In reply to Parker with too many Projects :
That's a big splat.
Apparently the IFT-4 booster landed dead on target at 0 velocity. The ship was about 6 km off target - which is why you don't want to be hanging around the expected target area watching at this point :)
I was curious about how the other flaps looked after seeing the one burning up. Wonder if they all had the same issue.
We have video of the booster landing. So easy to forget how big this thing is, it's basically a skyscraper flying around.
Apologies for the Xitter link, they didn't post it to YouTube (yet).
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1799458854067118450?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1799458854067118450%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=
In reply to Keith Tanner :
That transonic shockwave is MASSIVE 
I wonder if that's why they had some Raptor destruction on the landing burn re-light?
Not a SpaceX launch, but an unintentional SpaceX clone launch. Didn't go so well:
My phone keeps dinging with updates as tonight’s Türksat 6A launch gets rescheduled and rescheduled. Sunset launch, maybe?
Starship 5 launch in about 5 minutes (maybe)
Well that was incredible!
Not sure I would want to be near the tower for that test, you can see the field of tanks right next to it as it lands!
That was really impressive, catching the booster. Looked like they still have burn through on the flaps of Ship. There has to be a way to stop that. I think the Ship 2.0 has the flaps mounted higher up on the sides to get them out of the worst of the heating. It was also pretty cool seeing Ship landing in the ocean and exploding when it fell over. Nice that it landed so close to a ship, wonder if that was intentional, I wouldn't think so. I know FAA has already approved Flight 6, wonder how long they will wait to launch
I think the camera platform for the Ship landing was a buoy, not a ship. But they nailed their targeting.
The front flaps are indeed moving leeward for the next iteration. I think that'll fix the flap burn-through problem. Not sure when we'll see one of those launch.
The view of the catch from the tower was great. I'm looking forward to the SpaceX supercut that will undoubtedly show up in a few days from all the cameras they didn't broadcast.
Europa Clipper on Super Heavy tomorrow and Crew-8 is on the way home. It's a busy time.
That's insanely fascinating. And exciting for what the future holds.
My wife was visiting our daughter and went out to watch comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) this last Tuesday night (10-15-24) right after sunset. They didn't see the comet but took photos of this. Daughter guessed what it was, wife didn't. I went out but it was cloudy here.
Starliner test launch today, in a few hours - 2:00-2:30 PST
Similar test to the last one but this is a full day launch to allow a daylight landing of the Starship (into the Indian ociean). Booster should be returning to the launch site again.
Starship’s upper stage will fly the same suborbital trajectory as the previous flight test, with splashdown targeted in the Indian Ocean. An additional objective for this flight will be attempting an in-space burn using a single Raptor engine, further demonstrating the capabilities required to conduct a ship deorbit burn prior to orbital missions.
Several thermal protection experiments and operational changes will test the limits of Starship’s capabilities and generate flight data to inform plans for ship catch and reuse. The flight test will assess new secondary thermal protection materials and will have entire sections of heat shield tiles removed on either side of the ship in locations being studied for catch-enabling hardware on future vehicles. The ship also will intentionally fly at a higher angle of attack in the final phase of descent, purposefully stressing the limits of flap control to gain data on future landing profiles. Finally, adjusting the flight’s launch window to the late afternoon at Starbase will enable the ship to reenter over the Indian Ocean in daylight, providing better conditions for visual observations.
Some pretty cool shots from the belly flop as it came up on the cloud base. Ship seemed to land softly on the ocean. It broke up a bit when it fell over, so hard to say if they will recover anything (not that it really maters).
They actually degraded the heat shield on this flight to see what would fail, and it seemed to do pretty good (there was a clear burn through on one fin).
It was really hard to watch coverage of it today. None of the YouTubers seemed to be covering it. Where was Everyday Astronaut?
I did have a moment to take a break and watch the initial launch and booster splashdown on X though. Very, very cool. Go SpaceX!
In reply to confuZion3 :
Go to SpaceX.com for the official feed.
I caught this morning’s launch.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
You saw it that clearly from Ormond beach?
In reply to TRoglodyte :
Yup. We walk to the corner for a clearer view through the trees so, technically, that photo was taken in front of the house diagonally across the street from us. I took that with my iPhone Xs.
Starship is scheduled for another test launch on Friday Jan 10. They are doing various improvement and tests, including launching some test Starlink satillites.
The seventh flight test of Starship is preparing to launch.
The upcoming flight test will launch a new generation ship with significant upgrades, attempt Starship’s first payload deployment test, fly multiple reentry experiments geared towards ship catch and reuse, and launch and return the Super Heavy booster.
A block of planned upgrades to the Starship upper stage will debut on this flight test, bringing major improvements to reliability and performance. The vehicle’s forward flaps have been reduced in size and shifted towards the vehicle tip and away from the heat shield, significantly reducing their exposure to reentry heating while simplifying the underlying mechanisms and protective tiling. Redesigns to the propulsion system, including a 25 percent increase in propellant volume, the vacuum jacketing of feedlines, a new fuel feedline system for the vehicle’s Raptor vacuum engines, and an improved propulsion avionics module controlling vehicle valves and reading sensors, all add additional vehicle performance and the ability to fly longer missions. The ship’s heat shield will also use the latest generation tiles and includes a backup layer to protect from missing or damaged tiles.
The vehicle’s avionics underwent a complete redesign, adding additional capability and redundancy for increasingly complex missions like propellant transfer and ship return to launch site. Avionics upgrades include a more powerful flight computer, integrated antennas which combine Starlink, GNSS, and backup RF communication functions into each unit, redesigned inertial navigation and star tracking sensors, integrated smart batteries and power units that distribute data and 2.7MW of power across the ship to 24 high-voltage actuators, and an increase to more than 30 vehicle cameras giving engineers insight into hardware performance across the vehicle during flight. With Starlink, the vehicle is capable of streaming more than 120 Mbps of real-time high-definition video and telemetry in every phase of flight, providing invaluable engineering data to rapidly iterate across all systems.
While in space, Starship will deploy 10 Starlink simulators, similar in size and weight to next-generation Starlink satellites as the first exercise of a satellite deploy mission. The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship, with splashdown targeted in the Indian Ocean. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned.
The flight test will include several experiments focused on ship return to launch site and catch. On Starship’s upper stage, a significant number of tiles will be removed to stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle. Multiple metallic tile options, including one with active cooling, will test alternative materials for protecting Starship during reentry. On the sides of the vehicle, non-structural versions of ship catch fittings are installed to test the fittings’ thermal performance, along with a smoothed and tapered edge of the tile line to address hot spots observed during reentry on Starship’s sixth flight test. The ship’s reentry profile is being designed to intentionally stress the structural limits of the flaps while at the point of maximum entry dynamic pressure. Finally, several radar sensors will be tested on the tower chopsticks with the goal of increasing the accuracy when measuring distances between the chopsticks and a returning vehicle during catch.
The Super Heavy booster will utilize flight proven hardware for the first time, reusing a Raptor engine from the booster launched and returned on Starship’s fifth flight test. Hardware upgrades to the launch and catch tower will increase reliability for booster catch, including protections to the sensors on the tower chopsticks that were damaged at launch and resulted in the booster offshore divert on Starship’s previous flight test.
Distinct vehicle and pad criteria must be met prior to a return and catch of the Super Heavy booster, requiring healthy systems on the booster and tower and a final manual command from the mission’s Flight Director. If this command is not sent prior to the completion of the boostback burn, or if automated health checks show unacceptable conditions with Super Heavy or the tower, the booster will default to a trajectory that takes it to a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. We accept no compromises when it comes to ensuring the safety of the public and our team, and the return will only take place if conditions are right.
The returning booster will slow down from supersonic speeds, resulting in audible sonic booms in the area around the landing zone. Generally, the only impact to those in the surrounding area of a sonic boom is the brief thunder-like noise with variables like weather and distance from the return site determining the magnitude experienced by observers.
This new year will be transformational for Starship, with the goal of bringing reuse of the entire system online and flying increasingly ambitious missions as we iterate towards being able to send humans and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-7
Looks like it's being pushed 3-4 days according to Musk. I think that's confirmed by the status of things at the launch site.
https://x.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1876707408900206737
Blue Origin is hoping to launch Friday morning (early!) though. Too bad they're not going off on the same day, those are two very large rockets.
https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-glenn-launch-targeting-january-10
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