Apparently they’re going to send a Starship prototype up to 15km and try and land it tomorrow. I wouldn’t put the chances of them landing it first go as very high so it’ll probably end spectacularly.

12:00 EST tomorrow – that might change tho.

Can’t wait for this, it’s going to be spectacular. Elon said it’s only about a 30% chance of landing safely. The window opens at 12pm tomorrow, but it will probably launch quite a bit later in the day judging by other test launches.

Everyday astronaut and Labpadre are good YouTube channels to watch as they will be monitoring for stages leading up to the launch.

I really don’t think they’d be launching with only a 30% chance of success despite what Musk has said

its not really a starship unless they have a FTL drive no one told us about. Even a near lightspeed drive?

Nasaspacelfight.com’s youtube channel is always worth following for this as they post a nearly daily video feed from Boca Chica in Texas where the Starships and the new launch facilities are being built and the flight tests are being done (and occasionally go pop or bang too…)

crazy thing is the upcoming test is of just the current iteration of the prototype upper stage, the lower stage will be twice the height of this so the whole rocket is going to be bigger than a Saturn 5.

Please have an FSD, please have an FSD, please have an FSD…

I really don’t think they’d be launching with only a 30% chance of success despite what Musk has said

That’s only assuming that the only ‘successful’ it come would be a safe landing.

Any flight up to 15km and an attempted approach & landing would generate reams of data. Who cares if they explode on first attempt at landing.

They did several simulated landing attempts with the Falcon just to the surface of the sea before they came anywhere near a landing barge or dry land.

FSD squirrelking?

Please have an FSD, please have an FSD, please have an FSD…

FSD, I’m guessing full self-drive .

Over promise and under deliver, oh and FSD by the end of the year, sorry I meant robotaxis by the end of the year, no I actually meant autonomous cars by the end of the year, no I meant end of next year. Or 2022. By the way, buy my snake oil now, or it’ll go up in price tomorrow.

Oh and I’m going to “save the little Thai children” by building a submarine that has absolutely no chance of fitting down a cave. NO?, How dare you, I’m the Emperor of Mars so **** off.

It’s a tough argument to say SpaceX has underdelivered.

Starship is chuffing huge.

I’m no fan of Elon, but it’s hard not being impressed with what SpaceX are doing.

FSD squirrelking?

Frame Shift Drive. Faster than light travel.

Didn’t take long for the haters to bounce in did it?

Musk is an utter clown and perhaps a rather unpleasant person but its hard to argue with his achievements in spaceflight and his love of SF!

Indeed but for some it seems rather easy.

He might be a dick but he’s achieved more than most and actually wants to be a pioneer rather than sitting back and playing safe.

Musk is one of our greatest living humans but also has the potential to be the perfect real world Bond villain. No doubt a very complex and difficult person but he delivers on a scale that others can only dream of.

franksinatra
Full Member
Musk is one of our greatest living humans

How so? I’ll admit that the companies he’s formed have accomplished a lot, but how much of that is Musk himself? He’s a massive sponge for knowledge and has a history of taking ideas that others have dreamed up and making them commercially viable using oodles of government money and (more lately) groupies, but does that make him one of the greatest living humans?

Space X, But Thunderbirds.

uponthedowns
Free Member

I really don’t think they’d be launching with only a 30% chance of success despite what Musk has said

Obviously Musk is unreliable, but, 30% chance of success doesn’t mean 70% chance of total failure- it might mean it doesn’t fire, or it doesn’t reach the altitude planned but lands safely, or all sorts.

Obviously I’m hoping he meant 70% chance of an earth shattering kaboom (though, in the same week they’ll deliver a Dragon to the ISS and are launching a Falcon 9 for the 7th time, with a customer payload on board, and I’m equally glad if those both work great)

Didn’t take long for the haters to bounce in did it?

Not really, I’ve got one of his cars after all. I think he’s a genius and egotistical bellend in equal measure.

How so? I’ll admit that the companies he’s formed have accomplished a lot, but how much of that is Musk himself?

Whilst I think he’s a massive bell-end, no one else started Tesla / SpaceX, they’re his babies and it’s his drive which has propelled them to where they are. Granted a lot of other very clever people did all the hard problem solving; but he got them in that situation and gave them the problems to solve.

I don’t have a Tesla but do own a good chunk of Tesla stock, which has been propelling my pension higher and higher; and long may it continue 😉

Fueled up. Ready to go in about 10 minutes…

Watching with interest.

Just switched on, held at 1.3s? Assume it ain’t going anywhere then?

Agghhhh scrubbed at T-1.3 seconds.

Well that turned out to be a bit of a damp squid…

that was exciting 🙂 😉

Ah well. Never return to an unlit starship

I’ve returned to yesterday’s unlit starship. Hopefully it’ll take off today 🚀

Targeting 10:30pm apparently…

SpaceX coverage is live at 9pm. Last night that was only a few minutes before launch abort.

T-24!

Watching!!!

T-6

Space X channel now live.

My phone is a few seconds ahead of my TV 😂

Noooo! Why a hold?