AckSed Posted November 23 Share Posted November 23 (edited) 6 hours ago, DAL59 said: https://i.imgur.com/Q76EmF2.mp4 Sudden flight of fancy had me imagining rocket pirates "aggressively salvaging" downed rocket stages, and they've just struck gold. Edit: Sadly, it was then sunk: Edited November 23 by AckSed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AckSed Posted November 23 Share Posted November 23 Musk says that they lost comms with the launch tower computer, and that's why they aborted: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnemoe Posted November 23 Share Posted November 23 54 minutes ago, AckSed said: Musk says that they lost comms with the launch tower computer, and that's why they aborted: According to Ellie in space it was an antenna on top of the launch tower who got damaged probably by the launch. Perhaps having an other location, better 2-3 but I think you only use one at a time, but switching can be done by software in real time. Another addition might be an crane on top of tower to lift ship or booster in case the sticks end up missing and grabbing a grid fin instead. The sticks has tank treads to move both catch points independent to move and rotate the booster and ship to align for launch or recovery but this would not work if cached on fin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrandedonEarth Posted November 23 Share Posted November 23 You would think the launch tower computer comms would be hardwired in with armoured cables. But that’s one of the purposes of testing, is to find the weak points. Some weak points could and should be anticipated, but not all can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatastrophicFailure Posted November 23 Share Posted November 23 17 hours ago, darthgently said: I’m guessing a special ad hoc negotiated “fee” will magically make the overflight a non issue for Mexico. Sadly. Maybe proof of insurance too Y’all are being a little ungenerous here. Mexico has both its counterpart to the FAA (Agencia Federal de Aviación Civil) AND an actual space agency (Agencia Espacial Mexicana). They even sent an astronaut up on the shuttle back in the 80s. So it’s not like this is some out-of-context problem, government… ambiguity aside. I had to go down a bit of a rabbit hole but it’s worth noting that there still is no legal, internationally-recognized boundary between “airspace” and “spacespace,” only “suggestions” like the Karman line that are mostly for record-keeping. Generally airspace above 60k feet is uncontrolled, and Starship is above that for nearly all of its reentry, by the time it “comes to a stop” and starts a controlled fall it’s still well above typical airliner altitudes. I think it’s overall safety has been more than proven at this point, wrt a full-on breakup that could cause significant damage on the ground. The biggest real risk seems to be shedding tiles, which is a relatively LOW risk overall, as tile bits are highly unlikely to do any harm. Passing over a decent sized city like Matromoros is a potential risk, but most of the bad stuff would be over by then I think. Starship just needs to do what it’s already demonstrated it can do over Mexico, the dicey bits are all over SpaceX territory. Anyways, SpaceX has known this was coming for a very long time, so I’m sure that the relevant Mexican authorities have also know for a long time, as SpaceX has been in active communication with them all along. They DO know what they’re doing, after all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AckSed Posted November 23 Share Posted November 23 Thank you for digging in, then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuke Posted November 23 Share Posted November 23 2 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said: You would think the launch tower computer comms would be hardwired in with armoured cables. But that’s one of the purposes of testing, is to find the weak points. Some weak points could and should be anticipated, but not all can. you cant put antennas behind armor though. position of said antennas are also critical because they set up the positional relationship between the booster and the tower. if the antenna is bent a few feet away from where its supposed to be, then the mechazilla arms will miss by that much. i assume its built like a cnc machine. anyone who owns a 3d printer knows what happens when something nudges the print bed mid print. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted November 23 Share Posted November 23 32 minutes ago, Nuke said: you cant put antennas behind armor though. position of said antennas are also critical because they set up the positional relationship between the booster and the tower. if the antenna is bent a few feet away from where its supposed to be, then the mechazilla arms will miss by that much. i assume its built like a cnc machine. anyone who owns a 3d printer knows what happens when something nudges the print bed mid print. The antennas could be very robust. They simply need to be able to conduct electricity and have the right pattern and band. But would probably best be made in house; just skip off the shelf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuke Posted November 23 Share Posted November 23 4 minutes ago, darthgently said: The antennas could be very robust. They simply need to be able to conduct electricity and have the right pattern and band. But would probably best be made in house; just skip off the shelf spacex knows how to antenna. the starlink dishes alone are evidence of that. they just need to make it stronger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted November 24 Share Posted November 24 2 hours ago, Nuke said: spacex knows how to antenna. the starlink dishes alone are evidence of that. they just need to make it stronger. I do realize this. I’m just saying that it likely isn’t a fancy phased array Starlink like antenna, not that close to the launch path. If it is an array for position navigation during landing it is probably a handful of widely spaced fairly simple antennas for phased reference wrt to the booster. If high resolution GPS I know less about that, but it does involve multiple antennas at known positions. My point was simply that whatever the elements are they just have to be the right shape electrically and the typical plastic encased off the shelf whatever could be easily subbed with something fabbed from stainless down in the ring bay. Because SpaceX knows antennas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceception Posted November 24 Share Posted November 24 I think SpaceX almost forgot to stream a Starlink launch last night. There were other people talking about it, and the stream replay starts in the middle of ascent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exoscientist Posted November 24 Share Posted November 24 The launch video prior to hotstaging says the tower was go for catch. Then later they decided to divert. The tower issue wasn’t known immediately? Also, The voiceover says the boostback back burn should last another approximately 30 seconds, but then it ends immediately after she says this. Did the boostback end early? Bob Clark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AckSed Posted November 24 Share Posted November 24 Since Flight 5, two different Lunar Rovers have signed up with SpaceX for delivery by Starship: https://payloadspace.com/starship-hired-to-fly-two-lunar-rovers/ 5 minutes ago, Exoscientist said: Also, The voiceover says the boostback burn should last another approximately 30 seconds, but then it ends immediately after she says this. Did the boostback end early? When I saw the official stream it was delayed a bit - something like 5 seconds after EA's live stream. It might have ended early if they discovered the communication problem with the tower at that moment and decided to ditch then, out of caution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatastrophicFailure Posted November 24 Share Posted November 24 1 hour ago, Exoscientist said: The launch video prior to hotstaging says the tower was go for catch. Then later they decided to divert. The tower issue wasn’t known immediately? Also, The voiceover says the boostback back burn should last another approximately 30 seconds, but then it ends immediately after she says this. Did the boostback end early? Yes, the boostback burn deliberately ended early since they aborted the tower catch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted November 25 Share Posted November 25 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AckSed Posted November 25 Share Posted November 25 Huh. Just watched the Everyday Astronaut compilation of Flight 6, and the bent comms tower was bent before it lifted off, not after. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted November 25 Share Posted November 25 1 hour ago, tater said: Really hoping that Gulfstream video is going to be spectacular with clear skies and close proximity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted November 25 Share Posted November 25 1 hour ago, AckSed said: Huh. Just watched the Everyday Astronaut compilation of Flight 6, and the bent comms tower was bent before it lifted off, not after. I recall it was 40mph winds gusts at the ground so probably 45-50mph at minimum gusts at the top of tower. Still disturbing that they didn’t notice (apparently) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piscator Posted November 25 Share Posted November 25 Exited to see them trying out their time machine, too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted November 25 Share Posted November 25 Noice edit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted November 25 Share Posted November 25 SpaceX to deliver Dragonfly to Titan for NASA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted November 25 Share Posted November 25 Here is the link that isn’t showing up in a few posts above about IFT-7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted November 27 Share Posted November 27 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted November 27 Share Posted November 27 Appaently the original High Bay will be dismantled and replaced with "Gigabay." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exoscientist Posted November 28 Share Posted November 28 (edited) Robert Zubrin’s made a key statement in this SpaceWatch.Global interview that Elon told him SpaceX could build Starship for $10 million. This leads to a surprising conclusion: SpaceX can build a Moon or Mars rocket for ca. $10 million. Now. Such a rocket could offer costs of $100/kilo to orbit. Now: SpaceX routine orbital passenger flights imminent. http://exoscientist.blogspot.com/2024/11/spacex-routine-orbital-passenger.html Bob Clark Edited November 28 by Exoscientist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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