Musk: Recovery of floating Starship “not looking good right now”
According to a tweet on X by Elon Musk today, the recovery of the Starship from the 13th test flight that has been floating in the Indian Ocean is “not looking good right now.”
According to the company, the recovery ships are facing “increasingly rough seas,” which combined with the challenge of attempting a recovery of a spaceship that was not intended to be pulled out of the ocean is making success less likely.
It does not appear they have given up yet, but if the tugs that are towing Starship feel threatened by the rough seas while attached to the spacecraft, they will certainly cut it loose.
In the meantime Musk notes that the effort has allowed them to gain “close-up photos of critical regions of the heat shield and engines for future upgrades,” almost certainly better than any mission previously.
Hat tip to reader Gary.
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While it would be a loss if they have to cut it loose, if the risk to the crews is there, let it go and sink it. Everything since the landing is gravy.
Bob, I suspect you meant “… a spaceship that was NOT intended to be pulled out of the ocean…”?
Even though the Starship is a heavy brute, the windage of the exposed hull is no doubt immense, and nearly unmanageable in anything but a flat calm!
Of course. Words don’t always get from my brain to the fingers. Fixed. Thanks.
Honestly, if the ship crew thinks it’s getting very doubtful, they ought to be authorized to blow the thing up, if they have the means. Leave no chance that unwelcome third parties might get hold of the thing.
Must be a very expensive recovery operation.
I will be honest, I am shocked they are trying a sea tow. I think it would have been better to drag it onto a ocean barge.
There are 400ft barges, they are rare and would have taken time to get there. But it may have been worth it. On mce loaded, the travel could proceed at a faster rate, and choose a course that could avoid bad weather and rough seas.
Looks like Elon is going to have to build that 120 meter barge now.
Just put a landing barge in every ocean.
A 200 foot barge should do it.
It’s just Starship, not the whole stack.
Also see this link to X post of ~6 h ago:
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2085786988225925349
two pictures and a 3/4 minute video of Starship 40, still in nautical mode.
SpaceX has now (just barely, at the “proof of concept” level) actually demonstrated its ability to “ditch” a Starship, on the all-natural landing pad that covers ~70% of the world’s area. It’s not too far-fetched to imagine that, if the tower catch systems suffer some last-minute failure, future Starship orbiters could just “offshore divert” to a dozen or so miles out there in the Gulf. The seawater dunking isn’t ideal, of course, but far better than total loss of vehicle.
I hope foam can be injected. An inflatable inside the hull.
One thing I was thinking about might be a line between two ships, slack.
Starship is towed above that line.
The other two ship move away from each other dead slow.
That line will rise and push that nose up with brute force.
One of those ships manhandled S.S. UNITED STATES….Azorian picked up half a Soviet sub…massive Costa Concordia refloated.
Starship is small compared to these other things.
Perhaps it is better to just death drag it and beat it up…..maybe additional floats can keep it at neutral buoyancy and it can be towed home UNDER the air/water interface to get it out of wave action. Those ships have power.
Some of the problem might be stress on the hull. Rockets are designed for the stresses they’re supposed to undergo, and overdesign for other stresses might mean you don’t make orbit because you’re too heavy.
It would be disappointing to get the hull up on those ropes and then it comes apart…
In the water, starship has more in common with a submarine then a boat. The fuel left in the tanks should prevent pressure implosion if it is pulled down and propelled from just a few feet under the surface.
Weather would no longer be a factor.
Ships toss to and fro accelerating down a wave front just to be knocked back by the next wave. Enough to snap any cable. Very dangerous especially when you’re towing a torpedo that penetrates each wave threatening to ram you from behind.
The ship has a locator beacon, cut it free, dangling the line in the water and let a submarine snatch it and gently pull it a long. It would just be a practice run for Navy personnel.
Never fear… Belgium’s best mind is on the case:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S85umcS0YGk&pp=ygUhRXZpbCB1bmRlciB0aGUgc3VuIDE5ODIgcmVhY3Rpb24g
I imagine they may have flown drones over the thing, as it was being towed, in order to make detailed observations.
If so they pretty much have a lot of the data.
Discussion
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=63727.msg2812826#msg2812826
Just imagine some far away aliens accessing the images of the giant Starship as it is under tow.
“”Hey Max, did we lose something?””
My brake pedal went to the floor driving to work here. I might need similar extrication….I hate my life.
At any rate—here is how things stand:
https://m.youtube.com/post/Ugkx65CjGlCG7rw8KbwWcFSxtKUBAuP5CZyD?ra=m
Hope you got that rear driver side brake line fixed.
It’s a Buick, so it’s tough. I drove it in rain, so everyone was driving slow anyway.
The floats a cracking the tiles— but is wasn’t going to fly again anyway…so manhandle it, dent it—whatever..just drag up, repair for display.
I am tempted to ‘upvote’ Jeff Wright posts, just because ‘downvoting’ seems the de facto response. Give it a chance.
I can disagree with a high percentage of his comments without losing sight of him being more valuable to this site than I am. More activity and more controversy is a net plus. Trying to “straighten him out” is not a viable option nor in my job description.
I am not more valuable than anyone…by far. If I am the smartest guy in a room–I am in the wrong room.
I just have a wide range of interests…and hope that connections between disparate fields of study.
Being a generalist doesn’t pay bills.
I try to go my own way on things….politics wise.
Where the D/S want the House Uber Alles (mob rule), my solution would be a Senate-only Congress, with each state having one Democrat and one Republican Senator… assigned seats.
Shocking, yes…but folks would have to talk to each other, and divided government means California can’t be a one party state anymore.
With only 100 people a President meets with, things can progress more smoothly.
Presidents should be generalists.
Having worked for nearly 40 years, mostly in Security, I often have seen publications not usually found on shelves. I find C-SPAN exciting at times, and would endeavor to have members of both parties in my administration as President (delusions of grandeur, yes) where they could keep an eye on each other.
A President should weigh different proposals from opposite ends of the spectrum…with the Library of Congress being his residence, were I to be in office.
Political parties, like alliances, were to be avoided.
Value is relative to time, place, and vector. The quantity and variety of your comments here have a value that is not connected to their accuracy. In brainstorming, hundreds of thoughts have a value that affects the ability to find solutions as long as there nis a serious sorting mechanism in place. On here, others are handling the sorting. A quote I read recently, but can’t remember the source, “It is better to have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.”
IOW, anyone locked into a single answer had better have the perfect answer in a field that never changes.
You express precisely why I welcome all civilized commentary, regardless of its inherent value.
We all need to remember that Starship is not intended to be recovered from hundreds of miles out to sea.
Its landing in the Indian ocean is only because they are not doing complete orbits yet.
Once it does complete orbits it will land in the Gulf or America if it can not be caught by the tower.
And the window for a recovery might be closing fast. If the plan is to catch Ship 41 after it flies toward the end of August, once a successful catch is complete, they have all the information in hand they plan on getting from Ship 40 (other than a soft landing in the salt). Cheers –
True, but second place will always be first loser.
This is the first upper stage ever recovered…it deserves to be recovered.. Shuttle orbiters I consider first stages with RATO units and drop tanks.
Update
https://x.com/mercoglianos/status/2087209834319925358
The other Christmas Island
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=63727.msg2813655#msg2813655
Two technologies that need to be combined…
Camera slewing tech-
https://groupe-tsf.com/grip/filmotechnic-flighthead-vi/
With weld heads:
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/Ipz3ul2PqaY
We see motion stabilized shots of Starship landing.
A recovery arm on a towing vessel might just reach out and contact Starship with different fittings so as to contact floating bodies.
I was also thinking of a rescue Flip Ship.
Armature around Starship.
Tube attaches to Starship aft, fills with water.
It stands Starship up OUT of the water–and is towed vertically like Troll A.
Tarp over top.
Sea Dragon in reverse.
Thoughts?
This is off topic again. You can’t seem to do as I ask. I haven’t deleted it because I felt generous today. Note however that I have deleted two other of your comments in the past day that violated my simple rules.
Keep it up and more of your comments will get deleted. And every time, it will be YOUR fault for not doing as I have asked: Post links that are on topic, and limit links per post to two.
SpaceX is running out of time for the recovery. Should the next launch, IFT 14 launch the last week or so of August, with a successful catch of Ship 41, recovery of Ship 40 will be OBE (Overcome By Events). There is a bit of chatter in the online world about a catch attempt of Booster 21, which would be a surprise. Whatever happens, I wish them luck. Cheers –