Starship prototype #28 completes full duration static fire test
Gearing up for Starship/Superheavy orbital test flight #3: Starship prototype #28 today successfully completed a full duration static fire test, with all six engines firing for about five seconds.
The link goes to SpaceX’s X feed, and shows that test.
This is more evidence that SpaceX intends to be ready in all ways to do that third orbital test flight of Superheavy/Starship by mid-January, at the latest. It also suggests the company is getting close to finishing its investigation into the previous test flight in mid-November.
Of course, none of this means it will launch in mid-January. I predict SpaceX will be stuck twiddling its thumbs waiting for a launch license from the FAA, which will also be waiting for an okay from Fish & Wildlife. Both will likely be forced to work as slowly as possible, likely because of interference from the White House.
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In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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Gearing up for Starship/Superheavy orbital test flight #3: Starship prototype #28 today successfully completed a full duration static fire test, with all six engines firing for about five seconds.
The link goes to SpaceX’s X feed, and shows that test.
This is more evidence that SpaceX intends to be ready in all ways to do that third orbital test flight of Superheavy/Starship by mid-January, at the latest. It also suggests the company is getting close to finishing its investigation into the previous test flight in mid-November.
Of course, none of this means it will launch in mid-January. I predict SpaceX will be stuck twiddling its thumbs waiting for a launch license from the FAA, which will also be waiting for an okay from Fish & Wildlife. Both will likely be forced to work as slowly as possible, likely because of interference from the White House.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
No one in government has to be “forced” – people join regulatory agencies because they want – need – to regulate.
This post from SpaceNews presents a somewhat different slant on how NASA is approaching the “environmental crossfire” over Starship launches:
https://spacenews.com/federal-agencies-caught-in-environmental-crossfire-over-starship-launches/
If NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy’s testimony before a recent space subcommittee hearing is to be believed, her agency is very much concerned about the delays coming out of the environmental review process, and she has gone so far as to have discussions with some environmental regulatory agencies to impress upon them the importance of activities like Starship.
Quoting her remarks as reported in the SpaceNews post,
“There’s a lot of new stuff that’s happening and there’s some new players who are trying to work within their statutory deadlines but are very unfamiliar with this kind of activity,” she said, emphasizing she was not referring to the FAA “but some of their environmental partners who are learning along the way.”
“I can assure you that NASA works very closely with those regulatory partners and that they have signaled that they are aware of the critical nature of the Artemis program and how important its success is to the nation,” she told Cruz.”
One hopes that something like the Riot Act was indeed read to the worthies at NASA’s regulatory partners and their learning curves suitably modified, but the proof will be in how soon Starship’s third test flight will be allowed to take place. Meanwhile, ponder these comments from Mr. Margolis, again as reported in SpaceNews:
“Failing to do an in-depth environmental review and letting SpaceX keep launching the world’s largest rockets that repeatedly explode shows a shocking disregard for wildlife and communities,” Jared Margolis, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement about the new complaint. “SpaceX should not be given free rein to use this amazing area as a sacrifice zone.”
A shocking disregard for the truth indeed, and that’s why these folks are called “the People of the Lie.” And Senator Ted Crews, methinks, has labeled their actions correctly.
Milt: Before posting I read this Space News article also, and decided not to link to it because it does what Jeff Foust (the Space News journalist) has too often done for years: spin things to give the government’s side equal play, so as to automatically balance everything, making believe both sides have moral equivalency.
This has been the method of our bankrupt journalist community now for decades. It is as if they must give equal play to Hitler whenever they report on Churchill (which is exactly what they have been doing with the conflict in Gaza). The truth of one must be balanced with the lies of the other (with the lies ignored and treated as truth).
Both sides don’t have moral equivalency however. The government is now abusing its power routinely and often lying about it, and it is not the job of journalists to cover for it. If anything, that is the exact opposite of what journalists are supposed to do.