Author Topic: SpaceX News  (Read 125657 times)

WLJ

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SpaceX News
« on: January 07, 2021, 09:03:40 PM »
Watch SpaceX launch their first mission of 2021!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=canlzf9dyIw

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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #1 on: January 07, 2021, 09:04:13 PM »
Less than 10 minutes to go
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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #2 on: January 07, 2021, 09:25:26 PM »
Good launch, nailed the 1st stage landing
Stuff never gets old.
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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2021, 08:40:46 AM »
Looks like there's a SN9 flight planned for the 10th

Meanwhile here's SN9 doing a static engine fire test.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dRlxNRWziM&t=102s

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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #4 on: January 08, 2021, 04:27:31 PM »
Live feed of another SN9 engine test
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eTKKtNkBUg
« Last Edit: January 08, 2021, 04:47:08 PM by WLJ »
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AZRedhawk44

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #5 on: January 08, 2021, 05:33:21 PM »
What are your thoughts on SN9 sticking the landing this time?

SN8 burned "engine rich" due to the CH4 header tank not providing enough pressure during the flip maneuver to maintain proper fuel flow.  The supposed interim fix is to introduce a helium charged COPV to increase tank pressure, but the long term fix ideally should be further refinement of the Raptor combustion cycle to drive appropriate exhaust levels from the respective preburners into their source tanks.

I think they're going to end up landing it this time, but I'm not really going to consider it a victory, since the craft needs to be able to perform at least 2 landings (one on Mars outbound, and one back on Earth at the return) before it can receive a helium refill.  No helium on Mars to speak of.  The goal is to be able to operate it by refueling everything it needs on Mars.

I'm sure they'll get there, I think it's already a far more capable design than the DC-X.
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Boomhauer

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2021, 05:38:52 PM »
SpaceX is proof we don’t need NASA.

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cordex

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2021, 05:41:15 PM »
... I'm not really going to consider it a victory, since the craft needs to be able to perform at least 2 landings (one on Mars outbound, and one back on Earth at the return) before it can receive a helium refill.  No helium on Mars to speak of.  The goal is to be able to operate it by refueling everything it needs on Mars.
That's a pretty weird standard.  There are a ton of things which this craft is not capable of that would be necessary for a round trip to Mars.  SN9 isn't intended to have everything figured out to make a round trip, rather it is a small part of that design process.

The victory in my opinion is not in having a system fully developed but in continuous iterative development and improvement.

If SN9 sticks the landing I'll call it a win for sure.

AZRedhawk44

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #8 on: January 08, 2021, 05:54:13 PM »
That's a pretty weird standard.  There are a ton of things which this craft is not capable of that would be necessary for a round trip to Mars.  SN9 isn't intended to have everything figured out to make a round trip, rather it is a small part of that design process.



They're introducing a dependency for craft operation that isn't present in its intended operational environment.  And a huge part of the design of Starship hinged upon autogeneous pressurization and the fully staged closed combustion cycle.

They've got a significant hiccup in that, that needs resolving, before any missions more demanding than Earth-to-Earth can happen.

The failure in fuel pressurization is rather damaging to their aspirations to sell a Human Landing System for Moon operations to NASA's Artemis program.
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cordex

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #9 on: January 08, 2021, 09:36:30 PM »
The exact same thing could be said for needing a landing pad or concrete pad to take off from.
Not going to have that on the moon or mars.

kgbsquirrel

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #10 on: January 08, 2021, 09:40:02 PM »
The exact same thing could be said for needing a landing pad or concrete pad to take off from.
Not going to have that on the moon or mars.

Hence no flame diverter for the Earth-side tests.  Won't have a luxury of one there so it has to be made to work without.

RocketMan

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #11 on: January 09, 2021, 09:33:06 AM »
SpaceX is proof we don’t need NASA.

We need NASA for the big ticket basic science and exploration stuff.  Outfits like SpaceX will concentrate on further commercializing space, something NASA cannot do.
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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #12 on: January 11, 2021, 09:28:04 PM »
SN9 could fly this week.
SN10 is waiting in the wings
SN15 is already being assembled
Other bits and pieces of news

Starship SN9 Needs 2nd Static Fire Before Test Flight - Upgraded Starship Leaps Ahead Of Old Designs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw8OCmyY3E4
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kgbsquirrel

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #13 on: January 12, 2021, 12:21:36 AM »
11-14 in processing?

dogmush

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #14 on: January 12, 2021, 04:32:34 AM »
There is some question as to weather they'll finish building 11-14.  Musk said on Twitter that 15 has some design changes brought about by what they learned so far that might make 11-14 not worth finishing.

That's what fast iteration will do.

Here's a diagram with the status of all of them so far. https://twitter.com/brendan2908/status/1347834757359439876?s=20

WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #15 on: January 12, 2021, 09:13:55 AM »
There is some question as to weather they'll finish building 11-14.  Musk said on Twitter that 15 has some design changes brought about by what they learned so far that might make 11-14 not worth finishing.

That's what fast iteration will do.

Here's a diagram with the status of all of them so far. https://twitter.com/brendan2908/status/1347834757359439876?s=20

Musk knows that failure often teaches you far more than success. Improvements are coming on hard and fast now.
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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #16 on: January 12, 2021, 09:52:20 AM »
1960s NASA after a failure: Learn from it, fix it, launch
Modern NASA after a failure: Sits in a corner whimpering over it for the next 5 years. What did we do wrong??
SpaceX after a failure: Learn from it, fix it, launch
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dogmush

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #17 on: January 12, 2021, 10:25:39 AM »
1960s NASA after a failure: Learn from it, fix it, launch
Modern NASA after a failure: Sits in a corner whimpering over it for the next 5 years. What did we do wrong??
SpaceX after a failure: Learn from it, fix it, launch but faster

FIFY

WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #18 on: January 12, 2021, 10:28:26 AM »
« Last Edit: January 12, 2021, 10:58:38 AM by WLJ »
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dogmush

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #19 on: January 12, 2021, 12:06:29 PM »
Yep

WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #20 on: January 12, 2021, 01:07:36 PM »
Watch SpaceX Static Fire Starship SN9! [TIME SUBJECT TO CHANGE]
Everyday Astronaut
716 waiting
Scheduled for 1/12/21, 3:00 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgPLtln_Dmw
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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #21 on: January 13, 2021, 12:27:58 PM »
Yesterday's static fire got scrubbed so they're going for one today
Live streaming now

Watch SpaceX Static Fire Starship SN9! [TIME SUBJECT TO CHANGE]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB9ZJfNZSys

LIVE: Starship SN9 Static Fire Testing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyFNIyB-ezc
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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #22 on: January 13, 2021, 03:23:45 PM »
Two static fires today
SN9 may be flying within the next few days
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WLJ

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #23 on: January 13, 2021, 04:04:10 PM »
Signs they may be going for a third today
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kgbsquirrel

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Re: SpaceX News
« Reply #24 on: January 13, 2021, 04:23:07 PM »
Signs they may be going for a third today

Punish that launch pad!  3 second blasts of three raptors is toasty.