I am sooooo getting up at 04:30 pacific time to see the next launch live. 7am central time. From their website today:
The second flight test of a fully integrated Starship is set to launch Saturday, November 18. A twenty-minute launch window opens at 7:00 a.m. CT.
A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 35 minutes before liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so be sure to stay tuned to our X account for updates.
Starship’s first flight test provided numerous lessons learned that directly contributed to several upgrades to both the vehicle and ground infrastructure to improve the probability of success on future flights. The second flight test will debut a hot-stage separation system and a new electronic Thrust Vector Control (TVC) system for Super Heavy Raptor engines, in addition to reinforcements to the pad foundation and a water-cooled steel flame deflector, among many other enhancements.
3 replies on “I am soooo going to bed early tonight! Starship part Two”
… aaaaaand … BOOM!
Correction…..Boom! and Boom!
Love their acronym, and it now flows so easily from the commentators on the broadcast….”looks like we’ve had a RUD”. A rapid unplanned dis-assembly. It’s not bad news, it’s a data point.
In a very Rumsfeld moment….
I’ve said for years to my associates at work when we have a product failure in testing….Bad news is good news. A failure in testing means we can engineer a solution. Good news is also good news, as we can see reports of products surviving months of rigorous field testing from our pro riders…..The product should survive normal customer abuse.
It’s the “no news” which is really bad news. Failure to test for materials or design changes, or rushing a product to market without exhaustive testing, or worse, giving test products to professional test pilots who fail to give it their all, or give the test products to friends……and no news comes back from the testing. Bad news is sure to follow.
As an aside, as I watch that explosion of the booster (over and over, it’s fascinating to watch) I wonder how much oxygen is at that altitude to create that flash of an explosion? Then again, that booster was carying still a lot of payload of cooled methane and oxygen, so it brought it’s own explosive agents up to that altitude to go …boom! Rocket Surgeon RASE, is that how it’s done?