When is the Starship orbital launch?

[Funkworks]

20 min to Space X’s stream.
80 min to launch.

https://www.youtube.com/live/6Vb9hFqF6i0?feature=share

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

Just happened to wake up in time to start the feed. Yay! T-35!

 

[Huxter]

SpaceX feed - 30 minutes to go!

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

Got my SpaceX shirt on. Starting a pot of coffee. Feed is up.

 

[Mushtang]

I wonder what Jeff Bezos is doing right now? He might be watching, as a fan of rocketry, or he may be working on something else because he's not interested in a non-BO flight. He still hasn't gotten anything into orbit, just test flights, so I also wonder if he's still planning on BO continuing as a future alternative to getting something into orbit?

This is super exciting. Even if they don't get it launched today (they're currently talking about pressurization issues as I type) they will soon. Someday in the future we'll all be watching the first launch of people to the moon in over 50 years, and then the even more significant first launch of people to Mars.

What a great day.

 

[neil_w]

Scrubbed for today.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

Booo! Scrubbed for the day.

 

[Hobie1dog]

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

They are continuing with a wet dress rehearsal.

 

[cls]

Oops. T-08:30, not launching from pressurization issue. But continue loading for WDR.

Still, worth waking up for. Beautiful day, handsome machine, how inspirational

 

[tsmith1315]

Exciting nonetheless!

 

[Antares JS]

He still hasn't gotten anything into orbit, just test flights, so I also wonder if he's still planning on BO continuing as a future alternative to getting something into orbit?

They are supposed to finally start flying New Glenn next year.

 

[boatgeek]

They are supposed to finally start flying New Glenn next year.

Is this like how fusion will be a viable power source in 30 years?

 

[Antares JS]

Is this like how fusion will be a viable power source in 30 years?

At least we are down to 30 instead of 50, finally.

But seriously, I've been rather skeptical of how serious Blue Origin really is since they lost out on the big military contract and then said they had to slow down development since they lost out on that funding. They are funded by Jeff Bezos. If they seriously wanted to keep a development pace that had them launching in 2022, they could have.

 

[A-ron]

It seems they had to scrub because a helium valve got cold feet...

 

[cerving]

Ah, just send somebody up there with a butane torch to warm it up...

 

[Huxter]

Like this one!

https://shop.spacex.com/collections/accessories/products/starship-torch

 

[techrat]

Bummed it did not launch today. But they will try again on Wednesday AM, it appears. I really want this thing to work because it will represent what we've been hoping for since I was a child and that is large contruction in orbit and permanent structures both in LEO and and on the moon, ala 2001: A Space Odyssey. And of course, hoping for Mars. Just think. Mark Watney could have had a much easier time in "The Martian" if he'd just driven to the permanent settlement on Mars that Musk established, and waited for the next Starship available to take him home.

 

[OverTheTop]

Fell asleep at about T-10 minutes. At least it was a scrub and I didn't miss anything.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

I heard they scrubbed it because someone who was supposed to be watching fell asleep.

 

[A-ron]

Next launch attempt on Thursday April 20. Tune in to find out which gets higher: Starship or Elon Musk.

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-test

 

[Funkworks]

The next launch attempt will be Thursday. (That's 4/20, a lucky number for some.)

"SpaceX is targeting as soon as Thursday, April 20 for the first flight test of a fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy rocket from Starbase in Texas. The 62 minute launch window opens at 8:28 a.m. CT and closes at 9:30 a.m. CT."

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-test

 

[Sandy H.]

I'm glad they scrubbed, as it helps to show that they don't have 'go-fever'. I think that image will help moving forward. Based on all the stuff going on with Twitter etc., Elon is obviously a person who pushes too fast at times. This project is not a good place to do that. . .

 

[Cape Byron]

Feed for the next attempt goes live April 20 at 2245.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

Feed for the next attempt goes live April 20 at 2245.

<Whew!> I'm glad I'm not in Oz! That's almost my beddie-bye time!


But thanks!

 

[Marc_G]

Hey, dumb question: the super heavy booster has never flown, right? I remember the Starship second stage flights with fondness, but I can't remember any flight tests of the super heavy booster. Maybe it's just dementia setting in.

If it has never flown, I guess I'm surprised they would stack a functional Starship on it for a first flight.

I'm probably missing something...

 

[bad_idea]

Hey, dumb question: the super heavy booster has never flown, right? I remember the Starship second stage flights with fondness, but I can't remember any flight tests of the super heavy booster. Maybe it's just dementia setting in.

If it has never flown, I guess I'm surprised they would stack a functional Starship on it for a first flight.

I'm probably missing something...

Not a dumb question. You're right, it hasn't flown.

They've done enough testing with the other flights with the hopper and the earlier Starships (not to mention all those Falcon 9 landings) to have a good grasp of the TVC, and they've done enough static firing they think the booster will work. But both craft are also obsolete at this point, with many upgrades applied to later builds, so any test data they can get from this stack is worthwhile compared to just scrapping them. Musk has said that so long as it clears the launch site, whatever happens is a good test, and that sounds about right to me.

I'm pleasantly surprised they're launching this soon. I was expecting it would take them a few more iterations of static firing and then repairing and reinforcing the launch facility, tweaking things on Superheavy, etc.

 

[Marc_G]

Excitement guaranteed, for sure! Thanks @bad_idea !

 

[Funkworks]

... You're right, it hasn't flown.

I suppose it needs a nose cone to fly, which in this case, is Starship.

 

[georgegassaway]

Analagous to the decision for the Saturn-V to do "all up testing", with all three stages.

As opposed to the early Saturn-I's that only flew a booster and dummy stages.

That was a key reason Apollo landed on the moon in 1969.

THere's plenty of "discarded" Starship prototypes that could have been flown on top as a dummy, but they need to test as much as they can get done.

I'm disappointed they won't try to go from belly-flop and do a "flip" landing to get more testing out of it (only worked once). I read someone claim it was to assure SS would get crushed and sink, but if that was the reason they could just program it to flip and "land" 1 km above the ocean, reach zero velocity, then shut down, the velocity of falling free for 1 km woukd be enough to crush it and sink. Still, I found that "belly splash" reason to sound too much like a fanboi speculation presented as "fact", and not anything hinted at by SpaceX AFAIK (maybe legit, but.....).

What I had really really hoped, was they would set out a dinghy with a drone, near the landing spot, then have the drone take off 10-15 minutes before landing, and get to a spot to get a good view of landing. Mainly to check for damage like missing tiles and possibly melted/damaged steel sections of StarShip. SpaceX has used drones for other reasons, including RTLS landings at the Cape, but never at sea