Kenneth_2003 said:

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zwhag2010 said:

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RED AG 98 said:

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Amazing how routine they have made this landing. Still incredible to watch.

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What an amazing achievement the first stage landed at the launch site (vs a barge landing) for the first time in a crewed mission. I didn't think they had the fuel to return to the launch site. Wow! This is yet another milestone that is revolutionizing space travel from a cost perspective

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Just a wild a__ guess... It's only going for 10 days. The NASA crew launches carry a lot of station cargo as well. New science, clothes, food, etc. It's not the full mission, but my guess is it's several months worth. The added weight may be why the other crew missions don't RTLS.

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NASA almost never misses an opportunity to fly additional cargo. It's possible that since Axiom was paying for the ride, they didn't offer NASA the opportunity to defer their costs by selling cargo space to NASA, but I can't imagine why they would do that.

My uninformed speculation is that without crew rotation or other constraints, SpaceX was able to pick a launch window with an efficient trajectory and could offer Axiom a reduced number of docking attempts compared to what NASA requires.

SpaceX said that they have seen enough performance from the Merlin engines that they trust the margins and can now RTLS. I don't know how much if any cargo is brought (and whether or not they could increase the amount of mass brought to orbit), but they did say manned iss flights will now be RTLS from here out.

At 5.5k$ per kg to orbit( more on a pressurized vessel and to iss), I'm not seeing them holding on to the extra lol.

Isn't the biggest restriction on ISS for life support water?

Decay said:

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SpaceX said that they have seen enough performance from the Merlin engines that they trust the margins and can now RTLS. I don't know how much if any cargo is brought (and whether or not they could increase the amount of mass brought to orbit), but they did say manned iss flights will now be RTLS from here out.

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what dafuq is RTLS…?????

Return to launch/landing site, basically landing at an LZ instead of a drone ship.

bmks270 said:

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Decay said:

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SpaceX said that they have seen enough performance from the Merlin engines that they trust the margins and can now RTLS. I don't know how much if any cargo is brought (and whether or not they could increase the amount of mass brought to orbit), but they did say manned iss flights will now be RTLS from here out.

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what dafuq is RTLS…?????

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Maybe they can come up with a better name....

Should they call a drone ship landing ATDSLS....

Advance to drone ship landing site...

Return to launch site.

It's an acronym that's held over from the shuttle days. One of the very early abort modes was RTLS. Ditch the boosters ditch the external tank and turn around and try your darnedest to land on the runway at Kenedy.

For SpaceX is the booster returning to a landing pad a mile or so down the coast from the launch pad.

Maybe they will modify it eventually with starship as 'return to orbital launch tower' or 'return to chopsticks.'

Personally, I think they blew it by not making them glow in the dark at night and calling them 'light sabers'

From the bridge yesterday as I started my May beach vacation.

What's everybody's guess on when they try to land the booster at the launch pad?

I say May 2025.

June 2025 [/price is right]

Faustus said:

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June 2025 [/price is right]

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"June 2023, Bob"

December 25th, 2024

Virgin Orbit assets sold off to Rocket Lab (bought HQ), Vast (bought test site), and Stratolaunch (bought plane).

Not a bad solution really. Or resolution.

8 Apr 2024.

Starship payload is 250 to 300 tons to orbit in expendable mode.

Improved thrust & Isp from Raptor will enable ~6000 ton liftoff mass.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2023

I've heard back when they were launching with the original Raptors that Starship would just barely be able to make it into orbit, with no payload capacity. What about with Raptor 3s?

The original launch profile called for it to not fully make orbit for testing.

There was definitely some early concerns with raptor about TWR, but those seem to have gone out the window if he's talking about an eventual 200+tons to orbit.

Ag_of_08 said:

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The original launch profile called for it to not fully make orbit for testing.

There was definitely some early concerns with raptor about TWR, but those seem to have gone out the window if he's talking about an eventual 200+tons to orbit.

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No, I just mean Starship, by itself:


I heard it might have been able to do an SSTO using the original raptors with no payload capacity left over.

So when is starship's next launch?

How risky would it be to presume it would go on said date if I wanted to take my kids?

June is the earliest, going to depend on litigation and progress. They're busting it on the OLM, I think k August is likely if they're not blocked

I just found this on YouTube. The Starship launch set to the score from Apollo 13. I am a sucker for Horner's film scores and had this song in my head watching this rocket launch from Isla Blanca Park on 4/20. This video was done perfectly.

For anyone considering making it down for one of these launches, just go. It was amazing. The people were great. Traffic was a bit nuts but leave yourself plenty of time to get there and pack your patience. You get to catch a sunrise as a bonus. I am hoping to see it get to orbit in a few months.

That was awesome!

TexAgs91 said:

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That was awesome!

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That was way better than I expected.

Man, the crowd at Hawthorne is such a great thing to have on in the background.

I vow to be ready for the internet delay next launch. I think the SpaceX feed was close to 30 seconds behind live.

Nice to see some parts of Virgin Orbit live on:

NEWS: We're excited to officially announce that we're expanding our launch fleet with the acquisition of Virgin Orbit's modified Boeing 747. Read more: https://t.co/yt54YHqXth pic.twitter.com/aXrQoHHYLA

— Stratolaunch (@Stratolaunch) May 25, 2023

Virgin Galactic (note, this is a very separate operation/company) yesterday did have a successful launch/test flight. I watched that live at the NSF youtube feed and while glad to see it, I was struck that they really don't put any effort into providing good live telemetry/imagery at all for the public. They will need to accelerate to really hit monthly/weekly launches to make it into a positive cash flow tourist operation.

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Virgin Galactic also announced that a new factory in Arizona, located near the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, would build the "delta class" spaceships. The delta class is meant to be capable of weekly flights and is expected to start revenue-generating payload flights in late 2025.

The VSS Imagine, similar to Unity but an improved variant known as "SpaceShip III," has been built but is not expected to fly this year. VSS Imagine's schedule has been affected by the company's need to prioritize returning Unity to service, as well as to start design work on the delta class.

Unity 25 is a critically important return to flight for Virgin Galactic, which reported a net loss of $159 million during the first quarter of 2023. The company does have cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaling $874 million as of the end of the first quarter, but profitability is key to Virgin Galactic's long-term prospects.

If Unity 25 goes as planned, the next flight will start the company's commercial research service with the long-delayed Italian Air Force flight. This flight, known as Galactic 01, is currently scheduled for late June. Regular commercial spaceflights are expected to start afterward, 12 years after commercial flights of SpaceShip Two were projected to start in 2011.

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SIAP.

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Thursday that provides liability protections to public and private space companies operating in the state. The move came the day after DeSantis announced his candidacy for the presidency during a Twitter Spaces session hosted by Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX.

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The bill, known as CS/SB 1318, Spaceflight Entity Liability, aims to provide immunity to spaceflight entities in certain circumstances, protecting them from liability in the event of injuries or deaths of participants or crew members during spaceflight activities. The new law requires space companies to have crew members sign a warning statement and waiver acknowledging the very obvious risks involved in launching oneself off the planet. The law takes effect on July 1. SpaceX lobbied throughout the legislative process, alongside other industry stakeholders including Boeing, Space Florida, and Florida Rising.

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The required warning statement also outlines other potential risks involved in spaceflight, including damage to land, equipment, and animals. The legislation continues to hold space companies liable for acts of gross negligence, willful disregard for safety, intentional injury to crew members, and prior knowledge of extraordinarily dangerous conditions.
The law requires, at minimum, that companies include this text in consent waivers:

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Warning: Under Florida law, there is no liability for an injury to or death of a participant or crew in a spaceflight activity provided by a spaceflight entity if such injury or death results from the spaceflight activity. Injuries caused by spaceflight activities may include, among others, injury to land, equipment, persons, and animals, as well as the potential for you to act in a negligent manner that may contribute to your injury or death. You are assuming the risk of participating in this spaceflight activity.

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LINK

I'm no lawyer but that all seems quite rational

Pretty good/short video detailing some spacex engine history.

PJYoung said:

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Another step closer to Mars — the first flight test of a fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy rocket pic.twitter.com/SpaHjQELlO

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 27, 2023

Love the shot of the windows shaking in the control room.

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Loved the ending...
"Up Next SH 25 B9"

So when is the Raptor 3 going to replace the 2?

Raptor V3 just achieved 350 bar chamber pressure (269 tons of thrust). Congrats to @SpaceX propulsion team!

Starship Super Heavy Booster has 33 Raptors, so total thrust of 8877 tons or 19.5 million pounds. pic.twitter.com/ZlskpCXUmu

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2023

They have a pretty big inventory of "2" available. They have built something like 300 Raptor 2's I think (200 by November, and were supposedly making around 1 a day at that point).

Even if the first few launches are 'throw always' with no intent to catch and re-launch them, planning on around 50 per launch (including replacing stuff) they should I would think use the "2" version for the first 3 or 4 launches at least, as "3" is still for now anyway a test article more than something to throw onto a booster/2nd stage.

But really that is just a guess. The whole knock on the Raptor from a 'design' philosophy vs. folks like Relativity is that it has incredible 'Gee whiz' capabilities, but will those hold up for anything close to rapid re-use as planned. It will be fun/entertaining to see how SpaceX evolves this, to be sure, and it's not just about the engines.

How will tthe tanks themselves on the vehicles hold up to such uses, and all of the GSE. I am personally dubious a stainless steel starship will be launched more than twice a day in my lifetime. Perhaps, in a 'starship 2.0' where they do go back to the carbon fiber plans, it could happen, or maybe I am totally wrong.

Scott Manley breaks down the Hakuto-1 crash…