will25u said:

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So clean and so smooth!

Hot staging pic.twitter.com/GIQT5ek2Sj

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 31, 2026

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That's CGI, and it wasn't IFT-13. There's 4 gridfins on that video.

Maximus_Meridius said:

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Orbital mechanics ain't my thing, but is it possible they could test orbital maneuvers and change the orbit enough to reduce orbit count?

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Generally speaking, in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) the you make it once around in about 90 minutes, The higher you go the longer the period. LEO is considered ~160km -- 2000km. By 2000km you're getting closer to about 2 hours or so. You can also increase the time it takes to orbit by making your orbit elliptical.

Recall on Flight 12 they had a Raptor engine out on the Starship. They did achieve a nominal insertion along their suborbital profile, but the video I posted above (there have been some questions raised about the commentators accuracy) indicates the vehicle was on the lower limits of the window. I was under the impression they just burned longer to achieve an on target insertion. In the end they did still reach their target splash down point.

Reentry of any vehicle is all abut energy management. We want to recover Starship so they manage that energy in a manner that limits heat and g-loads for vehicle survivability. If you want to burn up, you pick a profile that increases g-loads to induce breakup but also keep the vehicle in the high heat environment to give pieces the best shot at burning up as much as possible. From the de-orbit burn to entry interface you're just coasting and there's nothing you can really to do change your trajectory. Once you reach entry interface you will begin interacting meaningfully with the atmosphere. Starship, like shuttle and every capsule we've ever used, is a lifting body and has a degree of control. When the vehicle is "level" then the lift points up and they fly higher or at least slow their descent. Roll to one side or the other and the lift points to the side and will induce a turn. Flying straight and level maximizes your downrange distance. Rolling back and froth from side to side creates an S shaped flight path that will decrease your down range distance.

Example... Space shuttle called this S turn profile roll reversals and used them to bleed energy to ensure they arrive in the area of their runway with the desired energy. Now they always made sure to carry too much energy into what they called Terminal Area Energy Management (TAEM). They would intentionally overfly the runway still flying perpendicular to the runway, then execute a 270* turn that lines them up over the runway. They would widen or tighten the turn as necessary manage the energy.

Starship will obviously have an propulsive landing burn to do, but that burn will not have the effect of extending their downrange capability. In fact every suborbital profile they've flown has already included a turn, or as they're calling it a "swoosh," to come back toward the tower in terminal flight.

145 pages that explains how Shuttle did it...

That "swoosh" maneuver looks really interesting. I can't wait to see that IRL

TexAgs91 said:

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will25u said:

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So clean and so smooth!

Hot staging pic.twitter.com/GIQT5ek2Sj

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 31, 2026

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That's CGI, and it wasn't IFT-13. There's 4 gridfins on that video.

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Elon posted it... I would think he would know if it was CGI or not?

He's right about the grid fins. That's probably Flight 11.

I don't know... Elon posted the wrong date for IFT-13 (which later turned out to be correct because of the scrub), then he posted a photo of Ship saying it was taken from starlink when it was from the booster.

He's slipping lately

Here it is


Description: Check out this detailed animation of hot staging by SpaceX! Learn how this innovative technique boosts rocket efficiency and advances space travel. Witness the cutting-edge technology that makes SpaceX a leader in the industry.

lb3 said:

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Raise the altitude to reduce the number of orbits.

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True


You can do it in 6 orbits with an orbital altitude of 6500 km, which gives you an orbital period of 242 minutes. That's still about 24 hrs though

TexAgs91 said:

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will25u said:

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So clean and so smooth!

Hot staging pic.twitter.com/GIQT5ek2Sj

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 31, 2026

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That's CGI, and it wasn't IFT-13. There's 4 gridfins on that video.

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Quote:

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AI, unfortunately. That's a V2 booster. The MECO shutdown sequence is wrong, the sea level raptors on ship are not gimbaled outward for separation and the plume interaction is streaky when it should be ruffled.
The venting just looks wrong too.

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TexAgs91 said:

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lb3 said:

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Raise the altitude to reduce the number of orbits.

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True


You can do it in 6 orbits with an orbital altitude of 6500 km, which gives you an orbital period of 242 minutes. That's still about 24 hrs though

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Yeah. It looks like you're not going to pass over the same point on the same pathway in less than 24 hours. It doesn't matter what orbit you put yourself into. If you launch going down-hill the only way to return in 12 hours would be to renter on the uphill pass.

Just using your last graphic for reference, since i can see it while typing this... It might be possible to come in at 4.5 and use their control authority to flatten the ground track as they pass over Baja and Northern Mexico.

No way they launch uphill and overfly CONUS on the way up.

I'm rewatching the original video right now to see what his inputs were. I think he's using the ground track of STS6, but shifted to put Starship's launch on the descending node as it leaves Starbase, yielding at 28.5* inclination.

I think it was Tim Dodd once said,

Quote:

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Rocket science really isn't all that hard. It's just the math that gets really complicated.

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Kenneth_2003 said:

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I think it was Tim Dodd once said,

Quote:

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Rocket science really isn't all that hard. It's just the math that gets really complicated.

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Math is the reason I am a geologist.

Same

PJYoung said:

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The rescue is on!

Both Normand Ranger and Skimmer Tide are now steaming toward Ship 40 and GO Australis.

Normand Ranger (making ~15 kts) should arrive on station around noon Friday Texas time (~17:00 UTC).

Skimmer Tide is running a bit slower at ~10 kts and will likely arrive… https://t.co/XC4mJfQEcf pic.twitter.com/ZgmrOCC5yq

— Claudius (@ClaudiusNDX) July 30, 2026

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NORMAND RANGER has met up with GO AUSTRALIS (which has been trailing the floating Starship for the past >6 days). SKIMMER TIDE still about 360 kilometers/18hrs out.

S40 has floated approximately 403km since touchdown occurred 162 hours ago. https://t.co/FyUZFrFPA2 pic.twitter.com/glAITpU8fP

— TheSpaceEngineer (@mcrs987) July 31, 2026

What about a burn in space to higher/lower latitude? I have no idea how it works, so just spitballing.

Feels like some people took Space Magic in here (I couldn't hack the math and transferred to be a Mathematics major)

will25u said:

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What about a burn in space to higher/lower latitude? I have no idea how it works, so just spitballing.

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Changing their orbital inclination once in space is doable. It takes a HUGE amount of fuel to do so. Starship probably doesn't have the fuel on board after the basic orbital insertion to do a major orbit change.

If they change to a lower latitude they would no longer pass over Starbase so that's automatically out. You can't land at South Padre if you no longer fly north of Mexico City.

A steeper orbit would mean that they would most likely be overflying more populated regions during the reentry phase of the flight plan, regardless of whether or not they come in on an ascending leg or descending leg of the orbit.

Regardless of inclination the earth is still rotating beneath you. You'll pass back over (near) your launch site in 12 hours on the opposite leg and 24 hours on the same path you launched on.

I agree on it taking a HUGE amount of fuel to change the inclination of the orbit from 33 degrees to -33 degrees (or equivalently rotate the right ascension ascending node 180 degrees). It takes slightly more delta-v to change to the new inclination than it does just to get into orbit.

All to be able to land in 12 hrs instead of 24? Nah, just wait for 24 hrs.

Since the dawn of the internet I've been amazed and astounded at all the idiocracy out there. But my god... This is a new low

This is amazing - Australian public broadcaster ABC News pushing claim that SpaceX moon debris will harm Indigenous people

Unsure if they are aware that the moon is presently uninhabited @elonmusk @aus_pill pic.twitter.com/kPSV0KDX15

— Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou) August 1, 2026

are they expecting Elon to build a moon rock trebuche and aim it at the outback?

Pretty common for X accounts to rage bait by typing something that the video clip doesn't support.

She mentions the moon's role in indigenous peoples story telling but that's about it?

Weirdly I just watched the most recent ALONE episode and one of the contestants is from Australia and I think a good chunk of their people are hyper aware of their role in kicking out the Australian indigenous rather late in European history something like 100-150 years after we kicked out the indians here.

TexAgs91 said:

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Since the dawn of the internet I've been amazed and astounded at all the idiocracy out there. But my god... This is a new low

This is amazing - Australian public broadcaster ABC News pushing claim that SpaceX moon debris will harm Indigenous people

Unsure if they are aware that the moon is presently uninhabited @elonmusk @aus_pill pic.twitter.com/kPSV0KDX15

— Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou) August 1, 2026

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Stupidity at that level should be made to be painful. That is the only way to get people to shy away from it.

PJYoung said:

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Pretty common for X accounts to rage bait by typing something that the video clip doesn't support.

She mentions the moon's role in indigenous peoples story telling but that's about it?

Weirdly I just watched the most recent ALONE episode and one of the contestants is from Australia and I think a good chunk of their people are hyper aware of their role in kicking out the Australian indigenous rather late in European history something like 150 years after we kicked out the indians here.

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It is called "engagement farming". You make money when you get clicks and you get even more when you generate replies to your post. So if you spin a story or graphic and then throw in an absurd claim or something that is blatantly false, everybody wants to jump in and respond to tell you how stupid/wrong you are. Voila! Engagement! To the advertisers, people aren't just clicking on your post, they are engaging with it.

txags92 said:

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PJYoung said:

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Pretty common for X accounts to rage bait by typing something that the video clip doesn't support.

She mentions the moon's role in indigenous peoples story telling but that's about it?

Weirdly I just watched the most recent ALONE episode and one of the contestants is from Australia and I think a good chunk of their people are hyper aware of their role in kicking out the Australian indigenous rather late in European history something like 150 years after we kicked out the indians here.

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It is called "engagement farming". You make money when you get clicks and you get even more when you generate replies to your post. So if you spin a story or graphic and then throw in an absurd claim or something that is blatantly false, everybody wants to jump in and respond to tell you how stupid/wrong you are. Voila! Engagement! To the advertisers, people aren't just clicking on your post, they are engaging with it.

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Case in point... Rusty Surrette over at KBTX. He's the master at it, and even people that know what he's doing are still drawn to engage like a moth to flame.

normaleagle05 said:

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Wow...

I finally have all 1.2 million raw image files from my latest mission to ISS! Here is a sample of one of my favorite Milky Way photos, taken from the Cupola with Nikon Z9, Arri Zeiss 15mm lens, T1.8 with custom sidereal drive that cancelled out star motion relative to our orbit. pic.twitter.com/Sjm4UFgOs6

— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) July 31, 2026

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Many have asked how this photo was made. This is my explanation.

The ISS rotates about its pitch axis as it orbits Earth at 17,000mph to keep its nadir view constant. Because of this long exposure photography turns stars into arced lines.

Sidereal clock drives on Earth match… https://t.co/SWMWmoD94r pic.twitter.com/9DhcPuBbao

— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) August 1, 2026

I saw a talk given by Dr Pettit. He was describing among other things about how he repurposed an IMAX mount that was on the ISS for cancelling out motion as he took photos of cities at night.

I would love to see him on an Artemis mission.