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3 hours ago, Nuke said:

Stacking rockets like cordwood, i like it. 

Made of steel, built in the open air by welders in hardhats... Robert Truax would appreciate it.

Huh, expendable Starship currently matches half the proposed Sea Dragon, in potentially lofting 250 metric tons of mass to LEO.

Edited by AckSed
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2 hours ago, AckSed said:

Huh, expendable Starship currently matches half the proposed Sea Dragon, in potentially lofting 250 metric tons of mass to LEO.

Now imagine 18m Starship. 12m was capable of 300t fully reused, 550 expended, the same as Sea Dragon...

Definitely getting ahead of ourselves there, but to think there might be a monster rocket able to outclass Sea Dragon in the next few decades is nutty.

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20 hours ago, Spaceception said:

Now imagine 18m Starship. 12m was capable of 300t fully reused, 550 expended, the same as Sea Dragon...

Definitely getting ahead of ourselves there, but to think there might be a monster rocket able to outclass Sea Dragon in the next few decades is nutty.

I'm sorry to tell you that your math ain't mathing....

 

 

 

....because a 18 meters starship, even without it getting taller, would carry to orbit at least 600 tons, because a doubling in diameter get you 4 times the area and so volume.

And this is without considering:

The better usage of space and a more advantageous tank/fuel fraction ( you need only double the tank mass to store 4 times more fuel), and the fact that at that point you will stretch the rocket a bit.

Right now a starship stack can lift around 250 tons expended, and 150 tons reusable, with a weight of 5000 tons, so 5% payload expended, 3% reusable. It would be not unrealistic to see an 18 meters starship  let's say 200 meters high, with a liftoff mass of 30k tons, putting into orbit 2000 tons expended (6.5% payload) and around 1200 tons reusable (4%). It would make it also heat less on reentry, slow down more and more controllable.

 

The problem would be at liftoff with 130 raptors generating 40-50k tons of thrust, just the sound would probably melt everything in a couple miles.

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2 hours ago, Flavio hc16 said:

I'm sorry to tell you that your math ain't mathing....

 

 

 

....because a 18 meters starship, even without it getting taller, would carry to orbit at least 600 tons, because a doubling in diameter get you 4 times the area and so volume.

?? Did you skip over the"12m" part that referenced the old ITS? I was just saying that if the old 12m vehicle could put up 300/550t reused/expended, 18m will blow it out of the water.

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Ax-3 currently set to undock tomorrow morning from what I heard last night. Think there’s an F9 out of FL, Vandy launch moved out a few days as socal get clobbered with rain (just started here in San Diego this morning).

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36 minutes ago, mikegarrison said:

I guess that mission was delayed for weather? And now seems to be delayed again?

Yeah, weather on both coasts. Delayed Axiom-3 undocking and splashdown as well.

 

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https://www.nasa.gov/foia/nasa-e-libraries/headquarters-foia-library/

WB-57 videos got released, but with the hot staging and flip removed, likely ITAR or trade secrets or something (smh).

Looks like the heat shield teams have got a lot of work to do.

r/SpaceXMasterrace - RIP tiles (IFT-2 footage from WB-57 footage release)

I know they have heat shield upgrades already assembled on one of the upcoming ships, hopefully they figured it out this time. That is not a happy looking heat shield.

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50 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

https://www.nasa.gov/foia/nasa-e-libraries/headquarters-foia-library/

WB-57 videos got released, but with the hot staging and flip removed, likely ITAR or trade secrets or something (smh).

Looks like the heat shield teams have got a lot of work to do.

r/SpaceXMasterrace - RIP tiles (IFT-2 footage from WB-57 footage release)

I know they have heat shield upgrades already assembled on one of the upcoming ships, hopefully they figured it out this time. That is not a happy looking heat shield.

this is fine.gif 

Booster 10 is rolling out right now

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7 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

Point to point boating, an important first step.

Yes, no more depressing situations like Fletcher Christian burning and scuttling the Bounty upon arrival at Pitcairn Island because he couldn't conceive of any other way of doing things.  Progress!

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The ESA stream for Axiom-3's splashdown shows how they egress the Dragon capsule after landing and being winched aboard: there's a little slide!

I never knew the seats rotate down for landing and egress, either. Further, there's space for 3-4 people to assist the astronauts.

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