After flying to a peak altitude of ~90km, traveling more than 60 km downrange from Starbase, and completing its boostback burn and coast, Super Heavy ignited its landing burn less than 40 meters away from the preflight target.

The Raptor engines and booster guidance system… pic.twitter.com/ArkCVXkGNm

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 24, 2025

Nice update:


Notional horizontal lunar starship landing vehicle:

Quote:

---

Almost anywhere else, we have bigger regolith hazards, and a gravity regime for which the raptor engines are overpowered. We need to land ships before we can build landing pads, let alone the significant GSE infrastructure that will allow starships to take off vertically. That's where I could see this horizontal-landing configuration being useful: as a practical stop gap for moving people and large payloads onto the surface.

Here's a simple lunar landing animation of a "pirate" starship with a keel (actually dual skids on the belly), with a landing base area roughly 4.5 by 38 meters. I'm assuming that most of the braking burn would be done with main engines, before flipping to land on dedicated landing engines.

By turning to face up-slope during landing, starship could land in many areas that would topple a vertical HLS, remembering that this "tip-over" problem is significantly worse on the moon and Mars: When gravity is lower, but the mass remains the same, the torque required to induce tipping is proportionately lower for a given height/base width ratio (see: the 2024 moon landers)

Landing horizontally also eliminates the need for the payload crane currently depicted on the HLS system, (my model has usable hatches only 1.7m off the surface).

---

Anyway, the geeks at NSF aren't a big fan of this concept, but it's amusing.

I haven't seen anyone's imagery, but did someone actually catch a good picture of this, last week?



touching down on Titan:

Falcon 9, starlink launch.

We've been trying but it's been cloudy up here the last few days.

Was that the launch that was scrubbed earlier in the week because ATC may have vectored a plane across the TFR?

I honestly have no clue. I didn't get much info with it

AtlAg05 said:

---

Night sky on Mars. pic.twitter.com/2y5b36vwLe

— Curiosity (@MAstronomers) January 26, 2025

Night sky from Mars

---

Damn that is beautiful.

I really hope I can retire on Mars someday…

Sea Speed said:

---

I honestly have no clue. I didn't get much info with it

---

I suspect it's the same sunrise launch I posted above during sunrise on 24 Jan. Sunrise & sunset launches are truly amazing.

If you want to check out all three Lunar Terrain Vehicles being developed for Artemis, head to the Houston Auto Show.

https://www.houstonautoshow.com/attractions/

So not exactly space related, but I figured you guys would still find it interesting. Boom Aerospace is aiming to fly their XB-1 pathfinder through the sound barrier (becoming the first civilian aircraft to do so). They're livestreaming it on their website. Livestream begins at 9:45 AM Central.

XB-1 Supersonic Flight Test

The idea is to prove out some of their technical concepts prior to building Overture, their supersonic passenger airliner.

Maximus_Meridius said:

---

So not exactly space related, but I figured you guys would still find it interesting. Boom Aerospace is aiming to fly their XB-1 pathfinder through the sound barrier (becoming the first civilian aircraft to do so). They're livestreaming it on their website. Livestream begins at 9:45 AM Central.

XB-1 Supersonic Flight Test

The idea is to prove out some of their technical concepts prior to building Overture, their supersonic passenger airliner.

---

They mentioned wanting to expand the technology to commercial air travel. Is their plan to just scale up the XB-1 to where there is capacity for passengers? Or is the XB-1 just for designing/testing the various systems that will then be incorporated into a commercial-sized air frame?

My understanding is that it's the latter. If you look at the concept art of Overture, it's quite a bit different from XB-1. Much bigger and with 4 engines as opposed to one. I think they're testing aerodynamic package concepts (very high angle of attack) as well as some other things.

YellAg2004 said:

---

Maximus_Meridius said:

---

So not exactly space related, but I figured you guys would still find it interesting. Boom Aerospace is aiming to fly their XB-1 pathfinder through the sound barrier (becoming the first civilian aircraft to do so). They're livestreaming it on their website. Livestream begins at 9:45 AM Central.

XB-1 Supersonic Flight Test

The idea is to prove out some of their technical concepts prior to building Overture, their supersonic passenger airliner.

---

They mentioned wanting to expand the technology to commercial air travel. Is their plan to just scale up the XB-1 to where there is capacity for passengers? Or is the XB-1 just for designing/testing the various systems that will then be incorporated into a commercial-sized air frame?

---

It's on their website. XB-1 is test platform, Overture is the passenger jet, and Symphany is "The Purpose-built Turbofan Optimized for Supersonic Flight".

Overture:
MACH 1.7 Cruise Speed
2X Faster over water
20% Faster over land
600+ Profitable routes
UP TO 100% SAF COMPATIBLE
201 FT Nose to tail
60K FT Cruising altitude
4250 NM MAX Range (4888 mi/7867 km)
64-80 Passenger capacity

Its going to be expensive for passengers. They are targeting $5,000 per person roundtrip on transatlantic flight from NYC-London.

Fuel of the jet at supersonic speeds would be 2-3x more per passenger than conventional aircraft.

The issue is…they don't have an engine partner for Overture. It's one thing to make a plane/design (and get airlines to sign up for it, should it be developed/certified/produced, without any real down payment/commitment).

It's another one to have the power plant required to make it reliable/economical to operate commercially, or even capable of certification.

Technically, they claim Kratos as a partner, but this is really vaporware, imho. It takes massive investment/expertise to develop, produce, and certify an engine like this, and…they are not really capable of this, imho.

Maximus_Meridius said:

---

So not exactly space related, but I figured you guys would still find it interesting. Boom Aerospace is aiming to fly their XB-1 pathfinder through the sound barrier (becoming the first civilian aircraft to do so). They're livestreaming it on their website. Livestream begins at 9:45 AM Central.

XB-1 Supersonic Flight Test

The idea is to prove out some of their technical concepts prior to building Overture, their supersonic passenger airliner.

---

Livestream up.

So Florida Turbine Technologies (which is owned by Kratos and currently holds the record for the fastest resume rejection email I've gotten to date) is designing the engine, and assembly will be by StandardAero in San Antonio. Now, to your point, I'm not sure this is going to work. This thing may fade into the ether like just about every other SST proposed (excepting the Concorde, obviously). I just thought as space travel is currently in the FAA mandated doldrums, it could be some entertainment for a Tuesday morning.

Oh I find it fascinating, I just mainly see it as a negative impact for future projects (as far as getting funding), when it collapses. Thx for posting.

I don't think it is stock footage, but the videography of the ground activities is pretty good. Also just started piping in radio chatter.

Thanks, I admittedly didn't venture over to their website to poke around.

Where are they? There are a ton of commercial airliners parked behind that jet.

double aught said:

---

Where are they? There are a ton of commercial airliners parked behind that jet.

---

Mojave, California

About to start the taxi!

About to take off with both chase planes.

ha air to air video brought to you by Starlink

Three successful passes at Mach 1.1ish

Is this plane supposed to be quiet sonic boom like the X-59? Or just sonic boom civilly?

That's a good sign. If they can make these correctly it will be a nice boon to general aviation.

aezmvp said:

---

That's a good sign. If they can make these correctly it will be a nice boon to general aviation.

---

Do they expect to sell production models of this aircraft?

Or is this supposed to be a step towards a larger Concorde type aircraft?


I can't imagine there is a market for these single pilot ones at all.

aTmAg said:

---

aezmvp said:

---

That's a good sign. If they can make these correctly it will be a nice boon to general aviation.

---

Do they expect to sell production models of this aircraft?

Or is this supposed to be a step towards a larger Concorde type aircraft?


I can't imagine there is a market for these single pilot ones at all.

---

Larger, 80 passenger aircraft.

Rex Racer said:

---

aTmAg said:

---

aezmvp said:

---

That's a good sign. If they can make these correctly it will be a nice boon to general aviation.

---

Do they expect to sell production models of this aircraft?

Or is this supposed to be a step towards a larger Concorde type aircraft?


I can't imagine there is a market for these single pilot ones at all.

---

Larger, 80 passenger aircraft.

---

Is it supposed to be quiet?