Starship has successfully launched and reached orbit a short time ago. I knew the launch was coming up, but this one caught me by surprise. I guess I was too busy watching the birds and squirrels in my little patch of forest behind the house to pay it much attention. At least I was looking up in awe at the magnificence of the still naked trees.
This is a tremendous success with the third attempt. Now we’ll see how it handles reentry… or if it does at all.
TTG
Failed reentry. Looks like it turned upside down and lost signal at somewhere between 70 to 80 km altitude.
Well, “progress has been made”. I look forward to launch 4.
Used to have a squirrel with only one ear that my grandkids named Vinnie in honor of Van Gogh. Little bugger used came beg for peanuts from them.
leith,
I recognize a few of the squirrels that feast on their morning peanuts. They vie with the local murder of crows, bluejays, robins and cardinals for these treats. Even the smaller birds occasionally grab one. The crows watch for me to go out front to pick up the morning paper, then call their brothers and sisters to assemble in the back yard for the peanuts. I’ve noticed a few bluebirds in the last couple of weeks And a rabbit has dug a nest in my front yard flower bed.
No cardinals here unfortunately. Plenty of crows. Had a blacktail deer wander through early this morning.
TTG,
Last fall I watched a chickadee drag off a whole peanut in the shell that must’ve weighed about as much as the bird. It spent a good long while extricating the good parts but got all of it out.
The blue jays have a feeding spot in a hemlock tree they use for a work bench, storing the leftovers to one side while they eat. I stuck a peanut up there once to see their reaction, and one came by, picked up the nut, took it to the feeder and traded it for a better one.
I’ve made good progress befriending the local crows, and now they swoop down and land nearby for treats, sometimes they give me a rattle call. I realized a couple weeks back they have a warning about vehicles when a bird is feeding near the street. Sounds pretty much like “car!,” but in context they’d only use it when a vehicle was approaching. Isn’t it pretty wonderful we can have a rapport and even communication with these critters when we haven’t had a common cousin in 300+ million years?
Never get tired of watching Musk do his thing. It’s still hard to beleive the Starship airframe is designed to pretty much just fall out of space to its 200mph terminal velocity and then fire its engines to land/splashdown. When they get that working this thing will be incredible.
Barbara Ann,
I have no doubt they’ll eventually get it right. I always thought the reentry would be the toughest part of the flight. I see they went to conventional ceramic tiles rather than that idea of leaking fuel through the skin as a coolant. Probably a wise choice. They hake decades of space shuttle experience to build from.
One of the many things I love about Elon Musk is how he names his drone ships after ships from Iain M. Banks novels. That guy could write.
Mr. .Elon (Starman ) Musk…
The Super Human Head Built on All The ArtisT…The Creators,,Michael..Sistinr..David…Gallileo..THe Wise
Creators..Engineers In Wonder Worker Labs,,,With Robotic Uner DriveSbrings.People ..
Going dimention/across the DUNES….For Spice..to FUEL the Generator for Solid Fuel …Light and power the On a String in the LAB Lit by thomas Edison..
Perfect…NWho Gathers there..With Others,,,Like OBI Light Spreed…Cloaked .The MASTERS,,and They Collectively Create Then Project a Vision…of A Real Star Shinp..EARTHS Star People. ItsIts Pretty Cool…It Will Fly..As a STARSHIP.. Big….Proud,,Beautiful,,,,American Made,,,We have the Better beer gnomes,,
Beautiful Space Ship ,,,,,,Beautiful…The One That Was Real,,For the Children Who Dreamed,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,!!!
If it was fully successful the Biden admin would have seethed along with big tech. I read their blogs. They hate Elon more than Trump. Anyone advocating for free speech and making an actual profit gets raked over the coals.
Combine Starship with Buzz Aldrin’s Mars Cycler concept and humanity has a railroad to Mars (or other Destinations in the solar system).
https://buzzaldrin.com/space-vision/rocket_science/aldrin-mars-cycler/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_cycler