Texas Starship Testing

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Lighting of 33 candles may occur in second week of April

SpaceX moves Starship to launch site, and liftoff could be just days away | Page 10 | Ars OpenForum

 

How far? Or probably even more importantly, how fast?

I seem to remember a Shuttle, and possibly a Saturn V as well, experiencing unplanned early shutdown of a single nozzle, but late enough they still got up to usable orbit. With all the engines fed from the same tanks, the other engines can still make use of that fuel, if it isn't pumped out the dead engine. Salvageable when it happens far enough up, but not down low. I'm remembering videos of some rocket launches were launchpad thrust was less than required.

 

ARS updates to April 11 for wet dress rehearsal and April 17 or so for big fire

Rocket Report: Starship gets a tentative launch date; China tests ocean landing | Ars Technica

 

FAA launch license granted. Monday may be the day:

Green light go: SpaceX receives a launch license from the FAA for Starship | Ars Technica

There are mission patches available

https://spacexpatchlist.space/

but offered images have too few pixels to (steal and) print.

 

The nearly 400-foot-tall rocket is scheduled to lift off from SpaceX’s privately owned Starbase spaceport in South Texas during a two-hour launch window opening at 7 am CT (13:00 UTC) Friday, shortly after sunrise on the Texas Gulf Coast.

The reviews are done—SpaceX is clear to launch Starship | Ars Technica

 

What goes up.....

I'll be watching, of course.
It will certainly be interesting.

 

I'm old enough to remember people poking fun at Elon for trying to land his boosters.

 

You're saying the only solution is to "ditch this berg"?

 

One-day delay to replace a grid fin actuator. The idea a big rocket can be taken apart, part replaced, and reassembled in one day seems very much the essence of space flight Musk style.

However, human migration off Earth will not happen by way of shiny methane burners. Good for bopping around the solar system, but migration is a much larger challenge.

 

I saw a related blurb a week ago bout employee conditions while trying to make deadlines.
At SpaceX, worker injuries soar in Elon Musk’s rush to Mars

guessing what we don't NO can't hurt us.

I noticed the blurb mentioned above while I was reading about the big 4 audit firms ( Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), KPMG, and PwC.) and getting schooled on how many ( big? ) fraud cases I'd never even heard of till last week.

-- this link isn't where I read the article but it is basically what I read concerning employees meeting deadlines.
SpaceX Workers Took Adderall, Slept in Bathroom: Report

any-ones guess how accurate the reporting is, these days.

 

I've heard that seal training, especially hypoxia has also done in some recruits.
Breath Holding and Shallow Water Blackout - The Redwoods Group
I've read the idea behind the training is to get the person acquainted with passing out to reduce
anxiety / panic typically initially experienced with blacking out.
In sports like running, swimming and probably others, it used to be know as graduated breathing workouts.
And can also be dangerous if an athlete is driven hard enough.
I've read that the average human lung capacity is around 2 quarts of air. On a slightly different note, I've read that a recent well known gold medal Olympic swimmers lung capacity is 22 quarts of air. (mind boggling to me as I try to learn the fifth swimming stroke - underwater dolphin).
Underwater dolphin is basically the butterfly stroke, under water, without using arms to pull.

 

Welp, they lit the candle.
Mixed results but the payload got to 149km before the auto-RUD and I'm not hearing about any major pad damage, so I'm thinking that it's a REALLY good outcome.
I'm less concerned about stage1 sticking the landing, since that's an efficiency thing rather than a mission critical event.
Stage one lifted its end of the log - perfectly.
Thirty-three Raptors singing in concert is a super non-trivial thing, and SpaceX made it look easy - just like any pro team does.
Hopefully they will stack and stage #3 soon.

There was GOING to be a second launch out of Vandy for a Starlink mission, which would have made for 2 launches in one day.
SpaceX has already orbited two payloads in under 6 hours this year, but twice in one year would have been a good look for a company that ALREADY looks good.