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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.