The Briefing Room
General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Space => Topic started by: Timber Rattler on March 14, 2024, 05:39:10 pm
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https://hotair.com/david-strom/2024/03/14/awesome-spacex-starship-hits-major-milestones-n3784681
All I can say is AWESOME!
While not perfect, the third test flight of SpaceX's Starship hit most of its major milestones and provided some of the most awesome images ever sent live from space, including high-definition video from the outside of the spacecraft during the initial phases of reentry.
You could see the plasma envelope develop around the heat shield at the beginning of reentry--something never seen before.
AWESOME!
SpaceX had a significant number of objectives to meet, and it succeeded in proving much of the design and engineering of the spacecraft.
The major milestones were to be:
- Successful launch of the booster and vehicle
Safe separation of the booster from the vehicle
Reentry of booster
Landing in the sea using Raptor engines (no recovery of booster)
Suborbital trajectory of Starship
Test of payload doors
Test of fuel transfer
Successful relight of Space Raptor engines
Controlled reentry
Splashdown in Indian Ocean
The re-entry of the booster went well, but not all the required engines relit to ensure a controlled landing of the booster. The relight of the Raptor engines in space was not attempted, and the vehicle was lost sometime during reentry for, as yet, unknown reasons. All other mission objectives appear to have been met.
Those are pretty big objectives, suggesting that the Starship system is prepared to do most of its space missions, but is still not able to successfully meet the requirement of reuse. If you can't land the spacecraft and booster you obviously can't reuse them.
Not bad for the third test flight though! Few people thought that every objective would be met.
Starship is the largest spacecraft ever built, and its liftoff is correspondingly AWESOME!
EXCERPT
https://twitter.com/i/status/1768267464062943676 (https://twitter.com/i/status/1768267464062943676)
https://twitter.com/i/status/1768268071469539708 (https://twitter.com/i/status/1768268071469539708)