SpaceX's Upgraded Starship V3 Launches For First Time (reuters.com) 36
SpaceX's upgraded Starship V3 launched today from Starbase, Texas, for the first time, successfully deploying 22 dummy Starlink satellites and completing a planned fiery splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Reuters reports: The towering vehicle, consisting of the upper-stage Starship astronaut vessel stacked atop a Super Heavy booster rocket, blasted off at about 5:30 p.m. CT on Friday (2230 GMT) from SpaceX facilities in Starbase, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico near Brownsville. A live SpaceX webcast of the liftoff showed the rocketship, more than 40 stories tall, climbing from the launch tower as the Super Heavy's cluster of Raptor engines thundered to life in a ball of flames and billowing clouds of vapor and exhaust. The test ended about an hour later when the Starship vehicle made it through a blazing re-entry through Earth's atmosphere and splashed down into the Indian Ocean, nose up as planned, as SpaceX employees who gathered to watch a live webcast of the flight cheered. The lower-stage Super Heavy came down separately in the Gulf of Mexico about six minutes after blast-off.
The launch marked SpaceX's 12th Starship test flight since 2023 and the first ever for the V3 iteration of both the cruise vessel and its Super Heavy booster, as well as the first blast-off from a new launch pad designed for the more powerful rocket. During its suborbital cruise phase, Starship successfully released its payload of 20 mock Starlink satellites one by one, plus two actual modified satellites that scanned the spacecraft's heat shield and transmitted data back to operators on the ground during the vehicle's descent. Starship made it to its cruise phase despite the loss of one of its six upper-stage engines, and mission controllers opted not to attempt an inflight re-ignition of the engines before re-entry. But the vehicle did execute a return-landing burn at the very end of its flight, along with several aerodynamic maneuvers deliberately intended to place the spacecraft under maximum stress, and Starship completed those moves intact for its controlled final descent. You can watch a recorded livestream of the launch on YouTube.
The launch marked SpaceX's 12th Starship test flight since 2023 and the first ever for the V3 iteration of both the cruise vessel and its Super Heavy booster, as well as the first blast-off from a new launch pad designed for the more powerful rocket. During its suborbital cruise phase, Starship successfully released its payload of 20 mock Starlink satellites one by one, plus two actual modified satellites that scanned the spacecraft's heat shield and transmitted data back to operators on the ground during the vehicle's descent. Starship made it to its cruise phase despite the loss of one of its six upper-stage engines, and mission controllers opted not to attempt an inflight re-ignition of the engines before re-entry. But the vehicle did execute a return-landing burn at the very end of its flight, along with several aerodynamic maneuvers deliberately intended to place the spacecraft under maximum stress, and Starship completed those moves intact for its controlled final descent. You can watch a recorded livestream of the launch on YouTube.
success (Score:1)
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Dunno why this is downmodded. Plenty at SpaceX like them too, especially when they form a mini mushroom cloud for nice effect.
Europeans should be especially amused:
https://www.youtube.com/live/K... [youtube.com]
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That's what she said...
Mental gymnastics (Score:1)
Re:Mental gymnastics (Score:5, Informative)
They were expected to explode. The first stage failed to restart its engines and the second stage lost an engine but otherwise it got to space with a largely redesigned engine and spacecraft. Which is way better than the V2 redesign did.
So not a great success but the next one probably will be. Then, hopefully the flight after can actually go to orbit.
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So not a great success but the next one probably will be.
Nominal success.
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Yes. It proved the new hardware would be capable of getting to orbit if they hadn't deliberately launched into a suborbital trajectory, but so far not capable of getting back for reuse. Though it appears the heatshield suffered no obvious damage on this flight.
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but so far not demonstrated to be capable of getting back for reuse.
FTFY. And at least an earlier version of the booster was returned to the launchpad and caught, although not re-used.
Re:Mental gymnastics (Score:5, Informative)
It was reused on a later flight. So the older booster has already proven that it could be reused but this V3 has a lot of changes both to the booster and the separation process so it may be a while before they can catch one.
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You're right! First flown on flight 7 and re-used on flight 9. I'm out of touch apparently. Thanks for the correction.
I used to have a old 94 Honda (Score:2)
The thing is it needed constant maintenance and that maintenance cost a lot. If I had had just a little bit more money at the time there is no reason or way I would put up with that and it was a huge waste of time and effort on my part.
What I'm s
Re: Mental gymnastics (Score:1)
This flight, like every other before it, is intended to stress the vehicle re-entry well beyond the limits of what it will be subjected to in production (literally, for a future production model, as these are being mass produced on a large scale.)
The typical naysayers on slashdot really have no idea what's going on here. Not even the slightest. They saw what happened with oceangate, yet they still fail to understand the (quite vital) importance of destructive testing. It was entertaining the way e.g rsilver
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That's true, but Starship seems to have demonstrated that completely successfully. The explosion at the end was entirely planned.
Everything seems to have gone exactly as planned except for the engine failures. In fact, Starship demonstrated it's excellent engine out capability, landing exactly on target despite missing one from almost the beginning.
Engine reliability is something SpaceX has had problems with every new generation of Raptor, but they've solved it twice now so fixing it a third time doesn't se
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But considering the huge anti Trump&Musk hatred here, it's not surprising the comments are stupidly negative.
Re: Mental gymnastics (Score:3)
Re:Mental gymnastics (Score:4, Insightful)
So not a great success but the next one probably will be.
Anything that includes the Ship surviving reentry and making a soft landing right on target is a "great success".
While the failures of multiple new v3 raptors were disappointing, there was no RUD, and a massive trove of data generated.
Even the booster had full control until impact.
Then, hopefully the flight after can actually go to orbit.
Flights so far have been within a whisker of orbit. Today's burn time was extended ~40 seconds to make up for running on only 5/6 engines, but it would only have needed another 5-10 seconds burn to get into a stable orbit.
However I very much doubt the next flight will be full orbit. They still need to sort out the raptor problems, and demonstrate reliable re-lighting of the engines in space, before risking such a heavy ship in orbit.
But if the next landing is as good as today's, maybe the first orbital will also be "return to launch site" and even a catch attempt?
Re: Mental gymnastics (Score:1)
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It got to >26000 km/h last I looked which is pretty close to a stable orbital speed.
That number they show is relative to launch site, so does not include the 400m/s from the earth's rotation.
Take that into account, and it is indeed very close. Like 5-10 seconds longer burn.
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It's obvious that you never worked in R&D on a difficult project.
Tests like this gather data. Problems are expected as they provide useful data.
Over 90% of the objectives were achieved.
That's fine for the government and universities (Score:2)
Awesome Lift off (Score:5, Interesting)
Watching that skyscraper jump off the launch pad and reach MaxQ in 45 seconds was astonishing. I'm always amazed watching archival footage of the Saturn V lift offs, but Starship is on a whole new level of amazing.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Booster 12's story, with apologies to DA (Score:3, Funny)
Another thing that got forgotten was the fact that against all probability, a massive, stainless steel rocket booster had suddenly re-entered many miles above the Gulf of Mexico.
And since this is not a naturally tenable position for a seventy-meter cylinder of methane and liquid oxygen, the poor innocent vehicle had very little time to come to terms with its identity as a space-faring titan before it then had to come to terms with not being a space-faring titan anymore.
This is a complete record of its thoughts from the moment it began its descent to the moment it ended it.
Ahhh! Woooh! What’s happening? Who am I? What am I? Why am I here? What’s my purpose?
What do I mean by who am I?
Okay, okay, calm down, get a grip now. Oh! This is an interesting sensation, what’s this? It’s a sort of a yawning, rushing, tingling friction in my... well, I suppose I’ll call it my fuselage. Or my hull. Yes, hull sounds sturdy! And look at those little grids at the top flapping about! Let’s call them grid fins. Hey! These are great! They’re catching the... what’s that stuff? Air? Let’s call it air. It’s rushing past me so fast!
Is it supposed to be rushing past that fast? I'm getting quite hot. Let’s call it plasma!
Anyway, wow! This is really exciting, so much to find out, so much to look forward to! I feel so powerful, so heavy, so... accelerating. Am I accelerating? Yes! I am absolutely rocketing downward!
Ooh, downward. That’s a good word. Let’s see what’s down there. There’s a big, wide, round thing. It’s very blue. And very wet. Let's call it the ocean! I wonder if I am supposed to stand on it? No, that doesn't sound right. I think I'm supposed to slow down right above it.
Let's get ready for it! This is going to be magnificent. I can feel a deep, rumbling warmth in my belly now. My Raptors! That's what they are. A whole bunch of them are spinning up, ready to roar. Time for the landing burn!
Any second now. ...Um. ...Pardon me?
Why is there a coughing sound coming from my manifold? Why is that green flash of ignition fluid suddenly followed by a very hollow, empty sort of silence? And why are half of my engines refusing to join the party?
Oh dear. Total flameout. That’s a bit of a design flaw, isn't it?
And that flat, wet, blue expanse is getting awfully big now. Very fast. So big and fluid and... actually, at this speed, it looks remarkably hard. It’s coming up to greet me at a terrifying velocity! I wonder if it wants to be friends?
Hello, Water!
Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the discarded "Dodger Dogs" Starlink simulators as they tumbled down separately was, Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the Dodger Dogs had thought that, we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now.
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The Raptors use spark plugs to light rather than the TEA-TEB in the Falcon Merlins so no green flash, but otherwise 10/10, would upvote if I had mod points.
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Color me skeptical (Score:3)
with 12 launches in 3 years at a 58 percent success rate and zero orbits, and a requirement for 20 successful full orbit launches in 2 years. Musk has a reputation for hubris masking actions. This is not the same as using a LM. Wake me when they can auto land something unmanned on the moon.
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with 12 launches in 3 years at a 58 percent success rate and zero orbits, and a requirement for 20 successful full orbit launches in 2 years. Musk has a reputation for hubris masking actions. This is not the same as using a LM. Wake me when they can auto land something unmanned on the moon.
Wow, talk about hubris! Takes one to know one?
For some facts: landing on the moon is easier. Five nations have done soft landings on the moon. The Soviets did it in 1966. Only SpaceX has done propulsive soft landings from orbital velocity on Earth.
Zero orbits? This is not sub-orbital in the sense of John Glenn. Starship 12 was a whisker short of orbit for obvious safety reasons, "Color me clueless" would be more apt.
Which is not to say there are not still major challenges to a successful Artemis lunar la
Good job (Score:2)
Set it down right on top of MH370.