SpaceX test-fires Super Heavy booster for 7th Starship launch (video, photos)

[Admin]

SpaceX just test-fired the Super Heavy first stage of its seventh Starship megarocket, which is being prepped for a launch in the coming weeks.

SpaceX test-fires Super Heavy booster for 7th Starship launch (video, photos) : Read more

 

[jan.wolitzky]

"The megarocket has performed quite well"? As long as "performing well" doesn't include ever achieving orbit, or ever recovering the "designed to be fully reusable" Starship.

 

[Philly]

"The megarocket has performed quite well"? As long as "performing well" doesn't include ever achieving orbit, or ever recovering the "designed to be fully reusable" Starship.

Orbit isn't anything that would be considered to be important at this point since they aren't placing any payloads into orbit yet. Until they have a very high degree of certainty as far as being able to control the Starship in orbit it is safer to just dump it into the Ocean. If it went out of control and crashed into a populated area that wouldn't be worth the risk at this point.

Understand to land it back at the Cape or in Texas it will have to fly in across or over top of populated areas. Having one crash on top of Disney World just because you didn't test it fully would be a very bad thing. Best to eliminate as many doubts as possible now, with extensive real world testing.

Besides SX knows how to put stuff into orbit at this point.

 

[jan.wolitzky]

Delivering payloads to orbit is the whole point. Let's compare Starship to the 60-year old technology everyone most likes to compare it to, the Saturn V. That craft put a payload into orbit on its first flight. No wasting time fooling around with partially successful suborbital demos. Starship/SuperHeavy just had it's sixth flight. On Saturn V's sixth flight, it sent Apollo 11 to the moon.

For Starship HLS to land astronauts on the moon (now slated for 2027, but there's no way that will happen), SpaceX will need to orbit a Starship tanker, then orbit a series of Starships (a number in the "high teens", per NASA) to fuel the tanker, then orbit Starship HLS (Human Landing System) to receive fuel from the tanker, then fire Starship HLS into a translunar trajectory, then drop it into lunar orbit, where it will dock with either Artemis 3 or with the Lunar Gateway, from which astronauts will transfer, then deorbit and descend to the surface, then lift off, achieve lunar orbit, and dock again to deliver astronauts for the return trip. (After which, the fuel-depleted Starship HLS will be abandoned, not reused.) That's an awful lot of capabilities that have yet to be demonstrated!

 

[skynr13]

"The megarocket has performed quite well"? As long as "performing well" doesn't include ever achieving orbit, or ever recovering the "designed to be fully reusable" Starship.

Or having the legs it will needs to land on the Moon. Chopstik catches are fine, but it will still need legs to land on other planets or moons. It would be especially fine now, as it would facilitate it's landing even on Earth during testing and check one more test off the books before regular use and end these pollutive sea landings.

 

[skynr13]

Delivering payloads to orbit is the whole point. Let's compare Starship to the 60-year old technology everyone most likes to compare it to, the Saturn V. That craft put a payload into orbit on its first flight. No wasting time fooling around with partially successful suborbital demos. Starship/SuperHeavy just had it's sixth flight. On Saturn V's sixth flight, it sent Apollo 11 to the moon.

For Starship HLS to land astronauts on the moon (now slated for 2027, but there's no way that will happen), SpaceX will need to orbit a Starship tanker, then orbit a series of Starships (a number in the "high teens", per NASA) to fuel the tanker, then orbit Starship HLS (Human Landing System) to receive fuel from the tanker, then fire Starship HLS into a translunar trajectory, then drop it into lunar orbit, where it will dock with either Artemis 3 or with the Lunar Gateway, from which astronauts will transfer, then deorbit and descend to the surface, then lift off, achieve lunar orbit, and dock again to deliver astronauts for the return trip. (After which, the fuel-depleted Starship HLS will be abandoned, not reused.) That's an awful lot of capabilities that have yet to be demonstrated!

It still cannot land on the Moon without landing legs. So why isn't that being introduced now for testing?

 

[Classical Motion]

Saturn was built under military threat. Musk is building under bureaucratic threat.

And I love his demonstrations. I have no doubt he can build gas stations in earth and moon orbit.

Service with a smile.

 

[DrRaviSharma]

Some of these suggestions probably can help SpaceX team as they donot have and think that they do not need experience of previous moon missions.

Product improvement is desired esecially with taxpayer money based projects.

Even if Starship is ready is Artemis Next human mission close?

Also we donot need delays due to extraneous complexities such as gateways that can evolve later.

Yes randezvous with Orion, Landing and ascent to moon if Starship is to be used should be prioity other long term survival on moon should be extended parts of core revisit mission.


I was for 5 years part of NASA HQ Apollo Program.



Thanks

 

[jan.wolitzky]

NASA is losing confidence in SpaceX's ability to deliver on their cockamamie multi-step Starship HLS plan. Last Spring, they started talking about maybe having Artemis 3 not land astronauts on the moon, but just dock with Starship in low Earth orbit. (For comparison, the similar Apollo 9 mission followed the more ambitious Apollo 8 by less than 3 months.) https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/...e-starship-and-orion-dock-in-low-earth-orbit/