23 minutes 🚀

6 mins !

SpaceX feed is live!

Back inside from the ride and beer just intime to watch the launch.

SpaceX feed is live!

Ta for that. I’ve switched from lab padre

Looks in better condition than previous launches. No stray flames

My money is on a successful landing

Wow

I win my money back!

Landed!!!!

Hell yeah.

Woooooooo successful landing! Also small engine fire so chance of another boom!

Looks like it’ll exploded tho 🔥

Nailed it – wooohooo!

Fires out!
Shit…. Brilliant!

It’s not gone boom !

For once I don’t want a boom!

Superb… Fire out, no massive explosions 😎

Bezos was talking of his rocket toy today too
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57000820

I like the blue origin rocket. Climbed to 106km on the last launch and landed the booster. Crewed launches won’t be far off.

Crewed Tourist launches won’t be far off.

…but compared to SpaceX it’s all too secretive and “Mickey Mouse” for me.

Ooo, that was cool. Bit squeaky bum I would imagine about being so close to the edge of the apron.

Slightly sad that it’s already starting to feel that it’s the normal rather than the exception.

Meanwhile 20+ tonnes of Chinese rocket booster is about to make an “uncontrolled de-orbit”, which is a fancy way of saying crash at the weekend.

It could crash anywhere between 41 degrees of the equator north or south.

Seems like kind of a shit way to run a space program

SpaceX is real science fiction stuff. I love it.

Just got round to watching this one – I like the new flap-cam!

Whilst Musk might be an enormous throbber, that’s some next level shizzle right there.

Superb… Fire out, no massive explosions 😎

Yep they’re definitely getting better only catching fire rather than spectacular explosions 🙂

I do find it funny that it looks like some of the sci fi book cover 50/60’s images of a rocket ship.

It’s not a great video, but it’s pretty cool how it appears from the clouds, about 5:40.

I would still be a bit nervous landing on some hostile planet sitting atop and slender multi storey building. I would prefer something a bit more squat and stable. The whole idea of flying this thing in one lump to Mars, landing it and flying back seems absurd to me. Far better in my view to use a multi stage approach. Build an Earth to Mars craft in Earth orbit possible attached to the ISS, put a “docking station” in orbit around Mars with a lander (unmanned prior to manned trip).

SN15 is back on the Launch pad, surely they aren’t planning to fly her again??

Er, that’s the whole point isn’t it! ;))

Well, they might be just removing the raptors for reuse.

Flying SN15 again seems “interesting” considering SN16 is sat in the high bay almost ready to go (with more builds not too far behind).

Since some of the landing legs failed on SN15 I can’t seem them reflying it unless it’s after a major refurb or for a one-way trip to orbit. Given the constant stream of improvements being integrated and the production line spewing out new starships pretty much every few weeks I’d guess it will go a sit next to starhopper.

Probably just hadn’t considered storage options post-landing until now, usually a dustpan and brush was enough

Apparently it’s [probably] for more inspection/testing – they need it off the ground to get underneath!

They removed the feet from SN15 last week. One was clearly a bit bent.

Are those legs totally rigid? If so, no wonder the bend when they’ll likely get quite a jolt on landing

You would have thought that the legs are a minor issue right now. But they need to be sorted because they won’t be repairing them on Mars!!

Sort sort of shock absorber system would seem sensible.

The legs are quite literally the shock aborbers and performed as intended on the landing. They’re a preliminary minimal design to allow Spacex to test the other systems.

Nice pic.

Liking at that, would I be right to assume that structure is a mild steel if some sort given the rust?

Interesting that the crush structure in the legs above is considered enough for the current testing. Further pondering on the legs on the falcon 9(?) flex enough to act as the shock absorbers for its landing.

It’s a form of stainless so doubtful it’s rust but more likely discolouration from welding heat.
(although it’s stain-less not stain-free)

F9 legs have crush sections within plus a bit of flex perhaps. The thing is F9 i designed to land on earth and it’s associated gravity. Whereas a starship designed to land on the moon will encounter much less gravity and therefore “should” have a softer landing – so it will probably have a different leg design.

Anyway, as already stated, these legs are sacrificial and probably quite a way from the finished article.