Starship News

[ponytug]

I understand that. But isn't that what Japan is using, and failing with the last couple of attempts? They have the best computers, engineers and scientist, but they can't do what we did in 1969? It just seems crazy to me.

Well, to cut them a tiny bit of slack, Apollo missions targeted very flat areas on the moon, and Neil Armstrong made a last second burn to put the LEM down on a flat area as they overshot the original target area and ended up in an area that was rocky on closer inspection. Apollo 8 landed with what was post mission estimated to be only 45-50 seconds of fuel remaining. Autonomous landers have to be able to make those calls themselves, and we all know how well autonomous driving on roads is going.

The Chinese, Japanese and others are also trying things like landing on the dark side (no communication signal for anyone other than the Chinese who have a relay satellite), and in craters where landing at angle is, apparently challenging. I tend to think of trying to land on something like a lava flow.

Personally, I think that NASA was lucky to have only Apollo 1 on their loss tally. I think that there were lots, lots of very talented and dedicated people on deck at NASA and their contractors, like Gruman and Draper.

All the best,

Peter

 

[MossRoad]

Turn up the volume and listen to that crackle!!!

 

[MossRoad]

 

[BravoXray]

Those F1 engines were an amazing feat of engineering. 1.5 million pound of thrust each, and never had an in-flight shutdown. If I remember correctly, the turbopump for each engine developed 25,000HP.

 

[MossRoad]

F-1 is still the king!

 

[ponytug]

I would also point out that the US efforts to put down automated landers on the moon (the Surveyor series for example) had a waaay waaay better track record of success (5/7) than the Soviet attempts (2/13), and that's an under count as the Soviets didn't number vehicles (spacecraft) that did not make it to orbit.

However, when flying vehicles with slightly thicker than tin foil skins, I do not overlook the value of being lucky.

All the best,

Peter

 

[IXLR8]

Spaceflightnow.com showing Starship flight 10 is scheduled for,
NET 24-Aug. Launch window opens at 6:30pm CST

Booster will not be caught, it will have controlled "landing" in the Gulf.
Starship will attempt launch of 10 dummy Starlink satellites. Several engine tests will happen before controlled "landing" in the Indian Ocean. They will be testing different heat resistant tiles as well.

 

[ruffdog]

You would think the people in the Bahamas would get tired of starship parts raining down on them. For safety sake, can they change the flight path?

 

[ruffdog]

SCRUBBED

 

[ruffdog]

Scrubbed again.................