totm nov 2023 SpaceX Discussion Thread

[Nuke]

were gonna need a bigger engine

[tater]

~2 min

[Codraroll]

16 hours ago, Exoscientist said:

 IF it is scrapped would that include the engines? That would not speak well toward Raptor reusability. 
 

  Bob Clark

You've got an absolutely fascinating ability to arrive at the same conclusion regardless of the direction and magnitude of the evidence presented to you.

Also, the forums have a signature function, if you absolutely need to sign your name under every post.

Edited 3 hours ago by Codraroll

[Exoscientist]

44 minutes ago, Codraroll said:

You've got an absolutely fascinating ability to arrive at the same conclusion regardless of the direction and magnitude of the evidence presented to you.

Also, the forums have a signature function, if you absolutely need to sign your name under every post.

 The proof is in the pudding, as they say. Two key things to look out for is how well the single reused engine performs on this flight, and how many engines from this flight will be reused on the following one. 
 

  Robert Clark

[SunlitZelkova]

11 minutes ago, Exoscientist said:

 The proof is in the pudding, as they say. Two key things to look out for is how well the single reused engine performs on this flight, and how many engines from this flight will be reused on the following one. 
 

  Robert Clark

They are saying your conception of what constitutes evidence is wrong.

Right now the vehicle itself is in development. Although reuse is obviously still an aspect, the main focus is getting it to perform as well as possible and lift things to orbit.

Reuse is taking the back seat right now. Just as the first aspect of Falcon 9’s development was to get it flying in the first place, and bonafide reusability came much later, it may be a relatively long time before the evidence you are looking for starts to show.

What is more important to search for at this time is: Is this rocket reliable? Are the clustered engines doing fine? etc. etc., I’m sure folks here can think of better grades for how the rocket is doing.

After SpaceX checks all those boxes: then we get into reusability.

This is not an all in one test program like SLS, where it is expected to do everything it can on the first flight. It is staged, perhaps vaguely similar to military aircraft development in the 1930s. You fly the clean airframe first usually and then work out all the equipment needed to fire weapons or communicate.

[tater]

10 minutes ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Right now the vehicle itself is in development. Although reuse is obviously still an aspect, the main focus is getting it to perform as well as possible and lift things to orbit.

This.

They have zero reason to reuse an entire vehicle until they have a candidate reusable vehicle. For this test they are reflying an engine on the booster. At a certain point it's worth considering that maybe—just maybe—the dolts working on Staship might actually have some clue what they are doing.

[Deddly]

3 hours ago, Nuke said:

were gonna need a bigger engine

This doesn't bode well for Raptor, right, @Exoscientist? 

[Nuke]

1 hour ago, Deddly said:

This doesn't bode well for Raptor, right, @Exoscientist? 

right now its the starship of theseus. we still dont know what the end product looks like, we just know it will be big and reusable.

[AckSed]

Speaking of development, overexcitable YT thumbnail said that they might be switching to new, orange version of the tiles, but I haven't seen any hint of this.

Any credibility?