totm nov 2023 SpaceX Discussion Thread

[sevenperforce]

1 minute ago, RCgothic said:

Minimum of 48h to recycle.

Sad that it won't be tomorrow, but at least that means I'll be at home again Wednesday for the next attempt.

[Minmus Taster]

Weather looks...suboptimal for the next week at least

[RCgothic]

Holding and abort at 40s.

[sevenperforce]

John notes that they begin lighting the engines over a six-second period rather than the ~2 seconds for Falcon 9.

[Minmus Taster]

The only real disappointment from this is that it will probably launch on a cloudy day and explode out of view SN11 style

[tater]

 

 

[RCgothic]

Until the vehicle is unloaded there could still be an earth shattering kaboom... but probably not.

[sevenperforce]

1 minute ago, RCgothic said:

Until the vehicle is unloaded there could still be an earth shattering kaboom... but probably not.

I wouldn't terribly mind seeing a kaboom -- anything past liftoff is a success -- but I'd prefer having it happen at T+ something rather than T- something.

[Minmus Taster]

Well at least the launch is now always two days away instead of two months.

[steve9728]

38 minutes ago, Minmus Taster said:

Well at least the launch is now always two days away instead of two months.

Don't so that familiar on Space X but...

 

Have to say, although I place my bet on failure because "other reason", but the rest of 49% of my mind is hoping Starship can fully success

6 hours ago, steve9728 said:

 

Sorry Musk, I'm the 3.2%

Another guessing by same guy: what you think about can Starship launch tonight (the time zone in China the live was started around 20:35)?

Left is delay and right is launch. I was missed this guess. I think somewhere on this world should have a bookie that running some kind betting like that.

[magnemoe]

16 hours ago, Meecrob said:

Also, GPS is a signal that can be lost or jammed. IGU is self contained.

 

I think I am missing something here...but it seems to me (obviously I'm NOT a rocket scientist) that GPS is a dead end for space. What do you do between the GPS of Earth and the GPS of the Moon or Mars or any other destination in the solar system that we hypothetically set up a GPS around? Have a "Milky-Way Positioning System" out by the Oort cloud?

I'm sure GPS works in lower orbits however and it would be very useful as its hard to get your position in space. The standard way is to use multiple ground stations and get direction and distance but that is not practical for swarms like starlink. 
Note that you need the military gps for this standard one stop working if you go much faster or higher than passenger planes, think 1500 km/h. 

[AtomicTech]

When do y'all reckon we'll see the launch?

My bet is Friday.

[AVaughan]

Just watching the livestream now.  One quick takeaway.  https://youtu.be/L5QXreqOrTA?t=953

 

 

Quote

For todays test starship does not have its landing legs attached

So looks like it is still possible that some early starships might still get landing legs, rather than SpaceX attempting to catch them.  (Worth mentioning that 30 seconds earlier he was talking about landing on the Moon/Mars, and so maybe he was referring to Lunar/Martian versions).  

[steve9728]

20 minutes ago, AtomicTech said:

When do y'all reckon we'll see the launch?

My bet is Friday.

I think within this two weeks at most...ish?

[tater]

 

[magnemoe]

3 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

John notes that they begin lighting the engines over a six-second period rather than the ~2 seconds for Falcon 9.

Pretty sure that is for first launch, although raptor is more complex. On the other hand laugh at B 52 engine out capability. 
At large air force exercises requesting priority landing with an engine out on a B-52 seen as is cutting ahead in queue. The dramatic 7 engines emergency landings as an F 16 pilot said. 

[Kerballlistic07]

3 hours ago, Minmus Taster said:

Well at least the launch is now always two days away instead of two months.

Don't you dare curse it. It could very well happen!

3 hours ago, Minmus Taster said:

The only real disappointment from this is that it will probably launch on a cloudy day and explode out of view SN11 style

NOOOOOOO

[Meecrob]

58 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

I'm sure GPS works in lower orbits however and it would be very useful as its hard to get your position in space. The standard way is to use multiple ground stations and get direction and distance but that is not practical for swarms like starlink. 
Note that you need the military gps for this standard one stop working if you go much faster or higher than passenger planes, think 1500 km/h. 

I mean how do you navigate between GPS constellations?

 

With regards to Starship, my first thought was "Wow, Elon really wants to launch on 4/20."

I really hope not, because I don't think I can handle the onslaught of "Yo, dudes! I was so high while I watched that rocket go so high" comments.

[BeastHunter]

3 minutes ago, Meecrob said:

With regards to Starship, my first thought was "Wow, Elon really wants to launch on 4/20."

I really hope not, because I don't think I can handle the onslaught of "Yo, dudes! I was so high while I watched that rocket go so high" comments.

That would suck, but the more pressing problem to the self-centered part of me is that I’d miss the launch.

[AVaughan]

18 hours ago, Meecrob said:

What do you do between the GPS of Earth and the GPS of the Moon or Mars or any other destination in the solar system that we hypothetically set up a GPS around? Have a "Milky-Way Positioning System" out by the Oort cloud?

Assuming you have a decent clock and decent optics, then measuring the position of the Earth/Moon/Venus/Mars/Jupiter/Saturn against the stars should be enough to triangulate your position.  (You can also cross-check and calibrate your IGU's orientation against the stars the same way).  

[Meecrob]

Just now, AVaughan said:

Assuming you have a decent clock and decent optics, then measuring the position of the Earth/Moon/Venus/Mars/Jupiter/Saturn against the stars should be enough to triangulate your position.  (You can also cross-check and calibrate your IGU's orientation against the stars the same way).  

Thank you; what you just stated is exactly what I'm getting at.  It seems to me that the stars are like a natural analogue GPS that we don't have to launch satellites to utilize.

[AVaughan]

23 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Pretty sure that is for first launch, although raptor is more complex. On the other hand laugh at B 52 engine out capability. 
At large air force exercises requesting priority landing with an engine out on a B-52 seen as is cutting ahead in queue. The dramatic 7 engines emergency landings as an F 16 pilot said. 

If an engine has failed for an unknown reason, all the other engines on the same aircraft might also be susceptible to the same issue.  (What if the cause is fuel contamination, or something else that is common to all the engines on the same plane).  

[CatastrophicFailure]

3 hours ago, steve9728 said:

Have to say, although I place my bet on failure because "other reason", but the rest of 49% of my mind is hoping Starship can fully success

What other reason?

[steve9728]

5 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

What other reason?

The original "betting" slot of "other" from that guy literally translate is "other, such as scrapped before launch." At very first moment I think is it highly likely to be delayed. So, I choose other. But think it back, it's guessing how this rocket ended up, and the delay merely delayed the end.

My own guess now is that it might be due to low temperature fuel and pressure issues to make "other" comes real.

Edited April 17, 2023 by steve9728

[Elthy]

Did SpaceX say anything about the "payload" of this starship? I think flying it empty could mess up the launch profile, as the acceleration would be way higher and they end up with lots of extra fuel, which would mess up the reentry...