Ok, this is cool. Re-entry video of SpaceX’s starship. I don’t think we’ve seen a space shuttle video from the outside structure before. Burning plasma.

And using Starlink to relay its telemetry data, no less. Pretty neat stuff.

https://x.com/spacex/status/17682799903 ... W8b7U2nD-g

They march incrementally toward complete success.

I thought it was interesting how little delta-v there was in the reentry portion we saw.
So fast in such rare air still made plasma but little drag so far.

Wouldn’t it be cool to see and understand all the date and video THEY have.

If you drop altitude and speed stays the same, that is still lots of energy being dissipated.

Mike C.

Mike, you know that in orbit you can't decrease altitude without decreasing velocity, you can only change the shape of your orbit. In the above screen grab they had shed about 137 KM of altitude (~60%) but had only slowed by about 300 KpH. They "only" achieved around 26,500 KpH, so they were about a 1600 short of orbital. They were coming down no matter what, and that was the plan. Looking at the video, they were still displaying 26,600 KpH when they lost the data feed. I'm wondering if that velocity telemetry is bad.

What i find most amazing is that we had the video feed for so long through that. I can't run a go-pro more than 45 minutes without it overheating....

Chip-

I was surprised how long they retained the video signal! The telemetry takes way less bandwidth so they have lots of data I am looking forward to hearing about.

After the launch there was a good shot of the launch pad with the scissor arms positioned to catch. In that video I could see 3-4 more starships already built and ready to go.

They have no shortage of vehicles to test. Launch pad prep should be pretty quick. As long as the FAA has no significant issues with the flight I'm thinking we might see IFT4 in May.

So impressive how fast they are moving on something so complex. N

The Starship was started in earnest about 12 years ago, so its not coming all that fast.

One concern I had is that they seemed to burn almost all the fuel (based on watching the fuel gauges on the video) for both the booster and starship, even before landing or reentry. If that's the case, and they didn't achieve orbital velocity, do they have any usable payload capacity?

It wasn't clear if they had a dummy load in the starship. If not, and they are out of fuel before reaching orbit, the rocket isn't very useful. Even if they had a dummy load, they seem to need a bit more fuel to reach orbit and that load will have to be reduced to allow for it.

In other words, did the rocket end up too heavy to be useful?

The project payload to LEO is supposed to be 100 to 150 tonnes. Are they on track to make that?

Mike C.

What makes you think that they had a full fuel load at liftoff? Given the landing profiles I would expect them to carry just enough fuel to get the job done.

If they didn't, then my concern for mass to orbit is even greater since that would be a cheat just as big if not bigger than having no dummy mass payload.

The "rocket equation" is unforgiving. For every pound of payload or extra fuel you need, you need something like 50 lbs more rocket. This is the ratio of the expected payload (200,000 lbs to LEO) versus liftoff mass (11,000,000 lbs). Thus 98% of the rocket is rocket and fuel and only 2% is payload. If they are off 2% on their expected liftoff mass, there is no payload capacity left. There is very little margin in the design and extra weight kills performance.

Mike C.

The Starship was started in earnest about 12 years ago, so its not coming all that fast.

One concern I had is that they seemed to burn almost all the fuel (based on watching the fuel gauges on the video) for both the booster and starship, even before landing or reentry. If that's the case, and they didn't achieve orbital velocity, do they have any usable payload capacity?

It wasn't clear if they had a dummy load in the starship. If not, and they are out of fuel before reaching orbit, the rocket isn't very useful. Even if they had a dummy load, they seem to need a bit more fuel to reach orbit and that load will have to be reduced to allow for it.

In other words, did the rocket end up too heavy to be useful?

The project payload to LEO is supposed to be 100 to 150 tonnes. Are they on track to make that?

Mike C.

NASA went from Alan Shepard in Freedom 7 to Apollo 8 and Lunar orbit in seven and a half years.

Not the same NASA now, but SpaceX isn't setting any speed records.

I think they’re over 500 Raptors built now at something like one a day.
Production facilities for engines, boosters, ships, and all the facilities.
They’re setting speed records I believe.