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SpaceX Catch attempt
October 13, 2024 at 9:48 am
SpaceX successfully caught a booster out of the air and then did a "soft landing" on the water with Starship (some of the flaps looked a bit toasty though!)
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RE: SpaceX Catch attempt
October 13, 2024 at 9:51 am
Don't know what that means.
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RE: SpaceX Catch attempt
October 13, 2024 at 10:38 am
It means that SpaceX has returned a suprheavy booster to the landing site, slowed it to a hover then caught it with the "chopstick arms"
They also did a simulated landing in the Indian Ocean with the Starship
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RE: SpaceX Catch attempt
October 13, 2024 at 11:24 am
Some heat shield tiles were deliberately left out on starship in order to test the ablative backup shielding beneath it. The steering flaps still took some heat damage but like the last flight, landed on target.
The FAA will require at least 3 successfully controlled landings before allowing SpaceX to attempt to catch the starship like the booster. I imagine they will also want to see better heat shield performance. The issue is that unlike the booster which comes in from the ocean, starship comes in from orbit over populated areas. When the space shuttle Columbia burned up on reentry, it rained down debris over 4 US states. It will also need to be redesigned in order to be caught. So, at least one more test flight into the ocean before we see a recovery attempt of starship.
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RE: SpaceX Catch attempt
October 13, 2024 at 9:16 pm
Watched it on the news tonight, very impressive.
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RE: SpaceX Catch attempt
October 13, 2024 at 9:47 pm
It has to be mentioned Elon had absolutely no hand in this whatsoever.
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RE: SpaceX Catch attempt
October 13, 2024 at 10:21 pm
(October 13, 2024 at 9:47 pm)Nay_Sayer Wrote: It has to be mentioned Elon had absolutely no hand in this whatsoever.
Boy, is that ever a stretch - considering he founded SpaceX and conceived of Starship. I'm guessing you meant to to say he had no role in the design & engineering process which
might be true.
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RE: SpaceX Catch attempt
October 14, 2024 at 1:48 am
When it comes to bettering the country, prioritahs.
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