Comments on: SpaceX in FCC filing outlines first orbital flight plan for Starship

By: humphreyrobot

humphreyrobot — Mon, 17 May 2021 12:55:31 +0000

We already have a museum partially stocked on the Moon.

By: Edward

Edward — Sat, 15 May 2021 02:48:34 +0000

Robert wrote: “To do this orbital flight it would seem reasonable to expect them to do at least one test flight using a prototype with all six engines and a full complement of tiles.”

Reasonable, yes, but I would not be surprised if SpaceX chose to test both of these on the first orbital flight. SpaceX has shown that sometimes it is willing to push its tests, and I find the company’s test engineers difficult to predict. It is why we think that an orbital launch is possible by the end of the year. It is possible that they are not as concerned about landing the first orbital Starship as they are interested in getting it to space to test out its performance and capabilities there. The Spaceflight Now article says they will splash the Starship in the Pacific “in a soft ocean landing.”

By: Skunk Bucket

Skunk Bucket — Fri, 14 May 2021 23:09:19 +0000

Is it official that SpaceX will do hop tests of Superheavy before an orbital flight? If the goal is to orbit this summer, they might just fuel up the full version and let it rip, just like they did with the Falcon rockets. Working up to landing them was only done later. That said, it would be awesome to watch that massive thing doing hops.

By: Matt in AZ

Matt in AZ — Fri, 14 May 2021 19:55:07 +0000

SN15 is nice and all, but whichever ship successfully lands from orbit first would be a better exhibit for the Smithsonian. Might as well use the real deal, since there will be so many built.

By: William Frumkin

William Frumkin — Fri, 14 May 2021 19:46:49 +0000

SN15 needs to be preserved for eventual display in the Smithsonian

By: Ray Van Dune

Ray Van Dune — Fri, 14 May 2021 18:58:06 +0000

I think sacrificing some vehicles in early expansion of the flight envelope is indeed smart. Look at SN15’s present indeterminate status. Talk about the proverbial “dog catching the car it was chasing”. Now whaddaya gonna do with it, Rover?

By: Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright — Fri, 14 May 2021 18:57:33 +0000

All the best…

By: Doubting Thomas

Doubting Thomas — Fri, 14 May 2021 17:39:33 +0000

This is great news. Robert is exactly right, SpaceX has a list of tasks to complete that are as long as ten people’s arms, but SpaceX seems to be the organization needed to do it.

I think when people say that it seemed impossible to meet a summer goal to fly, they were not thinking of this approach. Musk seems perfectly willing to throw away a few systems to gather information. The objective is clearly stated:

“SpaceX intends to collect as much data as possible during flight to quantify entry dynamics
and better understand what the vehicle experiences in a flight regime that is extremely difficult
to accurately predict or replicate computationally. This data will anchor any changes in vehicle
design or CONOPs after the first flight and build better models for us to use in our internal
simulations.”

He will need this data to build the confidence of the FAA (and other organizations) in the ability to land these systems in Boca Chica or Cape Canaveral or even on ocean platforms that are reasonably close to land for ease of logistics. The needed confidence will be built via detailed 6 degree of freedom flight models.

I agree – Exciting times!!!