2019-07-27 07:40:17 (edited by magurp244 2024-03-14 01:30:00)

As reported by [arstechnica]:

After spending months hammering together sheets of metal in a grassy Texas field, SpaceX's Star Hopper prototype has conducted its first launch test thursday evening, ascending untethered on its Raptor engines approximately 20 to 30 feet, and landing a few feet nearby. This is a remarkable achievement, but more is yet to come. The current development of the Starship Mk 1 is broken into two parts, the aft section that flew on thursday, and the upper half in development a few kilometers away down the Boca Chica Highway. The sections will be mated together in the coming weeks, and they have intentions to fly this Mk 1 vehicle within the next two to three months, with the goal of reaching 20 or 30 kilometers later in the year.

While much yet remains to be done, the pace so far is incredible. For the curious, you can watch a video of the StarHoppers short flight [here].

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2019-07-27 22:12:42

That's actually pretty awesome and I can't wait to see what comes in the future! Will definitely be following news on this thing.
A wise woman once said, "Star ships were meant to fly."
Hopefully this one does.

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2019-07-28 01:32:26

There gonna laugh at us in the future for our ridiculously over ambitious names for rockets, when they actually do have star hoppers...

2019-07-28 13:55:14

Without FTL, the best we could do would be a mix of fusion and laser propulsion to make relativistic speeds possible. Realistically, unless FTL turns out to be practical, we probably max out at 0.1c outside of the exceedingly rare-and-expensive, even by interstellar standards. In theory, a perfectly designed laser ship, with a high-quality laser highway could get far closer to C, but you'd have to build the laser stations at no more than 0.1c, probably much slower.
... But yeah, I had a long post with an aside about the "Star" bit being a weird name for an interplanetary ship, but it got kinda weird, so I deleted it.
It seems like everyone who hears about Orbital Rings immediately wants one, in spite of how outrageously expensive and difficult those would be at any point in the next century. Spacex's bringing launch costs down, and Blue Origin trying to industrialize space, are both necessary steps to making Orbital Rings make sense as a goal, and once you have one of those, you basically win. In the short-term, though, I'm hoping someone can scrape together the resources to build the kind of space infrastructure so that we can get genuine cost-effective production of 0g and vacuum chemicals / crystals / solar panels / etc, the kind of stuff that would solve a ton of Earth's problems if they weren't so expensive that even the obscenely rich haven't pulled them off. If you want post-scarcity, you need that nigh-infinite energy, space, and material. As has been made abundantly clear over the past decades, the Earth can only handle so much, and the only way to put the human genie back in the bottle is with levels of genocide that would make Thanos blush.

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2019-07-29 01:55:08

Hmm, well there are a few really interesting pieces of tech in development that could have us easily booting around the solar system at least. The first being the [VASIMR] Engine, or Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket. What it does is it injects an inert propellant gas and heats/ionizes it using radio waves into a super heated plasma, the resulting plasma is then accellerated and ejected with magnetic fields, which eliminates some of the failure points of conventional Ion engines, such as their electrodes. The beauty of the system is its ability to scale with power with variable thrust profiles, its estimated a well powered VASIMR engine could get to mars in 39 days. Course, the big problem with it is thats its an energy hog, generating tesla range magnetic fields and a lot of waste heat to contain the plasma. Currently there are plans for more low powered space tugs, but for the higher performance applications people are thinking nuclear power's the only currently viable solution, and the closest thing to that would be NASA's little [Kilopower] project for compact fission reactors in space.

As for working in space, not many people seem to have noticed, but Bigelow Aerospace is the company to be paying very close attention to. Some of you might recognize the name, as its the company that flew and tested the inflatable space module on the ISS awhile back. Well they've been quiet lately, but have been impatiently waiting for commercial crew launches like SpaceX's Dragon Crew Capsule to finally get certified and off the ground to start building private [Commercial Space Stations] using their inflatable modules. Two modules should be ready by 2020, with launches contracted for 2021 and 2022 have already been signed. The station link is a pretty interesting read for some of their concepts, like medical stations, biological containment, research, deep space complexes, etc.

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2019-08-14 09:20:39

As reported by [space.com]:

The FAA has just cleared SpaceX for the 200m flight test of the StarHopper prototype, with a window spanning august 16th to the 18th. Elon Musk was rather hopeful that the test could be conducted within the given time frame, so grab some popcorn for the next stage of development. Further news on the Starship-Super Heavy design is still planned for August 24th.

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2019-08-17 01:51:49

As reported by the [Daily Express]:

The FAA has delayed the StarHopper flight test pending additional Hazard Analysis, Elon Musk anouncing the decision after a discussion with the FAA. Some outlets have tentatively put the new test date between August 19th to the 21st.

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2019-08-17 04:21:23

I was in Florida when the SpaceX launched last Tuesday. It was really cool to hear. There was a lot of rain my parents said they saw it for a bit then it went behind a cloud.

Kingdom of Loathing name JB77

2019-08-22 08:55:05

As reported by [Testlarati]:

The current 200m flight test of the StarHopper prototype has been canceled. Given the rapid development of the Mk1 and Mk2 Starship prototypes towards ready status, and which have much higher fidelity, the StarHopper would become redundant the moment they become operational, making the 200m test flight and permits for it a waste of time and effort. As a result, Elon Musks Starship update dated for August 24th has instead been moved to roughly mid-september to mid-october, when the Mk1 and Mk2 should be ready for test flights.

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2019-08-26 03:09:30

As reported by [Business Insider]:

It seems an attempted 200 meter test flight for the StarHopper is still on and set for Monday, considering all the permit wrangling with the FAA with local concerns. This will however be the StarHoppers last flight before being retired, with the Starship update still scheduled for mid-september'ish. It seems that local officials have handed out printed pamphlets to residents warning them of potential risks to health and safety, in the event of a malfunction which could cause an overpressure event and shatter peoples windows, residents are instructed to vacate the area or at a minimum leave their homes 10 minutes prior when law enforcement will issue a warning siren to avoid any risk of injury. "Overpressure event" in this case meaning a blastwave caused by a rapid explosion.

Currently there doesn't appear to be any official webcast, however there are a few unofficial third party sources camped near the launch site set to stream the event. One such webcast is [here], and is set to start in 16 hours as of this post. Be warned that this may not be the exact time of launch, or there may be further delays. He says that he'll start streaming once the fuel starts loading.

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2019-08-27 23:21:25

As reported by [testlarati]:

Due to a problem with the igniters, the starhopper flight test was scrubbed at T-0 and rescheduled for tuesday at the same time. An official stream has yet to be announced, but a secondary steam is available [here]. The vehicle is currently fueling and venting in preparation for launch, if your interested in an official stream keep an eye on SpaceX's twitter account, yesterday they dropped a link 10 minutes before liftoff.

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2019-08-28 00:07:58

SpaceX posted a link 3 minutes before launch, and moments ago StarHopper lifted  more than 150 feet into the air, manuvered itself and landed on an adjacent landing pad completing its flight test perfectly. You can watch a replay of the live stream [here].

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2019-09-30 00:26:55

As reported by [arstechnica]:

Elon Musk has given his scheduled update on the Starship Mk1 prototype. Talking points include inspiring people to look forward to the future, reusability for more affordable travel like planes and cars, recaps of Falcon rocket reuability, starship specs, starship reentry dynamics, engine design, heat shield design, super heavy booster design, raptor engine and starhopper tests, vehicle size and scale comparisons, in orbit refueling, and colonization. After that, about midway he answers questions from the audience.

You can watch the full presentation [here], which is approximately 1 hour 25 minutes.

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2019-11-22 01:56:27

As reported by [arstechnica]:

The initial Mark 1 version of SpaceX's Starship prototype failed a Maximum Pressurization Test wednesday, resulting in the top bulkhead of the vehicle breaking appart and flying away, followed by a large white cloud of smoke and vapor leaving the vehicle, revealing a dented Starship. While this might seem bad, its all part of the plan. The philosophy of Iterative Design being to Fail Fast, and Fail Often, SpaceX is still developing the Mark 2 Starship with work beginning on the Mark 3, and the lessons learned from this are almost certainly being applied to those.

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2019-11-22 05:04:00

Oh my gosh!
This sounds like the early beginnings of the federation.
Actually except for the early nx series, there are no real records of the first early missions of the federation before it became such but there must have been.
In reality though, it is interesting that while we do not have any warp drive just yet we do have the beginnings of what may be impulse drives, actually calling it an impulse engine, startrek does this to.
That is interesting because in the trek universe they had always got the impulse engine for a lot of things.
But before all those phasers and other things surely the first thing invented was the impulse engine.
While ware not the same universe or timeline and even though I won't probably live to see warp just to hear the beginnings of the impulse drive is nice for my fan boyish nature at least.

2020-01-16 02:09:12

As reported by [Teslarati]:

A few days ago Elon Musk and Crew conducted a pressure test on a newly constructed fuel tank for their Starship design, both destroying it and shedding light on some of their design process. Fuel tanks, as it turns out, need to be rated to be able to handle a minimum of 125% of their operating pressure, and orbital flight requires a minimum of 6 bars of pressure to be certified. There was some question as to why Elon Musk had over pressurized the Starship Mk1 prototype, destroying it in the process, but it seems there was a very specific purpose for this, as the prototype is suspected to have failed at 3-5 bars of pressure. This new pressure vessel however failed at 7.1 bars of pressure, and Elon has stated that they would like a wider safety margin of 140% rated pressure, or 8.4 bars, in order to rate it for human spaceflight. This iterative destruction to improve manufacturing processes and parts selection bodes well for paving the way towards future progress.

Speaking of progress, the Crew Dragon Abort Test is scheduled for this Saturday, January 18th at 8am ET. I'll provide an update on that when the webcast drops.

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2020-05-29 06:54:33

As reported by [teslarati]:

While we wait for the inaugural Crew Demo-2 launch attempt on Saturday, now might be a good time to check in on the current development of the 4th, 5th, 6th, and now 7th Starship Prototypes being jettisoned out of Boca Chica's manufacturing wing. Starship SN5 is likely to be the first fully assembled unit, and could be the first designated to perform high altitude launch tests after SN4's scheduled hop test. Starship SN4 has currently been fitted with a [custom built ballast] and [done another engine test] after a recent previous test accidentally caught part of the external assembly on fire. They've also recieved a full suborbital license from the FAA for test flights clear through to 2022, though Elon Musk has stated that the next Starship test flight won't happen before the Crew Demo-2 launch.

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2020-05-30 02:59:50 (edited by magurp244 2020-05-30 03:01:47)

As reported by [arstechnica]:

It would seem that shortly after the SN4 prototypes engine fire test that it suffered a "Rapid Disassembly Event". Put another way, it exploded gloriously in a ball of fire into itty bitty pieces. Speculation suggests a gas leak with an unintended crossover flame from a nearby tower ignited the gas as the wind shifted, but we'll likely have to wait for the official results. Either way, SN5 is waiting in the wings to take its place, though assembly and repairs to the test stands might have to happen first.

For those interested in the pyrotechnics (and who isn't?), you can watch a video of the blast [here].

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2020-05-30 03:19:33

I'm glad it was that rocket and not Falcon9

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2020-07-31 01:38:21

As reported by [arstechnica]:

SpaceX's latest silver bullet has just completed its static fire test, and all systems appear nominal for a test hop in the near future. Based on a notification from the US Federal Aviation Administration, it could be as soon as this Sunday with a launch window opening at 8am UTC.

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2020-08-05 07:31:06

As reported by [teslarati]:

The SN5 Starship prototype completed its 150m hop debute perfectly, floating up into the air and landing gracefully in a haze of smoke. The glorious grain silo floated through the air with small control thrusters firing, and with an internal view of the engine itself, the small lander legs flipped outward moments before touchdown.

You can watch a replay of the flight [here].

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2020-09-03 21:22:05

SpaceX's Starship SN6 prototype just completed its 150 meter hop successfully, much like its identical sibling SN5. An official cast of the test has yet to materialize, but they are likely going over the telemetry, and may attempt to fly SN5 again in the next few days or weeks.

There are a few streams around from observers in the area, such as [this] one, take off starting around the 31 minute mark.

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2020-09-03 22:08:34

Wow, the future is here!

2020-10-20 18:58:26

As reported by [teslarati]:

Starship SN8 has just finished a static fire test of its 3 Raptor engines, and is currently being fitted with a nose cone component. If all goes well with the next test, it won't be long before we have a sub-orbital flight and re-entry test, which will either be an amazingly bizzare landing, or an explosively entertaining event.

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2020-11-14 01:35:39

As reported by [teslarati]:

After successful integration of the nose cone, followed by pressure tests and Wet Dress Rehearsals, Starship SN8 completed one of its static fire tests running from the fuel tanks in the nose section to test its capability to fuel the Raptor engines for decent. Unfortunately, last night one of those tests seems to have resulted in a failure, damaging hydraulic control systems resulting in a loss of control over the rocket. Molten slag could be seen streaming from the aft section for approximately 2 minutes, with pressuring increasing in the LOx tank. Fortunately previously installed Burst Discs ruptured, allowing for the fuel tanks to vent and preventing a critical failure.

SN8 has been successfully detanked and crews are currently inspecting the damage, its expected at least one or more of the Raptor engines will be replaced with further repairs for additional testing.

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