Ship 30 and Booster 12 lifted off at 7:25 am Central Time on Oct 13. The liftoff and ascent was flawless with all 33 engine running on Booster 12 all the way to hot-staging. Ship 30 then ignited its six engines and went on its way to the Indian Ocean.
Booster 12 then reignited the middle ring of 10 engines for its boost back burn which was just as flawless as its ascent. However Booster 12 was not done, following its boost back burn Booster 12 made its way back to the launch site. With one kilometer to go it ignited its center 13 engines for the landing burn to quickly slow down then switching to the center three.
Booster 12 then translated over to get in between the chopsticks and was successfully caught by the tower. This is a massive milestone for the Starship program and now comes the question of what SpaceX will do with Booster 12.
Ship 30 then coasted to reentry to test its new heat shield configuration. The new heat shield fared far better than Ship 29’s configuration, however there was still some burn through on at least one of the forward flaps. Despite this Ship 30 made it to flip and landing burn and a soft splashdown in the Indian ocean before exploding after tipping over captured by a buoy at the landing zone. This means that SpaceX hit the mark on Ship landing.
Overall SpaceX hit every single milestone and objective for Flight 5 and who knows what they will do for Flight 6.
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2024/10/starship-flight-5-catch
Comment: I totally missed this. Not surprised. I spent all day yesterday removing and dumping a couple of overgrown hollies from his front yard. That wore us both out and I slept in this morning. We also missed the opening game of Caps hockey season. Well, that’s life.
This launch was successful on all fronts. The super heavy booster was caught by the chopsticks on the launchpad. The improved heat shields and redesigned winglets on the Starship worked much better than the last time. It made a controlled landing in the Indian Ocean right on target before it tipped into the ocean and blew up. All in all, it was a damned fine performance.
I find it odd that there was nothing on TV, at least broadcast TV, this morning about this, not even a ten second mention. Granted Musk is making all kinds of political news lately, but this launch was a big thing. Are we getting that jaded by these launches already?
TTG
Not all lefties think of this as a boon for humanity:
I mourn this development: it does not open our path to the stars, it opens the solar system to more exploitation. We can soon fuck up other planets the way we fucked up Earth.
As for myself, who is more anti-left than properly right wing, I will stick to the Tao:
The more cunning craftsmen there are, the more bizarre contrivances will spring up.
A good one along the same line of thought.
Silicon Valley is quite neurodiverse: It’s technologies are created by autists, sold by sociopaths, to give us all ADHD.
😀
But what matters to the government?
See
“Justice Department Sues SpaceX for Discriminating Against Asylees and Refugees in Hiring”
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-spacex-discriminating-against-asylees-and-refugees-hiring
“That’s great, but you did it the wrong way.”
How many billions does NASA spend every year? How many government employees work there? How does that compare to SpaceX?
From the interweb:
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launches have been advertised at around $62 million per launch, while larger rockets like the Falcon Heavy can cost upwards of $90 million per launch. On the higher end, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) is estimated to cost over $2 billion per launch.