The SpaceX News Thread

shootER · Feb 2, 2021

shootER · Feb 2, 2021

shootER said: ↑

A couple of friends from the local paper are covering the possible launch.

View attachment 43613
View attachment 43614
Click to expand...

Paladin · Feb 2, 2021

Didn't stick the landing.

NAHTMMM · Feb 4, 2021

Rocket Number 9 exploded?

steve2^4 · Feb 4, 2021

didn't stick the landing. successful flight up to that point. They're still figuring out how to land it. SN10 is standing by, thunderbirds are go.

Tuckerfan · Feb 7, 2021

Tuckerfan · Feb 15, 2021

Bailey · Feb 16, 2021

Missed the landing, didn't fry a bunch of birds on camera.

Tuckerfan · Feb 28, 2021

It's $100 to pre-register for the service, ~$400 for the equipment, and ~$100/mo for the service. More than what I'm paying now, but I'm still considering it.

Tuckerfan · Mar 3, 2021

Bailey · Mar 3, 2021

We got a successful landing AND an explosion. What a day.

Bailey · Mar 3, 2021

steve2^4 · Mar 3, 2021

Oops

Tuckerfan · Mar 14, 2021

That’s a pic of this morning’s launch by SpaceX in Florida. The picture was taken by a TV reporter near his house in Roanoke, VA.

steve2^4 · Mar 14, 2021

People from NC weren't sure what to think.

https://www.wral.com/unexpected-par...spacex-satellite-launch/19575037/?version=amp

Tuckerfan · Mar 26, 2021

steve2^4 · Mar 30, 2021

oops. SN11 blows up at 2:19:00 when they fired the rockets to slow descent. Start watching at 2:14:00 for the most fun. "It went boom. Debris is everywhere. Likely on our cameras."

Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Replying to
@elonmusk
and
@SpaceX
At least the crater is in the right place!
9:31 AM · Mar 30, 2021·Twitter for iPhone

Tuckerfan · Apr 2, 2021

And thus do the tales of the Tower of Babel 2.0 begin.

SpaceX's Giant Starship Booster Tower Is Rising in Texas

New aerial photos depict SpaceX's rapid progress in building the first of two planned skyscraper-high Starship "launch towers" in southern Texas, according to initial posts on Twitter.

These towers are slated to "catch" the Super Heavy boosters out of the sky with colossal arms, once fully-assembled Starship rockets are space-worthy.

SpaceX's giant booster-catching launch tower is gigantic
CEO Elon Musk initially revealed his unconventional Starship booster recovery plan months ago, and upped his commitment to wildness three months later when he said the same booster-catching tower could also snatch Starships out of the air. When this was happening, SpaceX had started construction on one of two planned towers that saw the arms as optional. At the time, progress was signified only with a self-propelled drill and a couple of muck-filled holes.

However, SpaceX had already cleared away much of the dirt by mid-March, revealing a hefty foundation of roughly 25 piles — each 2 ft (1 m) thick — buried at least 100 ft (30 m) deep in the wet Texan sands. Subsequent peeks revealed the foundation had been encased in concrete, with a massive base almost ready for more concrete.

SpaceX's first South Texas Launch tower is finally rising, growing vertically out of the ground like a giant fortress tower. And this is on purpose: the tower is designed to provide an unspeakably strong base — so SpaceX can install Super Heavy boosters atop the launch mount, and then place Starships on top of the boosters.

The launch tower site is less than a mile from the Gulf of Mexico, in Boca Chica. At sea level, the area has a strong wind, which only gets worse at high altitudes. Additionally, the South Texas coast is at constant risk of heavy and torrential rain, thunderstorms, and even hurricanes and flooding. Needless to say, there aren't many more difficult places to construct giant, sturdy towers to execute work as precision-intensive as vertically mating rocket stages.

SpaceX's Starship and Super Heavy booster tests could start July 2021
Musk has said SpaceX's Boca Chica launch tower will feature a "hook height" — which is the distance from the crane hook to the ground) of at least 460 ft (140 m). Among other things, this means the tip of the tower's crane will probably be 490 to 520 ft (150 to 160 m) tall, once it's fully configured to mate the Super Heavy booster to Starship.

Perhaps, relatedly, details are vague about precisely how SpaceX plans to snatch incoming Super Heavy boosters out of the air. But SpaceX's aggressive attention to expanding Boca Chica's first orbital launch facilities hint at a great likelihood that we'll soon see a dauntingly megalithic structure capable of supporting Super Heavy and Starship tests.

The goal of SpaceX is to shoot for the first orbital launch of Super Heavy and Starship as early as July of this year. This sounds like it could be premature, but if the company — and its employees — work around the clock on the budding orbital launch site, it could happen, with or without Starship. If it feels like every subsequent year is the most interesting one for SpaceX, and thus an increasingly hard subject to ignore, we probably shouldn't.

This was a breaking story and was regularly updated as new information became available.
Click to expand...

Tuckerfan · Apr 7, 2021 at 1:03 PM

Tuckerfan · Apr 11, 2021 at 9:47 AM

Log in or Sign up

The SpaceX News Thread

shootER Insubordinate...and churlish Administrator

shootER Insubordinate...and churlish Administrator

Paladin Overjoyed Man of Liberty

NAHTMMM Conversant in dark parables

steve2^4 Aged Meat

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

Bailey It's always Christmas Eve Super Moderator

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

Bailey It's always Christmas Eve Super Moderator

Bailey It's always Christmas Eve Super Moderator

steve2^4 Aged Meat

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

steve2^4 Aged Meat

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

steve2^4 Aged Meat

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

Log in or Sign up

The SpaceX News Thread

shootER Insubordinate...and churlish Administrator

shootER Insubordinate...and churlish Administrator

Paladin Overjoyed Man of Liberty

NAHTMMM Conversant in dark parables

steve2^4 Aged Meat

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

Bailey It's always Christmas Eve Super Moderator

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

Bailey It's always Christmas Eve Super Moderator

Bailey It's always Christmas Eve Super Moderator

steve2^4 Aged Meat

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

steve2^4 Aged Meat

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

steve2^4 Aged Meat

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

Tuckerfan BMF Staff Member Moderator

Useful Searches