Weather delays Starship hop to December 8th; Musk arrives in Boca Chica
Click for LabPadre live stream from which this still was captured.
Capitalism in space: Weather issues have delayed the first big hop of the eighth Starship prototype so that it is now scheduled for no earlier than tomorrow, December 8th.
That Elon Musk arrived in Boca Chica late on December 5th strongly suggests however the hop will finally happen this week, after several weeks of delays.
With Musk himself now on the ground in Texas to (presumably) oversee Starship SN8’s debut, the odds of launch later this week are arguably much better. Having now spent more than 10 weeks at the launch pad, at least twice as long as any Starship preceding it, there’s no small chance that SN8 – the first prototype of its kind – is starting to be more of a nuisance than an asset. By all appearances, Starship SN9 – essentially a “refined” copy of SN8 – is practically ready for launch with SN10 perhaps just a week or two behind it.
It also appears they have lowered the top planned altitude of the hop from 50,000 feet to about 40,000 feet.
Musk had tweeted earlier that SpaceX planned to live stream the event, which would be spectacular as they almost certainly have cameras on the spacecraft. If they don’t the LabPadre live stream above will also be an option.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors. The ebook can be purchased direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner. Note that the price for the ebook, $3.99, goes up to $5.99 on September 1, 2022.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
Click for LabPadre live stream from which this still was captured.
Capitalism in space: Weather issues have delayed the first big hop of the eighth Starship prototype so that it is now scheduled for no earlier than tomorrow, December 8th.
That Elon Musk arrived in Boca Chica late on December 5th strongly suggests however the hop will finally happen this week, after several weeks of delays.
With Musk himself now on the ground in Texas to (presumably) oversee Starship SN8’s debut, the odds of launch later this week are arguably much better. Having now spent more than 10 weeks at the launch pad, at least twice as long as any Starship preceding it, there’s no small chance that SN8 – the first prototype of its kind – is starting to be more of a nuisance than an asset. By all appearances, Starship SN9 – essentially a “refined” copy of SN8 – is practically ready for launch with SN10 perhaps just a week or two behind it.
It also appears they have lowered the top planned altitude of the hop from 50,000 feet to about 40,000 feet.
Musk had tweeted earlier that SpaceX planned to live stream the event, which would be spectacular as they almost certainly have cameras on the spacecraft. If they don’t the LabPadre live stream above will also be an option.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors. The ebook can be purchased direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner. Note that the price for the ebook, $3.99, goes up to $5.99 on September 1, 2022.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
Makes sense to fly the “crude” version first & find any fatal flaws before flying the “crewed” version.
Close-up photos of SN8 from BocaChicaGal have revealed at least 4 cameras visible. SpaceX will no doubt have at least one camera drone flying, and there are cameras mounted on StarHopper as well. That should result in lots of amazing video.
These “Starships” are best considered to be engineering test articles. SN8 has already had two engine replacements, and repairs to the concrete launch pad from static fire damage. This is Musk’s “test as you fly” and “fail fast” in action, with absolutely no sense of “go fever” in evidence.
Musk has hinted at significant changes coming in SN15. That’s several prototype test flights away.
Thanks to Local Fluff, I cannot look that photo now and not think it looks like it’s going to land in London and blow up!
SpaceX has the live stream scheduled here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf83yzzme2I
“Thanks to Local Fluff, I cannot look that photo now and not think it looks like it’s going to land in London and blow up!”
Yeah, can see that, but it’s better than what New Shepard looks like… er, let’s just say it looks like it’s trying to impregnate the space station!