SpaceX Starship page

FAQ

  1. When (first) orbital flight? First integrated flight test occurred April 20, 2023. “The vehicle cleared the pad and beach as Starship climbed to an apogee of ~39 km over the Gulf of Mexico – the highest of any Starship to-date. The vehicle experienced multiple engines out during the flight test, lost altitude, and began to tumble. The flight termination system was commanded on both the booster and ship.”
  2. Where can I find streams of the launch? SpaceX Full Livestream. NASASpaceFlight Channel. Lab Padre Channel. Everyday Astronaut Channel.
  3. What’s happening next? SpaceX has assessed damage to Stage 0 and is implementing fixes and changes including a water deluge/pad protection/“shower head” system. No major repairs to key structures appear to be necessary.
  4. When is the next flight test? Just after flight, Elon stated they “Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.” On April 29, he reiterated this estimate in a Twitter Spaces Q&A (summarized here), saying “I’m glad to report that the pad damage is actually quite small,” should “be repaired quickly,” and “From a pad standpoint, we are probably ready to launch in 6 to 8 weeks.” Requalifying the flight termination system (FTS) and the FAA post-incident review will likely require the longest time to complete. Musk reiterated the timeline on May 26, stating “Major launchpad upgrades should be complete in about a month, then another month of rocket testing on pad, then flight 2 of Starship.”
  5. Why no flame diverter/flame trench below the OLM? Musk tweeted on April 21: “3 months ago, we started building a massive water-cooled, steel plate to go under the launch mount. Wasn’t ready in time & we wrongly thought, based on static fire data, that Fondag would make it through 1 launch.” Regarding a trench, note that the Starship on the OLM sits 2.5x higher off the ground than the Saturn V sat above the base of its flame trench, and the OLM has 6 exits vs. 2 on the Saturn V trench.

Quick Links

RAPTOR ROOST | LAB CAM | SAPPHIRE CAM | SENTINEL CAM | ROVER CAM | ROVER 2.0 CAM | PLEX CAM | NSF STARBASE

Relevant Reddit threads (though these likely won’t be accessible during the blackout).

Starship Dev 46 | Starship Dev 45 | Starship Dev 44 | Starship Dev 43 | Starship Thread List

Official Starship Update | r/SpaceX Update Thread

Status

Road Closures

No road closures currently scheduled

No transportation delays currently scheduled

Up to date as of 2023-07-09

Resources

I’ll attempt to keep this post current with links and major updates, but would be greatly helped by information supplied by the community. I hope this can be an alternate place to discuss Starship development. While the Starship Development Threads on Reddit are not party threads, Lemmy is still small enough that I don’t imagine that strict moderation will be needed in the short term.

  • OzGiBoKsArEnglish
    211·
    2 years ago

    Not much going on anyway plus about three people made it here. This is going to die pretty quick. Hopefully the idiotic Reddit “protest” will too.

    • Norminal_KayEnglish
      131·
      2 years ago

      To be fair, this place wasn’t shared very widely. Also, at least people tried. Can’t complain about a big website and then also just sit on your butt doing nothing. Change never happens unless people actively try to make things better.

      I hate this defeatist attitude so many have that you should just take what these companies and websites are doing without trying to make change for the better.

      • OzGiBoKsArEnglish
        110·
        2 years ago

        I’m glad threelonmusketeers made this alternative. I also don’t give a shit about third party apps because I don’t use them. So to me it’s a bunch of idiots who have no idea how a company operates throwing a temper tantrum because ‘muh app’ and ruining something for everyone else.

        The blackout does quite literally zero harm to Reddit. None. It accomplishes less than nothing, and in fact makes their lives easier with less users taking up server space.

        • numberedcompanyEnglish
          8·
          2 years ago

          Reddit is nothing without moderators like threelon , and Reddit has done less than nothing with their first party apps to help moderators. To treat the lifeblood of your community with such contempt is a fast way to poison the entire well. If the spacex sub lost it’s volunteer mods it would have been crypto bro hell 3 years ago.

          • OzGiBoKsArEnglish
            16·
            2 years ago

            And? Reddit doesn’t give a shit about that. The blackout does nothing to shareholders. Giving away API for free does. They’re going to address one of those issues and it isn’t going to be apologizing or conceding to whiners who can’t conceive of a life without a weird special app for Reddit.

            • John_Hasler@lemmy.oneEnglish
              51·
              2 years ago

              We’re talking about apps used by moderators to do their work. The mods say that the tools provided by Reddit are inadequate.

              • OzGiBoKsArEnglish
                13·
                2 years ago

                I understand that, but it does not make my point any less relevant. These morons running around pretending they’re hurting Reddit by not using the native app think they depend on mods and ads. They don’t. They’ll make more by orders of magnitude from profitizing the API. It’s the smart business move, but fucking Reddit communists have no idea how businesses actually operate so they think they’re relevant.

                And in what way, exactly, are the mod tools “inadequate”? Every sub I’ve ever been to has been horrendously over moderated, and has driven off massive percentages of new users. If you can’t figure out how to properly use Reddit without a third-party app, you’re a fucking retard.