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Neonmoon

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21 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

every dime that goes to the SLS is just fucking stupid

The Blue Origin engine is only 4 years behind, while in the meantime SpaceX has built their Boca Chica spaceport from nothing and sent multiple flights of astronauts to the ISS. 

SLS is nothing but grift and pork for Boeing

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  • 2 weeks later...

Congrats to the entire SpaceX team. This was another milestone, but... "Grumpy old FDO" here... the broadcast public affairs team for SpaceX is an absolute embarrassment.

The giggling fanboi mode of the broadcast team and the ridiculously over the top cheering and hooting from the crowd at HQ that overwhelms the actual events makes it almost unwatchable for me.

Having said that... SpaceX continues to kick ass, and I'm impressed. The technical aspects continue to improve and show their growing expertise in human spaceflight.

  • Hook 'Em 4
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  • 1 month later...

Big Fucking Starship orbital test possible in November, months ahead of schedule

+++

https://www.space.com/elon-musk-starship-orbital-launch-schedule

SpaceX's Starship SN20 prototype could make its first orbital test flight as soon as next month. This visualization depicts SpaceX's Starship could launch on its first uncrewed flight to Mars in 2024. (Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX's latest Starship prototype could blast off into orbit earlier than expected. 

Yesterday (Oct. 21), SpaceX completed a successful static fire test with its SN20 Starship prototype. This was a major hurdle for the spacecraft ahead of its first orbital flight test, which SpaceX had previously stated would likely happen within a couple of months. But now, SpaceX founder Elon Musk has said that the launch could happen as soon as next month. 

"If all goes well, Starship will be ready for its first orbital launch attempt next month, pending regulatory approval," Musk tweeted today (Oct. 22).

If all goes well, Starship will be ready for its first orbital launch attempt next month, pending regulatory approvalOctober 22, 2021

The launch is "pending regulatory approval," as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) needs to grant SpaceX a launch license to launch orbital flights.

Additionally, there is an environmental review that the FAA conducted of SpaceX's operations in South Texas. A draft of the FAA's review was released on Sept. 17 and then they opened it up for public comments and suggestions until Oct. 18. (The FAA is still accepting comments by mail and email through Nov. 1.)

So far, according to SpaceNews, the public comments received show a serious variety of opinions on SpaceX's plans to launch orbital flights from their facility near the South Texas village of Boca Chica. Some attendees shared their support of SpaceX and its launch efforts from Texas, while others voiced concerns about the environmental impacts of such launches.

This review is critical for all flights to space as the FAA needs to grant SpaceX a launch license for its Starship spacecraft and the company's Super Heavy rocket that is designed to launch Starship to space. SpaceX has designed Starship, an umbrella moniker that includes both the spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket, with the goal of launching both humans and cargo to the moon, Mars and beyond.

In fact, in April, NASA granted SpaceX a contract to build a version of Starship to serve as the agency's lunar lander for its Artemis program. However, work on the lander has had to be temporarily halted with surrounding legal issues, especially as NASA has now been directed by the U.S. Senate to choose a second company to build another lunar lander as a backup. Still, this direction from the Senate isn't law and the request to add a second company might not move forward.

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54 minutes ago, MillerEP said:

Pretty sure the new HQ will be a part of Starbase, which is in South Texas not Austin:

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/267031/20211022/spacex-starbase-now-under-construction-elon-musk-snaps-photo-starship.htm

That's what I would think, but had heard from my FIL that they were talking about Austin.  Probably just a FB rumor or something.

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2 minutes ago, thunderlounge said:

I heard similar on the news one night last week. Something about EM and moving the HQ for something to Austin. 
 

Wasn’t SpaceX, but maybe Tesla?

They announced that they were moving Tesla HQ into the Gigafactory building so that one and his Boring Company HQ will be moved to Austin.

  • Hook 'Em 1
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  • 2 weeks later...
41 minutes ago, elfenix said:

26th(!) falcon 9 launch of the year is spacex and nasa trying to shoot down an asteroid

I watched the launch, landing, and deploy, but now we have to wait 10 months for the damn thing to smash into a space rock...  Come on, man. Ain't Nobody got time to wait 10 months.

I know for a fact, from watching the Armageddon movie and the Deep Impact movie, that it should only take a few days to get there.     

 

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Unfortunately, the Raptor production crisis is much worse than it seemed a few weeks ago. As we have dug into the issues following exiting prior senior management, they have unfortunately turned out to be far more severe than was reported. There is no way to sugarcoat this.

I was going to take this weekend off, as my first weekend off in a long time, but instead I will be on the Raptor line all night and through the weekend.

Unless you have critical family matters or cannot physically return to Hawthorne, we need all hands on deck to recover from what is, quite frankly, a disaster.

The consequences for SpaceX if we can’t get enough reliable Raptors made is that we then can’t fly Starship, which means we then can’t fly Starlink Satellite V2 (Falcon has neither the volume *nor* the mass to orbit needed for satellite V2). Satellite V1 by itself is financially weak, whereas V2 is strong.

In addition, we are spooling up terminal production to several million units per year, which will consume massive capital, assuming that satellite V2 will be on orbit to handle the bandwidth demand. These terminals will be useless otherwise.

What it comes down to is that we face genuine risk of bankruptcy if we cannot achieve a Starship flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year.

Thanks,

Elon

https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/30/22809720/elon-musk-spacex-raptor-engine-crisis-bankruptcy-starship

 

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