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Skylon

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2 hours ago, RCgothic said:

Didn't Elon say that starship should be able to take off through storm conditions? To do with much better fineness ratio than F9.

"Yes, necessary for landing on Jupiter"

-Elon, probably

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Static fire livestream courtesy of NSF. The road reopened for a few minutes and the stream almost ended as a result, but now it's closed again so the test may still go ahead.

Edit: Stream over, for real this time. Nothing has happened yet, the road is open and vehicles are at the pad.

Edited by RealKerbal3x
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46 minutes ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Edit: Stream over, for real this time. Nothing has happened yet, the road is open and vehicles are at the pad.

Well, there's a hurricane hitting the TX a few miles N right now, so...

 

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4 minutes ago, tater said:

Well, there's a hurricane hitting the TX a few miles N right now, so...

 

I know, but for a while the road was closed and it seemed like something was going to happen. Since the conditions are going to worsen the later they get into the testing window, testing is probably unlikely today.

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4 minutes ago, RealKerbal3x said:

I know, but for a while the road was closed and it seemed like something was going to happen. Since the conditions are going to worsen the later they get into the testing window, testing is probably unlikely today.

They're on the safe side of it, though:

 

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I've said it before, and I'll say it again: SpaceX needs to take the threat of tropical cyclones more seriously in Boca Chica. There is certainly precedent for a severe hurricane directly impacting the area.

Quote

In Texas upon landfall, an 18 feet (5.5 m) to 20 feet (6.1 m) storm surge inundated lower Padre Island. The force of the storm tide made 31 cuts completely through the barrier island. Padre Island suffered significant devastation, and the island's sensitive ecosystem was altered by the storm. The highest sustained wind was reported as 136 miles per hour (219 km/h), recorded in the town of South Padre Island, across the Laguna Madre from Port Isabel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Beulah#United_States_2

I don't know the exact ASL elevation of the Boca Chica facility, but it seems likely to me that a storm surge of 18 - 20 ft would totally inundate the facility. And that's without getting into wind damage.

Major hurricanes don't happen often, certainly. The hurricane return period for the area within a 50 nmi radius of Boca Chica is 13 years, and the major hurricane return period is 30 years.

Those are averages, however, and there is a very real risk that a storm could strike the area in the near future. How long will it be until the area receives another hit? 5, 20, 50 years? Later this season? SpaceX may get lucky, but relying on luck is a dangerous game to play.

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