Space - The Final Frontier

[CaptTom]

I watched the whole thing on spaceflightnow dot com. They ran the SpaceX feed as well as some of their own. For some reason I got a blank screen when I tried to watch on SpaceX dot com.

Amazing shot of the booster catch. Seemed like there was a bit of luck involved. Swung wildly those last couple of seconds, but fortunately not toward the structure. Not sure about that one ongoing spot of fire which started before the catch and kept going for a while. Could be normal. Or not.

I guess the forward flaps had quite a bit of burn-through on the Starship, but these are the old design so maybe next time they'll have it down. Watching those things heat up makes me wonder how they'll ever get to rapid re-usability. I suppose they have the best people working on it though.

 

[joesxm3]

Apparently a Falcon launch today and an Amazon launch as well.

Two days ago robots were serving margaritas and three rocket launches today. We are certainly living in the future.

edit looks like I was not the only one. X post said over 400k live viewers watching the crypto scam video.

 

[Fermion]

We watched the Starship 5 launch and catch. It was breathtaking, with the rocket going many times the speed of sound just tens of seconds before the catch. My wife actually was crying a little at the engineering feat (and probably the realization that Mars is going to happen in our lifetime if SpaceX keeps this up).

What time is SpaceX's Starship Flight 5 launch test today (and how to watch online)?

Liftoff is set for Oct. 13 at 8:25 a.m. EDT (1225 GMT).

www.space.com

 

[tulak]

That was amazingly cool. So smooth in grabbing the booster.

I always watch on spacex.com.

 

[Chuckanut]

Here’s a 10 minute highlight video of the 5th test of the Starship rocket.

 

[Fermion]

I still can't believe it. We were standing there on the sand about 300 yards from that tower this past spring on our eclipse road trip. I had no idea they would be able to catch it so quickly.

Poor little Starship continuing on a perfect path to orbit "guys? what about me?" with everyone focusing on the booster.

 

[Chuckanut]

I still can't believe it. We were standing there on the sand about 300 yards from that tower this past spring on our eclipse road trip. I had no idea they would be able to catch it so quickly.

Poor little Starship continuing on a perfect path to orbit "guys? what about me?" with everyone focusing on the booster.

The Starship did very well landing on target and apparently with far less damage to itself, the Starship 4. Ultimately, that's the vehicle that will carry people to the Moon and Mars if all goes as planned.

 

[JoeWras]

That was... outrageous! It takes a little crazy to push to the edge. Congrats to the team that made that happen. This is the kind of thing that inspires the next generations, just as we were with Apollo.

 

[audreyh1]

Went back and watched this morning’s launch. Streaming quality was awesome! I watched it on our 77” OLED. Beautiful views of the south TX coast near here. Great high drone work giving wide angle views. You can even see South Padre Island to the north. Launch occurred right at sunrise with the red sun peaking through halfway above the horizon.

30 mins in gets you close to the launch and booster return and catch is about 10 mins later. There is plenty worth watching even before that if interested.

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.

www.spacex.com

 

[ERD50]

So amazing! It is mind-boggling to think of all the science, engineering and planning (and plain old hard work!) that goes into this.

It makes me wonder, why are so many things in our life, that are far simpler, still so messed up?

 

[Texas Proud]

They are not going to catch the booster. I woke up early but they are running late and aiming for 7:15ct launch.

Edit. Maybe I saw an old recording. Just sounded like might still be catching t minus 40:sec.

Edit2: I seem to have been chumped on YouTube.

It was about to launch and there was a "special" message from Elon. It said I could double my crypto currency.

When I found a different YouTube it was only T minus 9:00 not launch.

Looked real. AI video?

YES!!!

I was really pissed at Elon doing this... I was thinking that Space X would have it live... but NOOOOO

I kept telling my DW who was down there with my sister she had the wrong time as it was 7 or 8 minutes before it really lifted off... like you I was able to go to another feed but the commentary on that one was pretty bad... a lot of ohhhing an ahhhing but no real info...

Heard from another site Space X only streamed on X...

 

[audreyh1]

YES!!!

I was really pissed at Elon doing this... I was thinking that Space X would have it live... but NOOOOO

I kept telling my DW who was down there with my sister she had the wrong time as it was 7 or 8 minutes before it really lifted off... like you I was able to go to another feed but the commentary on that one was pretty bad... a lot of ohhhing an ahhhing but no real info...

Heard from another site Space X only streamed on X...

SpaceX did have it live on their website SpaceX.com.

 

[audreyh1]

SpaceX.com home page has an excellent very slow-mo view of the catch from a different viewing angle than the test video which clearly shows the approach of the booster to the tower. Just load the page and wait - it's video not a still. Very cool!

 

[Texas Proud]

SpaceX did have it live on their website SpaceX.com.

But the Youtube description said it was a LIVE feed showing the launch... from Space X!! That was the feed I wanted to see...

That is false advertising IMO... it was not live and was not the launch... it was a AD...

 

[audreyh1]

But the Youtube description said it was a LIVE feed showing the launch... from Space X!! That was the feed I wanted to see...

That is false advertising IMO... it was not live and was not the launch... it was a AD...

Right, whoever posted stuff on YouTube was fraudulent.

 

[Chuckanut]

So amazing! It is mind-boggling to think of all the science, engineering and planning (and plain old hard work!) that goes into this.

It makes me wonder, why are so many things in our life, that are far simpler, still so messed up?

YES!!!

I was really pissed at Elon doing this... I was thinking that Space X would have it live... but NOOOOO

I kept telling my DW who was down there with my sister she had the wrong time as it was 7 or 8 minutes before it really lifted off... like you I was able to go to another feed but the commentary on that one was pretty bad... a lot of ohhhing an ahhhing but no real info...

Heard from another site Space X only streamed on X...

What are you talking about? I watched it live on X. Other outfits carried their over coverage such as the Every Day Astronaut.

 

[audreyh1]

What are you talking about? I watched it live on X. Other outfits carried their over coverage such as the Every Day Astronaut.

The problem was that no live feed was available on YouTube. SpaceX hasn’t provided live feed on YouTube for over a year now. Yet many people go to YouTube expecting to find the SpaceX live feed. Today an imposter put up a YouTube video claiming to be the live SpaceX feed but it turned out to be a cryptocurrency ad or something like that. Apparently there were numerous fake videos.

Apparently 10s of thousands of folks were caught by fake feeds on YouTube today. Lots of discussion on the internet. Happens with all the space launches these days not just SpaceX. fake cryptocurrency ad claims spacex feed - Google Search. Happened on March 14 this year: Crypto scammers flooded YouTube with sham SpaceX Starship livestreams

 

[CaptTom]

Apparently 10s of thousands of folks were caught by fake feeds on YouTube today

Something on YouTube was fake? I'm shocked!

It sucks that so many were duped. The silver lining may be that they'll be a bit more skeptical about the content they consume in the future. I was recently down a rabbit hole of "debunking" videos, and it's downright scary how household-name YouTubers (and network TV personalities) give a platform to frauds and charlatans. Anything for clicks and views.

 

[camfused]

I always watch the feed from NASASpaceFlight (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nasaspaceflight). They are not part of SpaceX or NASA, but do a real nice job with commentary and explanations.

 

[audreyh1]

I always watch the feed from NASASpaceFlight (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nasaspaceflight). They are not part of SpaceX or NASA, but do a real nice job with commentary and explanations.

It’s good they had the real thing. Apparently many sites like that were fooled too and relaying the bogus videos!

 

[ERD50]

Just like not clicking on links in emails (especially ones from unknown sources), I guess we need to apply this to youtube , and to everything in general.

Find out who the legit sources are, preferably ahead of time, and only go to known valid sites.

Seems that SpaceX could have got ahead of this, and posted stuff on their youtube channel that said that the live stuff would only be at their own site.

Wow, this has been going on since 2020!

Bitcoin scammers take YouTube channels for a SpaceX ride

Multiple hijacked YouTube accounts impersonated Elon Musk’s Space X channel in a Bitcoin scheme that ripped off nearly $150,000.

news.sophos.com

 

[Chuckanut]

Interesting comments from Mr. Musk today, on the X-Formally Known As Twitter service.

Achieving materially positive payload margin to a useful orbit with a fully & rapidly reusable rocket has eluded prior attempts. Many have tried to embark upon this path only to give up when it became clear that their design would have negative or negligible payload margin.

This is an extremely difficult problem to solve, given the strong gravity of Earth, whereas it is easy on Mars and trivial on the Moon. In the early years of SpaceX, I was not sure that success was even in the set of possible outcomes!

Fortunately, it just barely is, but requires doing unusual things like shifting the mass needed for final velocity attenuation and post-landing stabilization of the rocket (so it doesn’t tip over in wind) to the ground, rather than carrying heavy landing gear on both stages.

The strong gravity of Earth makes the physics of a fully reusable rocket with positive payload margin extremely difficult to solve, which is why it has never been done before.

Removing the mass of landing legs from the booster and ship by making the tower do the work of final velocity attenuation greatly improves payload margin.

This architecture also simultaneously substantially increases launch cadence, because the same arms that lift the booster and ship onto the launch stand also catch them, allowing immediate placement of the booster back on the launch stand and the ship back on top of the booster.

 

[ERD50]

I wonder if SpaceX can get a 2nd launch/land tower constructed in the near future?

It was frightening to see that rocket tilting a bit as it neared the tower. That might have been an expected amount, but if it missed by a bit and took the tower down - they have no way to launch the next rocket, until it gets rebuilt.

 

[ls99]

Most impressive precision navigation of the booster to the cradle. Awesome feat.

 

[audreyh1]

I wonder if SpaceX can get a 2nd launch/land tower constructed in the near future?

It was frightening to see that rocket tilting a bit as it neared the tower. That might have been an expected amount, but if it missed by a bit and took the tower down - they have no way to launch the next rocket, until it gets rebuilt.

In yesterday’s video you could see a 2nd launch tower nearby.

It was completed in August: Second Tower complete at Starbase as Flight 5 preps continue - NASASpaceFlight.com