SpaceX Starship/Superheavy test flight achieves 100% of its goals
Superheavy after its flight, safely captured at Boca Chica
In SpaceX’s fifth orbital test flight of its Starship/Superheavy rocket, the company astonishingly achieved 100% of its goals, with Superheavy successfully returning to the launch tower and caught by the tower chopsticks on the very first attempt, and Starship successfully completing a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, hitting its target landing spot for the first time.
The full video of the live stream is embedded below.
The capture of Superheavy, as shown in the screen capture to the right, was especially incredible. The first attempts to vertically soft land the first stage of the Falcon 9 back in the mid-2010s were not unprecedented, the concept of which had previously been demonstrated by numerous tests on Earth as well as the Apollo landings. The tower chopstick capture of Superheavy was an entirely new concept and had never even been tested previously, anywhere, by anyone. To hit the mark and succeed on the first attempt is mind-boggling. The reaction of the SpaceX employees illustrated this, as they were overwhelmed by their own success.
As for Starship, like the fourth test flight there was some burn through damage seen on at least one of the control flaps, but much less this time. Moreover, the spacecraft was under full control during its entire flight, followed its planned flight plan, and landed on its target in the Indian Ocean.
With that success, I predict SpaceX will do a full orbit of Starship on the next test flight, #6, and attempt to land Starship vertically on land, possibly at Boca Chica or elsewhere. To do this will of course require government approvals, something that will likely slow things down again while accomplishing nothing, because in the end the bureaucrats will have to say yes anyway.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
97 SpaceX
45 China
11 Russia
11 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 114 to 68, while SpaceX by itself now leads the entire world, including American companies, 97 to 85.
Watch Starship's Fifth flight test https://t.co/LVrCnTv797
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 12, 2024
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FAa will ground them for making FAA look bad. “I think you are doing that to yourself, bubbi…”
Seeing the tower catch SuperHeavy is the best space experience I’ve watched since I stayed up at night at the age of 13 to watch Neil Armstrong step out onto the surface of the moon.
Congrats to the team at SpaceX, outstanding effort!
Congrats to SpaceX! They did it!
Amazing to watch! What a show! They landed right on top of the buoy with the upper stage!
Still some minor issues (Burn through, fire on booster) but heck, this is better than everyone else in history. Woo Hoo!
“We have got to be with, we have to protect our brilliant people, because we don’t have too many of them.”
Donald Trump thanking Elon Musk for disaster relief assistance.
Juneau, Wisconsin, October 6, 2024
Steve White-
Great back-story tidbit!
Some things still work well in America.
That has to count as a three pointer, right?
I stand corrected, and I doff my Stetson to the estimable Mr. Musk and his gang of deranged engineers! Well done, sirs!
Godspeed, SpaceX!
The catch was amazing. I had my doubts. Hope they can keep that consistent.
Starship still had burn through at the flaps. That is an issue for re-usability.
Clearly going to require a lot more testing. I think calling it a tough nut to crack is an understatement.
Is it just me, or did the Starship submerge at the end?
I could not tell if that was underwater, and then bobbed back to the surface, or if it was just reflected light steam vapor that created that blue-green glow.
Nor could I tell if it broke apart and then exploded, or the other way around.
Tears of joy. Cheers –
This will make a bunch of people really HATE Elon Musk and al he stands for.
sippin_bourbon-
It looked to me, we did see a submerged camera view, briefly, but as you note, a lot going on.
Hard to tell, sorta a plunge & bob then they went to the buoy cam view. Hoping they have more than one camera angle.
Wow… Just WOW! …. That was amazing! I was skeptical of the whole “chopsticks” thing… But they nailed it, and I was wrong.
I have a few problems with Elon and his other projects, but today totally change everything in the space launch industry. SpaceX has just re-written the book. Well done SpaceX, America, and Elon!..
( I actually had tears in my eyes when the booster was safety caught… A truly historic moment… )
There is weeping and gnashing of teeth at the FAA.
But hope is not lost. They will find something to punish Musk for his political beliefs.
Regarding all this…. Does anyone know who actually came up with the “chopsticks” idea? It kinda reminds me of the “sky crane” idea for the last couple of Mars Rover’s … So outside the box it sounds madness… Then just works… Once again…. Brilliant work SpaceX… A testiment to the power of the free market ;-)
<I.Nor could I tell if it broke apart and then exploded, or the other way around.
It *looked* like what happened was that the engines cut out, it tipped over, and when it smacked the water, it exploded. No doubt because it was not designed to tip over and hit something without experiencing rapid unscheduled disassembly. Or (less likely) SpaceX deliberately had it programmed to blow up by detonating the FTS once it had finished the job, so as to prevent any recovery and inspection by naughty sorts of folks prowling the Indian Ocean.
We’ll no doubt see more info and splicing of the buoy videos, and different angles, to suss this out in the coming days.
As for Starship, consider the fact that at least one red hot working engine (and five very warm idle companions) was dipped into nice cool ocean water while still being fed huge amounts of propellent via powerful turbopumps. An explosion from that combination of factors should not surprise anyone. I’m surprised the one or more of the earlier events hadn’t resulted in an a similar on-camera RUD.
Lee
It was Nariyoshi Miyagi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMjGfn3iXhs
Seeing SH coming to the tower with the smoke and flames somehow seemed familiar to a corner of my mind.
A childhood memory triggered.
I wonder if Musk was a fan of The Thunderbirds?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNhk_-v0SMs&t=40s
Wow!
That has got to piss off the Chinese.
Musk to Bezos: Can you top this?
Way to go SpaceX! I expect the Chinese will soon break ground on their own megazilla and launch tower since they like to copy our successful tech.
I too am concerned about bad actors getting their hands on one of the Starships or Superheavy that soft landed on water.
I sure hope it damage the hearing of the local mouse or rodent population, or disturb the mudsuckers living in the nearby ponds.
My prediction: SpaceX will lose the 2024 Collier Trophy to Boeing. :)
SONIC BOOM, visual boom, technical boom, political boom, …
Great BOOM all around.
Many More, SpaceX Team !
Re: Steve White, “Seeing the tower catch SuperHeavy is the best space experience I’ve watched since I stayed up at night at the age of 13 to watch Neil Armstrong step out onto the surface of the moon.”
Same. I was 12, and my father bought our first color TV the day before just to watch it!
Heh.
Musk’s inspection report.
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1845633730154545465?s=46
And the clock is running, on the introduction of the Chinese Shen Kuai (Divine Chopsticks).
Now they just have to lock down that leaky engine problem.
During the NASASpaceflight coverage of Flight Five, one of the hosts observed “Who would have thought that SpaceX would not only fly the first reusable orbital-class booster, but the second as well?!” Good observation.
SuperHeavy never worried me.
Starship recovery is always going to be more challenging.
I am actually more impressed by standard Falcon hoverslams with the near-empty core reaching zero velocity at zero altitude with zero fuel—or thereabouts.
SuperHeavy took its time in comparison.
Bob:
Doesn’t this count as a successful launch for the 2024 tally? Yeah, it was suborbital, but only as a safety precaution. And I believe you counted IFT4, so this one should count too.
MDN: Yes, it does. I posted this early in the morning and was not quite awake (I am a night person, and the launch was extremely early for me). I forgot to include in the totals, kept thinking I needed to do it later in the day, and kept forgetting. Thank you for the reminder. I will add it now.
The printed NY Times today has no mention of the the launch and catch. WSJ has photo on front page and brief story on page 3.
Steve Richter: This is why it has been pointless to depend on these news sources since the early 1980s. At that time they decided to become operatives of the Democratic Party instead of journalists reporting the big news of the day.
And I included the Wall Street Journal. Though its editorial pages have tended to be conservative, the editorial tilt of its news sections has increasingly been only a little less left of the New York Times.
Steve–
The NYT’s denied the holocaust was occurring, so ignoring a rocket is an easy one for them.
Fireball Xl5
intro & closing
https://youtu.be/6ifS2nP53Zs
2:29
“… This is why it has been pointless to depend on these news sources since the early 1980s. …”
yes, getting harder to argue against critics of the NY Times. It must be preparing a full analysis set of stories ;) Simply in geo political terms, what SpaceX demonstrated on Sunday was really super significant. Xi and the Chinese military now know, not only how capable space hardware can be, but that engineers can produce it. Couple with the 10/10 Tesla unveil of its Optimus robots ( kind of chilling to see them all marching in the way they did ) and we seriously are witnessing the dawn of great power rivalry and race for dominance.
I’ve been following this ever since I heard Bob tell John Batchelor about Grasshopper back in ’12. Watched it with my son. This was the most amazing thing I have EVER seen. I was born in the 70s, so missed the moon landings. Tears were streaming down my face. I was overcome with joy and hope for the future of mankind, thanks to the vision, determination, leadership, genius, and hard work of one man.
Chopsticks was an Elon Musk idea. His designed principal has always been less parts. If it doesn’t need to be there, don’t put it there. Originally the grid fins on Super Heavy would’ve been folded down like Falcon 9, except it isn’t going as high or fast, so they can take the aerodynamic penalty by not folding them, thus saving some parts. Since they’re going to use some sort of hydronic lift mechanism anyway to stack the vessels, might as well use them to catch it.
Your usual great job, sir.
One disagreement, I don’t think Ship will orbit on the next flight, only because Ship still hasn’t done a deorbit burn. I think that will be the next focus, control of velocity in near-orbit. Musk’s folks are astounding. I was yelling at the monitor as the booster came home.
Musk’s folks are astounding. I was yelling at the monitor as the booster came home. Literal goosebumps. Seeing history changing. The cost of orbit just dropped by 90+% from Falcon 9, which was already 90+% down from the Shuttle, for a 99% reduction total.
99%.
That’s a cost per kilo to orbit lower than a Concorde flight from London to NYC.
Did the ship hit the tower on the way down?
It looked like it from the Space X video.
I was also a little worried that the first stage might just explode after landing because of the burning fuel leak shooting out of the side.
They could or even should install a fire extinguisher system(water spray) for the landing. Just in case.
Either way this was a great flight.
Camera angle. Ship came nowhere near hitting the tower. Somehow “Super Heavy” doesn’t cut it for me. How about “Condor” booster? Really big Falcon. Elon?
Thanks
Robert wrote: “The first attempts to vertically soft land the first stage of the Falcon 9 back in the mid-2010s were not unprecedented, the concept of which had previously been demonstrated by numerous tests on Earth as well as the Apollo landings.”
Although the Apollo Lunar Lander didn’t have to light up engines after an atmospheric reentry, they did have to land it in an area that was tilted less than 10°. The trick they used was to land where the Sun was 10° above the horizon and aim for the shadow side of a small crater, but land where there was no shadow. Where there was a shadow, it could be greater than 10°.
___________
I was laughing so hard at SpaceX actually doing it on the first attempt that I had tears in my eyes, too. It was a bit like Miyagi watching that kid, Daniel, catch the fly with his chopsticks, except without the annoyance of all those years of trying it himself.
Did anyone else notice that Miyagi kept trying to catch the fly with the end of his chopsticks but Daniel caught it much farther in, just as SpaceX did?
___________
I, too, had been expecting to hear of such a feat in the news, but alas, Democrat enemy #2 must never attain glory in the American press. The news was all too eager to announce other SpaceX and Tesla achievements, but that was the before times, before the Democrats went so far left, much farther than Marxism, that the Republican Party looks good to many former Democrats.
I’m pretty sure that Marx himself would be shocked and repulsed at the horrific policies of the Democrats. It is one thing to use government against one’s enemies, a common practice with Marxists, but it is something altogether different to encourage boys to ogle girls in the girls’ locker room or in the girls’ shower.
pzatchok–
yeah, camera angle:
Starship ITF5 from the Roof of HDI Resort SPI
https://youtu.be/2F9shFyQhJ0?t=405