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Inflatables are quite interesting. Here’s a NASA podcast with an expert who worked at the Langley Research Center discussing them, scroll down a bit on that page to where he talks about the numerous layers of different materials that make up the wall of an inflatable space habitat. Amazing...

Eric’s tweet is hilarious!

Agreed. Now all BO has to do is get to orbit for the first time…

The article seems to portray this as a “big win” for BO but in reality the contract only gives each of the companies the right to compete for individual launches. So which company will actually end up doing any particular launch remains to be seen. It seems to me that SpaceX is the odds-on...

Wow, what a huge job that is. Seems like some care has to be taken to not damage the mount points? Hard to imagine that ship will be ready to fly in a month.

The article seemed fair to me. It’s not about the many critical things that have to happen for Artemis III, it’s about Starship and HLS progress. The statement from Koerner is pretty reasonable. I would love to see a modified Artemis III mission with a crewed Orion docking with a Starship in...

From this new NSF video, lots of activity at the OLM and the ship QD needs some repair. I have to keep reminding myself that this Stage Zero is a prototype and there will certainly be improvements coming in the next launch sites that will reduce the need for post-launch repairs and maintenance...

Thank you for that reality check. Some random person on X tweeting what they think will get attention is not the best way to get information. I recall that not too long ago SpaceX sold the two oil platforms they had purchased years ago?

Thanks, that’s interesting. I did not realize that the deluge system could be refilled so quickly after use. Sounds like a solid plan to enlarge the current tank farm to support both launch sites rather than building a completely new farm, but that leaves a lot of cleared space around the new...

Eric Berger:Virgin Galactic has ceased flying its only space plane. Now what? VG has an ambitious plan to build a new vehicle and start flying it in 2026, but continue using the Eve carrier vehicle at a cadence far beyond what it was designed for. The plan… If all those assumptions hold, VG...

You are right of course, I completely forgot about that when composing my post! Thanks for the correction.

To send an uncrewed ship to Mars, basically a test vehicle whose primary objective would be to survive the landing, I would think could be done in much less than 3 years. Once LEO refueling is achieved and the ship TPS is refined, hopefully next year, what else needs to be done for the first...

I wish he had been clearer on what “strong” meant in that context. Stronger attachment points? Stronger tile material? Both? Do the new tiles weigh more? And how are they going to attach the new ablative pieces?

Boeing aerospace has no chance of being successful in a fixed price environment, and as the quote @JB47394 posted makes clear, Boeing has admitted that. But the fixed price environment is here to stay because SpaceX has demonstrated it can work and there are massive cost savings. Other...

So this means they are abandoning the soft insulating layer under the current tiles and replacing it with something hard that will ablate if the tile fails? I wonder how much additional weight that will add to the ship; some tens of tons? Even though I follow Starship development very closely I...

Scott combined the booster landing livestream view with the ocean buoy camera view that SpaceX released later to provide a useful perspective.

Yes, I wanted to see the booster just settle into the water and slowly topple over. Because that is what actually happened.

Elon said the “ship” was 6km off target. You seem to be referring to the booster? Elon appears to be targeting a booster catch attempt for IFT-5.

Eric Berger: As leaks on the space station worsen, there’s no clear plan to deal with them The leaks in the Russian PRK module are getting worse. However… The Russians say they have repaired multiple leaks but they keep recurring. Apparently the PRK module could be permanently closed and...

RGV views of the OLM post launch.

Hmm…I had not thought of that. Interesting idea. However, is your statement based on the observation that OLM foundation work has not started yet (right?) or do you have a SpaceX source that is saying that? In any case, it’s hard for me to imagine SpaceX finishing tower #2 before the end of...

Things that caught my attention that are relevant to this thread: “We had 16 video feeds or thereabouts from Starlink some of which were external most of which were internal”. So what SpaceX showed to the public during the flight was just a small fraction of what they were recording and perhaps...

Things that caught my attention: “We had 16 video feeds or thereabouts from Starlink some of which were external most of which were internal”. So what SpaceX showed to the public during the flight was just a small fraction of what they were recording. The next flight will have continuous...

Things that caught my attention: “We had 16 video feeds or thereabouts from Starlink some of which were external most of which were internal”. So what SpaceX showed to the public during the flight was just a small fraction of what they were recording. The next flight will have continuous...

Eric Berger:After a drama-filled day, Boeing’s Starliner finally finds its way So logically it then follows that: Just as Shakespeare put it: Moon, sun, whatever.

Was just going to post that. Scott was as boggled as the rest of us were watching that flap continue to function and the control software adapt and manage to still produce a soft touchdown.

Stephen Clark in ars: Boeing’s Starliner finally soars, but mission control reports more helium leaks So… So now if before Starliner undocks, three more leaks occur, what do they do? At the rate these leaks are occurring it seems entirely possible that over the next few weeks there could be more.

Made this screen grab; it looks like two engines are out? When I was watching the livestream earlier today I thought only one engine was out during ascent.

His tweet said “a damaged flap”. Singular.

So Elon stated “damaged flap” meaning only a single flap; I feared it was worse than that. But “loss of many tiles” is disappointing. I see a major change in tile attachment technique coming up. I hope that the FAA can accelerate the timeframe for IFT-5 launch license issuance given that both...

I did notice that and I was beginning to think that their analog altimeter instrument was malfunctioning. ;)

Abso-****ing-lutely. Incredible that one flap (and maybe others) could appear to have been seriously damaged yet continue to function, and that the flip worked and a soft landing was achieved, and that it maintained telemetry and video through a cracked and damaged lens! “Epic” doesn’t begin to...

The SpaceX commentators and the loop seems to indicate that the landing burn did occur but the ship engine graphic did not show engine ignition. But it does seem that the ship did the flip and there was a soft landing!

View of starship is back, and it appears it has a stable attitude!

WOW. The flight looks to be fantastic so far. The booster splashdown looked perfect, but we don’t know yet if it hit its GPS target. Anxious to see the ship again and hoping it is maintaining attitude control! I was thinking that SpaceX would be able to show us realtime ship telemetry via...

I cannot attest to the accuracy of this video, but it seems reasonable.

It was first discussed in the Commercial Crew thread. Now there are new leaks. This is going to be interesting…

Thanks for catching my error. I sure hope the ship gets that far and the onboard camera views are still working by that point!

Stephen Clark in ars Technica: SpaceX is about to launch Starship again—the FAA will be more forgiving this time The article includes the SpaceX diagram showing the flight profile for each vehicle, with the ship doing a bellly flop landing. But the article states: (Bolded emphasis by me) I...

Looks like a lot of added mass. Ouch.

Report from Beijing state media: China lunar probe takes off from Moon carrying samples

Thanks for the image, personally I am looking forward to no vertical tanks so the focus is on the tower and the vehicle! Infrastructure should be as inconspicuous as possible. :)

I think F9 major changes were ended because the company shifted focus to Starship development. It wasn’t just about making NASA feel comfortable.

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.