SpaceX (general discussion)

This seems most sensible on Space X’s part.


So SpaceX will not be retiring the Falcon line regardless of Starship. That is good. Retiring the Falcons would have been a huge mistake. They will remain very useful for a long time to come.
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Flyaway said:

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Somehow, it reminds me of something out of "Firefly".
 

Testing new spaceships - HG Wells would have loved to see the reality of this.

Good luck with the untethered test flight @SpaceX!
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To those of you who are wondering how the hop test may proceed about, here is a StarHopper 200m test animation of how we speculate it might happen. Wishing SpaceX all the luck!
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1161811779900661761

Animation by Jose Lopez
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Elon Musk @elonmusk
Good conversation with head of FAA Space. Need a bit more hazard analysis & should be clear to fly soon.
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Elon

will the SpaceX presentation at Boca Chica take place on August 24 this week?

or will it be delayed if StarHopper doesn't recieve FAA approval this week to launch?
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Will probably make sense to do this when Starship Mk 1 has 3 Raptors, moving body fins & landing gear installed, which is hopefully mid September
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From a couple of days ago. Testing the StarHopper RCS:


Drove two days from LA to shoot Starhopper’s 200m hop but road closures seem to indicate a delay to NET August 26. Here’s video of an RCS test today. Worth it.

Oh, you’re still here? I’ve just started a Patreon, please consider supporting what I do.
➡️ patreon.com/jackbeyer
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Can you confirm this will be the last flight of StarHopper? Onto Starship prototypes next, right?
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Yes, last flight for Hopper. If all goes well, it will become a vertical test stand for Raptor.
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How would it handle a RUD of an engine as a test stand? Will there need to be a big shield put in place between the engine and the tankage?
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It’s quite robust
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Here's my livestream for tomorrow's 200 meter #starhopper hop! Although I'll be at the same location, the heat distortion and clarity is much worse this time than last time, so I pre-apologize for that. But fingers crossed it happens tomorrow!
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Scrubbed for Monday after an abort just after T-0. Trying again Tuesday.
 
Published by Eric Ralph in News SpaceX 1 hour ago

SpaceX scrubs Starhopper’s final Raptor-powered flight as Elon Musk talks “finicky” igniters
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SpaceX scrubs Starhopper’s final Raptor-powered flight as Elon Musk talks “finicky” igniters

For unknown reasons, SpaceX’s Starhopper prototype suffered a hold just 0.8 seconds prior to its second planned flight test, a hold that was eventually followed by a decision to scrub the August 26th attempt and try again tomorrow, August 27th. Starhopper is a full-scale, partial-height testbed...
www.teslarati.com


Impressively accurate analysis!
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1166252219496189953

Very strange that relatively simple circuits like the igniters (basically a square wave oscillator and a transformer) could be miswired. Very strange that there are no sensors that could check on whether the igniters were working. Also very strange that there are no comments here
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Yes, rather embarrassing tbh
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sferrin said:
Measured to the top of the hopper or the bottom? ;)
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From the bottom. The specific sentence is:

FAA said:
SpaceX may operate the Starship Hopper vehicle for one flight, without further FAA authorization, to a nominal altitude of 150 meters AGL or less, with a maximum propellant load of 30 metric tons at liftoff, in accordance with its application.
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AGL is defined to be 0 when the craft is touched down on the ground.

Do note that I think there is basically 0 chance they will actually reach exactly 150m under this authorization. Going over even a little, even if accidentally, would be against their permit, and SpaceX is generally very careful about those. So they will leave a bit of margin on there just in case.
 
Today A water tower flew around with Rocketengine
and is sooo Cool to watch that !
EDAjUO4U0AAk6KM
 
Good job it will not be flying again as it crushed two of its feet & lost another.

Watch SpaceX’s Starhopper hover 500ft above the ground in final test flight

SpaceX’s Starhopper prototype has completed its second and final flight test, lifting off to an apogee of roughly 150m (500 ft) before nailing the bullseye on a landing pad adjacent to the launch mount. From start to finish, Starhopper spent almost a full minute (~57 seconds) in flight, showing...
www.teslarati.com

 
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NeilChapman said:
A water tower w/one engine is spectacular. Starship mk1 w/three engines is going to be insane.
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I'm a bit confused. Is Hopper / Starhopper the same thing? Are both the Texas and Florida sites building Starship mk1s? There are so many photoshops & unofficial renderings out there it's difficult to determine what is being built. I'd thought Hopper was Hopper and then I see, "Starhopper" pop up here and there. I'd thought both Texas and Florida were building identical designs and that they were not even prototype Starships. More like X-planes.
 
sferrin said:
NeilChapman said:
A water tower w/one engine is spectacular. Starship mk1 w/three engines is going to be insane.
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I'm a bit confused. Is Hopper / Starhopper the same thing? Are both the Texas and Florida sites building Starship mk1s? There are so many photoshops & unofficial renderings out there it's difficult to determine what is being built. I'd thought Hopper was Hopper and then I see, "Starhopper" pop up here and there. I'd thought both Texas and Florida were building identical designs and that they were not even prototype Starships. More like X-planes.
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Hopper/Starhopper refers to the same vehicle, built first in Texas. It mounted a single raptor engine, and has now flown twice, first to 20m and now to <150m.

Before the hopper was even finished, both sites (Texas and Florida) started building a new vehicle, which has been referred to as the "starship prototype" by Musk on twitter. We don't know precisely how close it will be to the real thing. Right now, both of these are basically at the point where the main hull has been (mostly) built, and most of the remaining work is either inside where we don't see it happening, or outside adding legs and wings and stuff which we very much will see soon.

On top of that, the straight part of the hull of both of the SS prototypes were built from rings that welded on the site. Neither build site stopped making those rings when need for them for the SS prototype ended. Right now the theory is that they are still making them to quickly move on to building the SH booster as soon as the welding jig is free.
 
Thanks! :) That's basically what I figured (I know there are pictures of part of a wing on a flatbed semi) but wasn't sure. The notion of a SH booster under construction is new to me. I also wonder how the tall, fabric-covered building will be used.
 


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