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Impressive. China’s Chang’e-6 probe lands on far side of the moon aiming to return first samples to Earth Article includes a video of the landing that China posted on X. Congrats to the Chinese rocket scientists who made this happen! Now for the hardest part; returning lunar samples to Earth.

Okay, but if SpaceX is going to meet its goals for Artemis it could need to launch every one to two months and it does not seem like the FAA is going to be able to keep up.

Well, by now the FAA is getting familiar with Starship launches and acknowledged many days ago that IFT-3 did not pose a threat to human safety and that the mishap investigation does not have to be completed before the next launch license is issued. The FAA process seems very slow.

Seems odd that the FAA has still not issued the launch license.

Just read this by Eric Berger: Here’s why a Japanese billionaire just canceled his lunar flight on Starship Elon and his wildly unrealistic timelines; but Berger explains that since the 2018 announcement, with Starship selected for Artemis that deprioritized dearMoon and created new priorities...

I recall that at the Dear Moon mission announcement event, years ago now, Elon seemed to say that Maezawa had made a large financial investment in Starship development. I wonder if he now wants his money back.

Stephen Clark in ars Technica: Boeing’s Starliner test flight scrubbed again after hold in final countdown One of the three launch computers didn’t boot up properly.

Interesting how after destacking the ship was moved quite a ways away from the booster before the FTS was installed in both vehicles.

Eric Berger will be doing an “Ars Live” livestream discussion on YouTube on June 11 2PM ET, this is just an article announcing the stream. How profitable is Starlink? We dig into the details of satellite Internet.

@JB47394 posted in another thread: Why would the Ground Launch Sequencer software not indicate the reason for the hold?

Sad for Tim Dodd and all the others selected. I guess Maezawa got tired of waiting. Realistically that mission is still several years away.

As per Tim Dodd’s recent video (that you linked to in another thread) SpaceX appears to be trying to reduce the number of seams in recognition of the difficulty they are having with securing tiles in those areas.

Shows all the good bits; the two DSS tests, a “low pressure” water deluge test, the WDR with all tanks reaching full, the high pressure deluge test. Still a few tiles missing.

Elon tweeted: Does he mean that the loss of a single tile will result in a total reentry failure and the ship disintegrating?

Thanks for your report. I agree with your strategy, I’ve found the same.

Typical May/June weather on the central California coast. Not a good time to go to a rocket launch. Sorry you missed it.

Oh yeah!

Quote from that article: And yet… The only criticism in that article that may be true is: So, one persons opinion. I can’t judge if it is valid or not. But would SpaceX employees really call potential customers and “berate” them for doing business with a competitor? Seems counterproductive...

I’m a bit surprised the ship was re-stacked, since won’t it have to be de-stacked again to install the FTS? Maybe they are going to do another WDR.

Old suborbital test pad tank farm is now almost completely gone. Foundation work started for launch tower #2. Will OLM #2 be about where the mouse cursor is? Maybe.

Thanks, I misinterpreted that image, I thought there was a border along the outside edge of the tiles but it’s just the insulating layer underneath which I did know about. My eyes tricked me. :rolleyes:

Some interesting things in this video. I did not realize they were using suction cup devices to test how securely the tiles are attached. There seem to be two types; one is electrically powered(?) and one has a mechanical(?) strain gauge. By the way, in the first image below, the border of the...

It’s arrived. Certainly looks cool. I hope this vehicle is a success.

ars Technica: NASA finds more issues with Boeing’s Starliner, but crew launch set for June 1 It sounds minor, but a potential issue: So they came up with a fix:

I did not realize that the prototype hot staging ring had clamps that could be remotely commanded to open.

What do you estimate the max diameter is? 7.5m? Appears it could fit inside a Starship cargo bay. I would still prefer a Starship as a short term LEO accommodation. It would be more spacious.

Thanks, that sounds promising! Maybe SpaceX is getting private communications from the FAA that the launch license will be issued by the end of May.

Thanks, it’s just odd that NSF used the word “Flight” unless they think that IFT-4 could be tentatively planned for that date.

Nice setup. Have you determined your Wh/mi numbers while towing at 55-60mph on a level dry road with no headwind?

The ship is getting a lot of attention right now. And what exactly does “Flight closure scheduled for June 1” mean?

My not-a-rocket-scientist answer is that for the IFT mission profile, where the ship is not quite achieving orbit and the trajectory ensures a return over the Indian Ocean, a re-entry burn is not required. The ship is not getting to LEO. During IFT-3 the plan was to do a brief relight just as a...

As the HLS director she is of course closely following everything going on with Starship and I’m confident she is conveying accurate information.

At this point Boeing has spent over TWICE as much on their Commercial Crew program as SpaceX has, and they are as far behind time wise as SpaceX has been actually lofting Dragons with crew to LEO and with a perfect safety record. In addition, SpaceX has also been sending tourists to LEO as well...

ars Technica summary of what the goals are for IFT-4. We already know most of it, but this I did not know (article source is Lisa Watson-Morgan, manager of NASA's Human Landing System): The priority is a successful reentry. If I understand correctly, while Raptor restart is needed for a...

Ship was destacked yesterday but remains next to the OLM and they are doing some work on the tiles. Maybe it won’t go back to the Megabay.

ars Technica: The first crew launch of Boeing’s Starliner capsule is on hold indefinitely The odd thing to me is that the helium leak was detected during the May 6 launch attempt but it did not stop the countdown, the Atlas issue did. Supposedly that issue has been resolved. And then: Yet...

Yes, heatshield reuse seems like perhaps the major challenge in Starship development at this time. Catching boosters and ships almost seems more of a solvable problem.

Thanks for posting that image. There was some discussion on the stream today about whether a second tank farm and water deluge system would be built or if the existing GSE would also support the second tower. My guess is that a second farm and deluge system will be constructed, partly because it...

As far as I know, outsiders do not have access to the countdown clock that SpaceX is running during a wet dress, so the NSF commentators make educated guesses as to what the T- number is.

And that is what I want: a ride to LEO on a Starship and then stay on the ship in LEO for about 8 hours. I think that in 5 years a private company could buy a Starship from SpaceX specifically designed for such excursions carrying 30 passengers and there would be a significant market for it at...

NSF said it only took about 40 minutes for prop load, right? That is pretty fast. There appeared to be a lengthy hold with the tanks full and now detanking. No spin prime or deluge system test. Beautiful sight.

The tank farm activity looks spectacular!

Tanks now about 1/2 full, WDR seems to be progressing well.

But SpaceX did give names to the Crew Dragon capsules: Endeavour, Freedom, Endurance. So I am expecting that crewed Starships will also get named.

NSF just noted that for IFT-3 prop loading started at about T-53:00 and they are expecting it to start soon.

Tank farm has been active for over an hour but no sign of prop loading yet.

NASA Artemis III diagram I had not seen before. Where is the “Gateway”? Has it been cancelled? It appears the Starship HLS has replaced it. Now if SLS was replaced with an FH with Orion on top…

New ars Technica article about SpaceX plans in Florida included this bit about Starbase Texas:

ars: We take a stab at decoding SpaceX’s ever-changing plans for Starship in Florida There is a lot of great information and analysis in that article, but this section really caught my eye. What? A dedicated tower just for catching vehicles during landing? I don’t recall ever hearing about...

Yep, it’s happening now.