As of: 18OCT/2200
(all times Eastern)
• Starhip controlled landing in ocean:
Starship flip maneuver and landing burn on its fifth flight test. Vehicle improvements ensured flaps were protected from high heating, resulting in a controlled entry and high accuracy splashdown at the targeted area in the Indian Ocean pic.twitter.com/nLIQLLVMv1
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 18, 2024
Launch & catch of SpaceX Super Heavy booster:
Booster capture sequences:
Best footage of the Super Heavy booster landing from today’s mission. pic.twitter.com/q2RhgFcCU2
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) October 13, 2024
Starship reentry and landing, Indian Ocean:
• MON Falcon Heavy, Europa Clipper:
Off to the Jovian moon, Europa
For you mission-ops fans, here’s the waiting for AOS (acquisition of signal)
TUE morning twofer:
(for four in less than 48hrs)
• Falcon9, Starlink FL
• Falcon9, Starlink CA
• FRI Falcon9, Starlink FL
Politics:
• FAA seems to have been visited by NASA enforcers
• CA wants to limit SpaceX launches due to Musk’s politics
(I expect them to be visited by USSF and NRO enforcers)
CA must love the idea of a few thousand more jobs leaving the state. Musk already pulled Tesla out of CA, to which a CA politician said, basically, “Good Riddance.”
Now this?
If I worked at Vandenberg I’d be furious and nervous.
Of course, the CA Coastal Commission is involved. Those guy are unelected bureaucrats who love to make others live by their diktats.
Tomorrow’s launch and catch is gonna be EPIC!
Succeed or fail, history is being made before our eyes, and it’s on par with the Moonshot. Much success, Elon!
Wow, just wow.
That was amazing to watch.
“By the way, guys, if we lose control of that booster on the way back, well, duck and cover.”
‘Drop’ it on the Cal Costal Commission?
Just did a calculation: my (large) house has a volume of about 90,000 cubic feet.
The booster is almost twice as big, 159,510 cubic feet.
The diameter of the booster is equal to the distance of my front door to my back door.
What we watched today is history making.
Edit. Math error: My home would be 32,000 cubic feet (I included #floors in my math). So SpaceX landed FIVE of my houses.
Doug, I knew how to do this in high school 57 years ago. I need help now.
Looking at the video the booster was going 1200kph when it restarted the engines during the landing, and was basically hovering ten seconds later.
How many G’s is that deceleration?
Aw, geeze…
sorry, my slide rule is in storage
If uniform, about 3.4g
Amazing
–mech
What would be the USSF equivalent of keelhauling?
Asking for a commission.
–mech
Being assigned as flame-trench monitor during a launch