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11 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Those other guys have been trying to rekajigger Shuttle hardware into a disposable heavy lift rocket for decades now. This most recent attempt started in the early 2000’s, around the time SpaceX had their inaugural mariachi photo. 

More like the eighties, when the shuttle was still flying.

11 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

started work on the third prototype,

Fourth*. I'm pretty sure I saw a photo of the first ring of the fourth prototype in a tent in BC somewhere on Teslarati.

Edited by Wjolcz
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9 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

So... they’re not remounting the forward canards before restacking? :blink:

That's what I was wondering- but they'll probably take this a bit slower than last time, and maybe there's still time to put the canards on before stacking? Really odd- they also need the actuators and everything.

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2 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Wait, did I miss the legs actually going on? I knew they installed the leg retraction/deployment mounts but I didn't realize the legs were actually installed.

Yeah, there are images on NSF.

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5 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

So... they’re not remounting the forward canards before restacking? 

Maybe it's easier to remate it when the top part weighs less. After all, they need to put the batteries and other stuff in there so it makes sense to me to lower the risk of something going wrong. At the same time I don't doubt the crane could lift the whole thing assembled, but splitting the work into several tasks is probably wiser.

Edited by Wjolcz
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21 minutes ago, Xd the great said:

Does anyone know how Starship will maintain stability during skydiving sequence? From what I (a KSP player) see, center of drag is suspiciously too close to center of mass.

I'd wager that is on purpose.

Inherent instability combined with FBW control makes for maneuverability in all flight regimes all the way to transition to landing burn

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45 minutes ago, Xd the great said:

Does anyone know how Starship will maintain stability during skydiving sequence? From what I (a KSP player) see, center of drag is suspiciously too close to center of mass.

Remember, it's a skydiver, not a plane. Think of the flaps more like VTOL engines, just using drag instead of thrust. You'd want the center of mass and drag to be pretty close in that instance.

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3 minutes ago, Xd the great said:

It needs airliner-like safety. is it a good idea to give it so much instability?

I think the airline comparison breaks down more often than we'd like. Space travel is inherently more dangerous than air travel, and vehicles meant for the space environment may need to break a few rules that airlines hold to. 

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8 minutes ago, Raven Industries said:

I think the airline comparison breaks down more often than we'd like. Space travel is inherently more dangerous than air travel, and vehicles meant for the space environment may need to break a few rules that airlines hold to. 

Aircraft are actually flown enough that each has a real history. I think any attempts at that sort of reliability will take a great deal of actual flying.

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12 minutes ago, Raven Industries said:

I think the airline comparison breaks down more often than we'd like. Space travel is inherently more dangerous than air travel, and vehicles meant for the space environment may need to break a few rules that airlines hold to. 

Personally, I think starship needs to be able to survive a malfunctioning winglet.

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