[LOCKED] SpaceX successfully launched the Super-Heavy Starship

Submitted by MGoGrendel on March 14th, 2024 at 10:30 AM

In it’s third test flight, the rocket successfully completed stage separation and reached orbital velocity today.

“NASA watched with keen interest: The space agency needs Starship to succeed in order to land astronauts on the moon in the next two or so years. This new crop of moonwalkers — the first since last century’s Apollo program — will descend to the lunar surface in a Starship, at least the first couple times.”

Plenty of Twitters with videos, but alas, my embed skills are lacking.

Moon colony for the grandkids and Mars colony for the great grandkids?

EDIT - I locked this. I cleaned it up some, but in the end, I locked it. Anything Elon-related is bound to generate mixed feelings, but that's fine, because he is a very mixed-up person. - LSA

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OT - SpaceX successfully launched the Super-Heavy Starship

Carpetbagger

March 14th, 2024 at 10:33 AM ^

Pretty amazing what that team has accomplished in 3 launches. 2 or so years sounds like Tesla "35k" electric car talk, but stretch goals motivate organizations for certain.

Joined: 12/31/2010

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GoBlue96

March 14th, 2024 at 10:35 AM ^

Not a fan of Elon but I appreciate what he is doing to push our limits in spaceX.  My friend and U of M aerospace grad at NASA for 25 years is definitely following closely.  

Joined: 07/01/2008

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PopeLando

March 14th, 2024 at 11:01 AM ^

If it’s any consolation, SpaceX employs some of the smartest people in the field, because it’s the only company doing this kind of work.

Musk has almost zero to do with it, certainly none of the technical aspects, and, if internet stories are to be believed, almost none of the managerial aspects either. There are rumors of a team that follows him around un-firing people he fires and un-making decisions he makes.

This is a great achievement for science, and we can be happy about it even though the company is owned by an idiot. Lots of companies are owned by idiots lol.

Joined: 08/01/2015

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NotAMichiganSpy

March 14th, 2024 at 2:55 PM ^

Your 2nd paragraph sounds completely made up. Like some Elon hater fiction. You're basically claiming Space X has shadow management and Elon is too stupid to notice them defying him. 

Lemme guess, he fires the same person every Tuesday and still hasn't noticed because he's soooooo stupid? 

Joined: 10/19/2023

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GoBlue96

March 14th, 2024 at 10:37 AM ^

uh oh

❖ SPACEX REPORTS LOSS OF COMMUNICATION WITH STARSHIP ROCKET DURING ATMOSPHERIC RE-ENTRY AT END OF TEST FLIGHT

❖ SPACEX COMMENTATOR SAYS 'WE MAY HAVE LOST STARSHIP'

Joined: 07/01/2008

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drjaws

March 14th, 2024 at 10:45 AM ^

Elon, Gwynne, and the SpaceX team have done some incredible stuff in the last 18 years or so.

I even used one of his rockets to send an experiment I was working on to the Space Station so astronauts could work on it in zero gravity. Sitting in the VIP area with SpaceX employees to watch the launch was cool.

Joined: 02/26/2014

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Wendyk5

March 14th, 2024 at 10:47 AM ^

We're in Arizona and saw a Tesla Cybertruck yesterday. Not nearly as successful as the SpaceX launch. 

Joined: 11/20/2008

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Amazinblu

March 14th, 2024 at 11:08 AM ^

I wonder how much of the Saturn V booster technology was re-used.

It seems the focus on the Space Shuttle (for decades) may have resulted in large single / multiple stage launch vehicles being lost.

Most science successes are good (in the long run) for humanity.

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1VaBlue1

March 14th, 2024 at 12:59 PM ^

"I wonder how much of the Saturn V booster technology was re-used."

None.  Super Heavy (the booster) and Starship (the orbital vehicle) are brand new designs using the latest technology (and innovating technology where needed) - including the 9m wide rolled stainless steel body.  The Raptor methane engines are a new design, also, and cost ~$10M/each to provide as much boost as the Shuttle hydrogen engines.  (Which, BTW, are what is being used on the Space Launch System (SLS) boosters that NASA made and cost ~$75M/ea to refurbish, or ~$120-150M each to build new.)  Also, there is no way in hell that Shuttle technology (any of it) can be turned into a reusable thing by re-lighting engines in flight for a controlled, powered landing.

To summarize, SpaceX has built the largest, most powerful rocket the world has ever seen without re-using technology from 50-some years ago.  (The RS-25 engines were originally designed in the 70's).

 

Joined: 01/31/2016

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Amazinblu

March 14th, 2024 at 2:58 PM ^

Thanks - I appreciate the detail.   

I'm familar that Apollo and earlier platforms were liquid fuel - as compared to solid fuel for STS (Space Shuttle) - but, obviously am not familiar with the technologies available and being deployed by SpaceX.   The one reference point I think of is - the technology used on Apollo and the early STS launches had less "compute power" than the average smart phone people use daily.   

There are other details regarding STS that I'm aware of - but, SpaceX is definitely a new age in exploration.

Joined: 01/22/2010

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maizenblue87

March 14th, 2024 at 11:05 AM ^

My son just texted me about this.  He’s finishing his MSE in Space Systems at Michigan.  He said he cried when the vehicle reached orbit.

Joined: 06/22/2011

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TeslaRedVictorBlue

March 14th, 2024 at 11:36 AM ^

we landed on the moon in 1969. So, in 2024, we're ... landing on the moon again, but via private enterprise? Here's my uneducated meh...

What i thought was really cool was this program (forget the name) I saw in a commercial on BTN (go figure) last night about Penn State sending a small vehicle (Dragonfly?) to Titan. Will take 8 years to get there!

Reminds me of the Carl Sagan demonstration on how big the galaxy is, and how that's a drop in the bucket of the entire universe. cool video

Joined: 09/02/2021

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1VaBlue1

March 14th, 2024 at 1:18 PM ^

"...landing on the moon again, but via private enterprise?"

No.  The Gov't is funding the Artemis program.  However, the Lunar Lander part of that program is a contract from NASA to SpaceX to build the lander, which will be a version of the Starship that just made orbit today.  NASA is throwing ~$3B at SpaceX to build a human rated spaceship that can land on the moon.  SpaceX is privately funding the SH booster and the base Starship design, and have spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $10-15B on the program to date.

FWIW, the money SpaceX has spent on SH/Starship so far, has also built the manufacturing, testing, and launch facilities.  Along with all of the tooling and SW required by all of it.  Compare that to the ~$25B NASA has spent on SLS to date - which features engine, booster tankage, and solid fuel rocket re-use from the Shuttle program to push a 1970's style capsule.

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NittanyFan

March 14th, 2024 at 11:37 AM ^

It's fascinating seeing the rocket launches (everything about this is fascinating).  I was driving through Santa Clarita, CA Sunday evening and could see the rocket launch from Vandenberg ~125 miles away.  It gets up in a hurry!!!

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bronxblue

March 14th, 2024 at 11:43 AM ^

It does sound like they don't know where the rocket wound up when it broke up above the Indian Ocean, in the sense they don't know if it landed in the ocean or somewhere else, which isn't optimal.  And I'm somewhat certain we'll find out this launch led to some protected marshland or people's homes being destroyed because they yet again didn't do the math/lied about the resource usage and resulting energy dispersed from this launch, but I guess if NASA is going to hitch their wagon to SpaceX that's sort of the deal.

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Alton

March 14th, 2024 at 12:00 PM ^

Yeah, it's basically the same empty expanse of ocean where NASA dumped all of the Space Shuttle External Tanks. Even if the trajectory got messed up somehow, it isn't landing on anything but deep ocean.

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tpilews

March 14th, 2024 at 12:14 PM ^

Rocket launches are one of those things that TV gives zero justice to. We saw a launch maybe 10 or 15 years ago in Titusville. Insane the brightness and how loud and how much you could feel the launch, even from 15ish miles away. 

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