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Elon is being very talkative on twitter about what is happening in Boca Chica with Starship/Starhopper.
Raptor discussion is happening.
SpaceX's Elon Musk: odds of Starship reaching orbit by 2020 are "rising rapidly"
Hard to see how those canard surfaces will survive.Another quick render:View attachment 364351
; )
They look like lifting surfaces rather than plain old speed brakes. If they were just speed brakes why not grid fins as you see in the first stage? And if they are speed brakes, the thermal load would be even greater, given they’d deploy against the atmospheric flow rather than faired with it. I’m sure someone has run the numbers and the materials will be selected accordingly. Just looks like a major design challenge for even heat-resistant exotics.Speed brakes not canard(s).
At the tail or at the nose? The ones aft do articulate (or did in one recent iteration). I’m curious about the ones at the nose.I believe that upthread there is an extensive discussion of the purpose and function of the side fins and the conclusion was they are not lifting surfaces (not that everyone agreed, of course ). Also, keep in mind that they have an adjustable trailing edge section, at least based on what Elon showed at the last IAC presentation he made.
Looks from the video that only 2 at the base move. When I originally saw the "belly flop" graphics I thought - this is what you expect from Elon - of course it is cool. When watching it again - I thought that this is truly awesome and actually makes a lot of sense.At the tail or at the nose? The ones aft do articulate (or did in one recent iteration). I’m curious about the ones at the nose.
Hot up there.
Robin
Then you need to watch it again (hint it would not work that way), here is video same of control system in NASA wind tunnel test at 1959;Looks from the video that only 2 at the base move...
While I can see how this decision by SpaceX to move FSH/Starship production makes sense, it will require SpaceX to assemble a significant workforce at Boca Chica; that will require new housing and services for hundreds of people in a relatively remote area. Certainly this is a boost for the McAllen/Brownsville area, where living costs there are a small fraction of what they are in LA! And if I was a SpaceX employee who was part of the production team I would not hesitate to move and thereby be able to participate in what will likely be the most important engineering project of the 21st century.
In blow to Los Angeles, SpaceX is moving its Mars spaceship and booster work to Texas
QUOTE:
In a reversal of a deal local officials touted as a win for Los Angeles tech, SpaceX will no longer be developing and building its Mars spaceship and rocket booster system at the Port of Los Angeles. Instead, the work will be done in South Texas.
SpaceX said in a statement Wednesday that the decision was made to “streamline operations.”
“This decision does not impact our current manufacture, design, and launch operations in Hawthorne and Vandenberg Air Force Base,” a company spokesperson said in the statement. “Additionally, SpaceX will continue recovery operations of our reusable Falcon rockets and Dragon spacecraft at the Port of Los Angeles.”
I'm curious what SpaceX's costs will be now.Because SpaceX is developing the site on its own dime, the company will effectively be able to avoid rental payments for 20 years. After that, SpaceX will pay around $3 million per year for the site.
The source info is incorrect. Starship & Raptor development is being done out of our HQ in Hawthorne, CA. We are building the Starship prototypes locally at our launch site in Texas, as their size makes them very difficult to transport.
Elon Musk on TwitterThe LA Times has a long track of unreasonable attacks on SpaceX & Tesla, but in this case it was our miscommunication
Teslarati is very thoughtful & well-written, but this stems from a miscommunication by SpaceX