In the early days of Starship I was a little bit optimistic. The “move fast and break things” strategy had quickly succeeded when SpaceX was trying to land boosters, so I was hopeful that each exploding Starship was one step closer to a working spacecraft.
But at this point it’s just sad. I don’t see anything resembling progress.
I think the boosters were a “fake it till we make it” thing that luckily worked out. I don’t think Starship will ever make it into space.
Also this is just an engine test at McGregor. They used to blow them up much more often as they were finding the limits. Nowadays it’s much less common, hence why it’s news when they broke one.
True but disingenuous. This statement is often used to mock blue origin for just going 100km straight up into space and then back down, which is very far from reaching orbit. But the flight profile of IFT-3 was so close to orbital velocity, it’s not a significant difference.
It is a significant difference. When it comes to orbit, there is no close enough, either you’re going fast enough or you’re not. They have not shown this thing can do what they say it can.
IFT-3 was completely empty and the tanks were full. Where is the weight of the crew decks, the solar panels and batteries, life support equipment, docking mechanism, food, water, and cargo? These are not trivial things, and they weigh a lot. Proving an empty shell can achieve a suborbital flight and be just barely not be in orbit is not proof of anything useful.
If they had shown there was a significant amount of delta-v left with this empty test article, then that’s one thing. But those tanks had a whisper of fuel left in them. I don’t believe for a second that it would have gotten that close when it was full of over a hundred tons of additional equipment.
In the early days of Starship I was a little bit optimistic. The “move fast and break things” strategy had quickly succeeded when SpaceX was trying to land boosters, so I was hopeful that each exploding Starship was one step closer to a working spacecraft.
But at this point it’s just sad. I don’t see anything resembling progress.
I think the boosters were a “fake it till we make it” thing that luckily worked out. I don’t think Starship will ever make it into space.
Hey, go boo the actual bad shit Musk is doing. Starship is an amazing feat of human engineering. One that has already made orbit, btw.
How’s Musk doing that?
He’s not, real engineers are. That’s my point.
Funny, because what you implied is that it was Musk doing it.
When a company of his does bad it’s his fault, when one does good it’s other people’s fault?
The guy’s a fucking prick, don’t get me wrong.
Yeah, I despise Musk but the circlejerk “it’s his fault it failed / he has nothing to do with its success” (especially on Lemmy) is just ridiculous
The implication is that this guy’s hate is coming from somewhere else ✈️
Ok. Boo.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-a-new-space-race-could-be-harming-the-earths-atmosphere
https://www.space.com/rocket-exhaust-pollution-upper-atmosphere
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021EF002612
Seriously… Are you drunk? There’s been incredible progress. It’s super exciting.
Also this is just an engine test at McGregor. They used to blow them up much more often as they were finding the limits. Nowadays it’s much less common, hence why it’s news when they broke one.
It already has made it to space…
Making it to space and making it to orbit are 2 different things.
True but disingenuous. This statement is often used to mock blue origin for just going 100km straight up into space and then back down, which is very far from reaching orbit. But the flight profile of IFT-3 was so close to orbital velocity, it’s not a significant difference.
It is a significant difference. When it comes to orbit, there is no close enough, either you’re going fast enough or you’re not. They have not shown this thing can do what they say it can.
IFT-3 was completely empty and the tanks were full. Where is the weight of the crew decks, the solar panels and batteries, life support equipment, docking mechanism, food, water, and cargo? These are not trivial things, and they weigh a lot. Proving an empty shell can achieve a suborbital flight and be just barely not be in orbit is not proof of anything useful.
If they had shown there was a significant amount of delta-v left with this empty test article, then that’s one thing. But those tanks had a whisper of fuel left in them. I don’t believe for a second that it would have gotten that close when it was full of over a hundred tons of additional equipment.