

And in terms of raw thrust it has more than the mainsail and about the same as a Twin Boar. Also, do you think that the Vector is overpowered for its form factor? Well, Raptor is twice as powerful, more efficient, and most likely way lighter than it while fitting in almost the same size!

So much for realism overhaul ever being balanced.

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Spoiler
1 hour ago, IncongruousGoat said:

A simple tanking test is more likely, IMO. Test that the tanks won't explode when you fill them with LOX, then see if they explode if filled with pressurized LOX.

Nothing has exploded. Test failed.

 

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Sooooooooo...

The bombshell dropped on the aerospace community today by Jim Bridenstein is that NASA is now considering flying the first Orion mission, EM-1, “on schedule” in mid 2020 by using currently available commercial launch vehicles. :o So that basically means Delta IV Heavy and/or Falcon Heavy. It would require two launches, one to launch Orion itself into LEO, one to launch a transfer stage for TMI that Orion would first dock with. Most realistic scenario thus is Orion flying on DIVH then docking to a nearly-full FH upper stage. 

Thoughts, guys? 

Does a Falcon US have enough oomph to send Orion around the Mün? Is it even theoretically possible to turn a FH around quickly enough, using the one pad of course, to do both launches? Which has its own spate of problems, but...

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2 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Is it even theoretically possible to turn a FH around quickly enough, using the one pad of course, to do both launches?

Something tells me that NASA might pull an “unused boosters only” on this one.

I’m more interested how much trouble it is to develop a kerolox third stage for the Falcon. It’s a lot of bother integrating any of the available hydrolox options with it.

Plus launching it essentially empty may be trouble for stage recivery, given higher separation velocity.

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