Why I went to Port Isabel TX

Funny how it set off at least one car alarm. Watched the re-entry where one of the guidance flippers appear to disintegrate 50%, yet the vehicle still made it to a splash down.
.

 

Yes watching titanium melt is a wonderful thing.

This is old but very thorough exposition

The Definitive Guide To Starship: Starship vs Falcon 9, what's new and improved? | Everyday Astronaut

Has it been improved elsewhere?

 

Like this?

ATLAS AGENA ROCKET DEPRESSURIZES ON PAD, COLLAPSES AND TEARS ITSELF TO PIECES

The Space Review: Not a bang, but a whimper

That wasn't the one I was actually searching for. I had been aware of a different launch vehicle crumpling like a soda can, but it was a different incident, the very last of some model line that was struck and damaged by a crane while on the pad. Total loss.

Also, a different case of a different rocket in the very early days, tumbling out of control mid-flight. It didn't fall apart until someone hit the Destruct button. Engineers cursed, because its survival while tumbling meant that it was stronger than necessary, thus too heavy. So for the next sample, while some worked out the control system bugs, others thinned the tank skin even more, shaving off several hundred pounds.

 

Heard of a three story stainless tank of shampoo crumpling like a soda can cause somebody didn't open a vent before draining it.

 

Back in the Atlas days they used less and less and less SS because it was a fire-and-forget rocket.
Interestingly enough, Boeing's trouble plagued space vehicle was lofted aboard.......an Atlas V.
God does love irony.

The good news for Boeing is that nothing fell off of it on the way up.

We squids use a 'slightly modified road flare' for our rocketry and they're made from some hush-hush graphite epoxy blend.
Since there's nothing sloshing around inside the tube (we have to LIVE inside the boat with the things!) and we don't want anything to return to the launch site this simplifies the design problem.

NASA learned the hard way that the most difficult part about going to space is those first 6-inches.
The acid test is to throw a part up into the air.
If it falls back down it's too heavy.
Musk has the added requirement of having to build it robustly enough to be re-used - so no cardboard tubes or stainless steel structures that are sheer enough that you can read an EULA through them.

HIS mantra isn't "it's too heavy" but rather: "The best part is NO part!"


Musk never does ANYTHING easy.
After trying to 'Henry Ford' the BEV he also tried to make them L5 autonomous at the same time.

I wouldn't have done it that way, but Elon runs TWO fairly big companies that he pretty much built using a white sheet of paper and his PayPal money.

I used my PayPal money last week to buy a 1:9 Balun (Unun?)
SO.....he seems to be getting along doing things HIS way.

 

Next starship test may be as soon as May 27.

 

Hope they get the ship a little further downrange this time.

 

Booster made its hole in the Gulf of ExxonMobil apparently as planned. Starship got the twirlies before its planned hole in Indian Ocean, but that's whereabouts it went.

Indian Ocean claimed Kosmos 482 not long ago also without accurate aiming. It is possible that today's unknown spot is very close. Whales etc. in vicinity would be thinking "what's wrong with you people?".

Or whatever whales etc. think.

 

Starship on-orbit fuel transfer is on the 2025 schedule. That will require 2 Starships in controlled orbits, snuggling up and moving at least a bit of juice from one to other. Given what Starships have done up there so far, that would be a startling achievement.

It would also require 2 launch stands because 2nd launch needs to be 90 minutes later +/- not much. I am not aware that construction of 2nd launch stand has begun.

 

Looks like it was a bust. That's why they call it a test flight one supposes.

 

Probably not a complete bust.
Booster 14 cleared the tower - a second time, and it delivered its payload - which is what boosters are supposed to do.
HOWEVER (comma!!!!) RUD occurred somewhat to the left of RPD.

@Mendel Leisk 'splainer: RUD - Rapid Unplanned Disassembly. RPD - or PRD...Planned Rapid Disassembly.

Ship 35 reached a stable suborbital trajectory until it started leaking fuel, after which they offloaded the remaining fuel and let it flutter in over the IO.

I'm reading where S35 didn't exactly 'lawn dart' into the IO but RUD'd itself along the way.
What our oppressed fellow mammals think about all of that is.....not fathomable.

@ refueling:
It will probably be kicked to the right a little - but I would not bet more than a cup of coffee on it.
Musk has a somewhat less restrictive FAA to deal with thanks to his side hustles, and all of the pieces-parts from IFT-9 landed about where the NOTAMS said they would.
@Mendel Leisk NOTAM(s) Notice to Airmen. They 'advise' aviators to steer clear when the forecast calls for....that kind of rain.
Forgive the airMEN 'gender foul' but that's what it really stands for (for now.)

SO.....there is talk that the Block-III birds will leave the coop on a more aggressive schedule, and a second stand is already well along in construction.
It's not quite 'half past 2025'

SO we will see what we see.

 

We’re this close to mars

 

Call me impatient, I'll wait for Warp drive.

 

You might have to be very patient to wait for warp drive.

 

SOME say....very VERY patient.

 

Sentient AI will solve everything, paid for by crypto pyramids

 

Maybe mars is the plan for the South African grifters