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SpaceX Starship - IFT-4 - Starbase TX - Launch Thread and Post Launch Discussion
- Thread starter Grendal
- Start date
Who said that one tile lose means lose of the ship? ; P
Stainless steel is the real space craft material. I bet if you drop Cybertruck from space it's still drivable but looks like Ship's forward flaps...
Stainless steel is the real space craft material. I bet if you drop Cybertruck from space it's still drivable but looks like Ship's forward flaps...
I'll try and set up ahead of time for IFT-5.... it occurred to me last minute. Thanks for hanging out...
Woo-hoo!!! That was incredible!!
EA has interview with Elon about this launch. He may have a post launch follow up.
EA has interview with Elon about this launch. He may have a post launch follow up.
I don't know... telemetry might have been off, because it appeared to be at 0 altitide when I could see the orientation changing (I think), and they said re-light did occur, despite telemetry not showing it...
I'd be there.
They had a good relight and flip, slowed to 2 km/h, then apparently cut the engines and dropped into the water. The engine telemetry was out, and the tank telemetry was useless because the vehicle doesn't use the main tanks for the landing.
The only word I have for that entry, descent and landing is "epic". What a beast of a machine. What amazing communications.
That flap being burned thru by tha plasma appears to still have been operational... that's pretty impressive.
The cam view looking down on the flap, I heard the SpaceX employees go "Ohhhh", and saw flames coming THROUGH the flap joint, lol...
The cam view looking down on the flap, I heard the SpaceX employees go "Ohhhh", and saw flames coming THROUGH the flap joint, lol...
What I don't quite understand, they had two cameras in the ship and we did see two different views. But in the later part of the mission, only one that was close to the forward flag was used. And even when that one got covered in debris during the final parts of the landing, they never used the other camera... unless that one got destroyed much earlier
I was hoping they might switch as well... I suspect it may have gotten cooked...
Dodd just replayed the last part of the descent while it had been subsonic for a bit but before re-light , and pointed out we were still seeing flashes and reflections... he thinks "the ship was certainly on fire"....
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 describe it.
IFT-5 is going to be even better!
TunaBug
Member
Yes but isn't it awesome that they didn't switch feeds? We had all written off that flap, and thanks to them not switching feeds we all got to see it continue to function. That flap is my hero.
My first quick data analysis says that reentry acceleration due to speed change was generally below 1g until they got down to maximum dynamic pressure, where it reached as high as about 1.5g. This seems to match up well with Space Shuttle reentry forces.
Did anyone else notice how long the vehicle loitered at 68km? They were really working to scrub velocity in the thinnest part of the atmosphere.
Edit: Note that the constant data link during reentry means there won't be a reentry blackout for Crew Starship. It'll be interesting to see if Crew Dragon (or any other such vehicle) can be retrofit with Starlink to eliminate reentry blackout as well.
Did anyone else notice how long the vehicle loitered at 68km? They were really working to scrub velocity in the thinnest part of the atmosphere.
Edit: Note that the constant data link during reentry means there won't be a reentry blackout for Crew Starship. It'll be interesting to see if Crew Dragon (or any other such vehicle) can be retrofit with Starlink to eliminate reentry blackout as well.
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TunaBug
Member
I can't decide whether that flap is the Little Engine or Jules Winnfield.
But more seriously, it has to be fundamentally gamechanging for them to have video feeds in order to figure out what happened. Not to mention a network for the feed so that they don't have to hunt down a black box. Will BO be able to do that?
It's not clear what combination of things has to be in place. It may be that there is a huge communication window above any reentering vehicle, and the only thing that was ever needed for continuous communications was having some satellites to talk to. On the other hand, it may be that SpaceX was barely able to pull it off only because of the size of the vehicle, the number of satellites available, and their low altitude. On the third hand, the combination of Amazon's Kuiper and Blue Origin's Jarvis might produce an even better outcome. Time will tell.
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