On a dubiously-related note, I watched the Apollo 11 EVA the other day, and just yesterday I had to video-call someone to debug a problem with my computer, and was struck by the similarities. Neal and Buzz were describing things they could see from time to time, but it seemed like most of the time, they were either adjusting things based on Houston's feedback, or were just kinda running around testing 1/6G movement.
There's still a ton of inaccessible things they were doing which were mission-critical, and the lack of any non-haptic information other than Houston's light-laggy feedback would be troublesome. But I kinda want to extract all four sound-effects that sounded like they got through the astronauts' noise-reduction systems and make some kinda Moonwalk audio game. Novint Falcon support as a stretch goal, I guess.

News of Starship SN8's launch has been simmering of late with what appears to be negotiations with the FAA and environmental reassessments for the flight. Currently a TFR, or Temporary Flight Restriction has been granted for December 6th between 12pm to 6pm, with backup dates for the 7th between 8am to 5:30pm, and 8th between 8am to 5pm. The total height of the test flight has also been lowered a bit to 12.5km.

After a few false starts, SpaceX successfully completed their flight test. As SN8 gained altitude there appeared to be a few engine cut offs and insulation fires, then it gracefully skydived towards the surface as expected. Then just as predicted it amazingly corrected itself, reignited two if its raptor engines and... completely exploded on touch down appearing to come in a bit too fast, vaporizing into degris strewn across the field.

You can watch the replay [here], the launch starts at 1:47:30.

After numerous delays along with last minute permit issues with the FAA, SpaceX has just completed the test flight for SN9. The flight appeared to be a success, with take off, engine cut offs, and skydiving. Unfortunately, during the pivot manuver to right itself it appears there was some kind of ignition failure on engine 2 resulting in insufficient thrust, it tilted towards one side and impacted the landing pad, exploding. The good news is that it appears the Helium tank pressure fix may have worked, but we'll have to wait for them to provide any additional information.

You can watch the replay of SN9's test flight [here], the good stuff starts around the 5:20 minute mark.

After a brief delay due to over engine thrust, SN10 just completed its test flight and all 3 engines ignited as planned, down scaling to one for a successful (non-explosive) landing. While leaning slightly, it appears to be in good condition.

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

edit: Uhoh! It looks like methane exhaust caused SN10 to just explode on the pad, LOL. Welp, a landing is a landing, heh. Additional coverage [here].

As reported by [teslarati]:

At 8:00am CDT Starship SN11 took off nominally whilst obscured in a dense fog, and performed its belly flop reentry maneuver perfectly. However, it seems that engine 2 had an ignition failure with lost signal, and the ship exploded before touchdown. Due to poor visibility its difficult for observers to tell specifically what went wrong, though some suggest it was rotating away from a nominal orientation during reentry.

Elon Musk has commented however that they will be moving SN15 to the launch pad likely within the next few days, and that “it has hundreds of design improvements across structures, avionics/software, & engine[s].”

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

Starship SN15's launch debut is currently in progress, recondenser is active and currently estimated that launch is T-Minus 30 minutes. As such attempts things can be subject to change or technical issues.

You can watch the live coverage by NASA Space Flight [here].

As covered by [teslarati]:

There's been some rapid progress at Boca Chica in the last few days, with Booster 4 having 29 raptor engines fitted literally overnight, moved over and stacked on to the orbital launch platform the next day, and had the just finished Starship SN20 fitted with its thermal tiles stacked on top of it. The starship stacking was temporary to check the starship/booster fitting process, both were then unstacked, will likely have their respective engines removed and undergo pressure and cryo testing, followed by static fires and launch prep.

The biggest hurdle remaining so far appears to be the clearance from the FAA, with the orbital test flight looking like its set in within the next few months. You can watch a stream of the stacking [here].

As reported by arstechnica:

Its finally happening, Starships launch debut is nigh and scheduled for April 17th for its maiden voyage. This test flight will not attempt any landing at sea or land, but is to test the flight dynamics or orbital velocities. There's a 50% chance of success slated here, and there's no guarantee that it may liftoff, given that its a new system and any number of things could go wrong.

If anyones interested in tuning in, you can watch the livestream here, which starts in 8 hours as of this post, and about 45 minutes before liftoff.

Why does everything Elon touches crash and burn these days?

Its been awhile, but it seems after the last kerfuffle involving the launch pad being damaged that SpaceX has finally settled things and gotten FAA approval for the next test launch of Starship. The launch pad itself has been reinforced with steel plates and a deluge system for fire and noise suppression to better protect the launch pad, and the current iteration of Starship has undergone a number of improvements. Those improvements include and electronic gimbals to replace the hydrolic systems of the previous model that contributed to the engine failure, better engine shielding to mitigate failure, and a new hot-staging system, wherein Starship will fire its engines while still attached to the Booster to push off of it to conserve momentum. Whatever the outcome, it should be interesting.

The current launch is tentatively scheduled for Friday, November 17th. Links to Streams/video will be updated as their made available.

edit: The date has been pushed back to the 18th as the crew swaps out an actuator. The current set time is a 20 minute window at 7am CST. It appears the Nasa Space Flight stream will be running until the event and is currently live here.

@48
If this was a success, then I am a successful sighted businessman with a billion-dollar fortune and interests in all countries of the world.