Space - The Final Frontier

I saw a few things blow by in YouTube or X but can't put my finger on them.

Three of the booster engine shrouds were warped.

One thumbnail said something about part of the pad or tower suffering some damage and a better one next time.

I think one of the starship fins started to burn on the way down. Maybe it gets moved for next time.

I think I saw that Elon said they will catch starship next year. It has no feet so I think he means with chopstix.

He said there are no feet to reduce mass for earth takeoffs. Maybe the Mars ships will have the feet installed in orbit while they are being fueled. Or maybe they will reduce the payload to compensate for the feet.

Not sure about this stuff but it is what i remember seeing.
 
joesxm3 said:
I think I saw that Elon said they will catch starship next year. It has no feet so I think he means with chopstix.
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I thought Starship is supposed to land on the Moon and eventually Mars. It will need some type of landing legs.

Unless, Mr. Musk talks Gidney and Cloyd into making a chopsticks landing mechanism on the Moon.

Edited to add…. OOPS! I just found this posted on X. It sounds like Starship will be caught by the chopsticks also. Though to land on the Moon, it will still need landing legs. Right?

Starship achieved a precise, soft landing in the ocean, paving the way for return to launch site and being caught by the tower arms, like the booster.
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Just me thinking but I would rather have the feet ON the rocket on land and have the extra weight that will be added later being fuel...
 
The moon is low enough gravity they can potentially get away with landing legs as additional weight. Mars I'd assume the plan is send a bunch of one way ships with components to assemble a mars based tower for catching the rockets, then any later flights that actually will return to orbit don't need to have landing legs.
 
Looks like test flight 6 will try to reproduce 5 and catch the booster in the chopsticks. But wouldn't be cool if they tried to catch Starship too....somewhere? or maybe have it have a "controlled" crash landing as if it had landing gear all would be good. It eventually needs landing supports to takeoff and land from luna/mars. But it appears the plan is to also be recaptured in the chopsticks. Maybe they have 2 sets of chopsticks somewhere? I can't stand Elon and his X/twitter-Ego-Politics crap, but damn if I was a youngster fresh out of college I'd want to work for SpaceX as my dream job with a leader that has vision and $$$. SpaceX rolls out Super Heavy rocket for Starship Flight 6 test launch (photos)
 
It is a place that I would hate to work... I read where they work 80 plus hours a week... sometimes 100...

I did that when I was young as I did tax work, but it was during a 3 month period and then it was more normal...

I also read the salary is lower than normal.. as there are so many people that want to work there...
 
Texas Proud said:
It is a place that I would hate to work... I read where they work 80 plus hours a week... sometimes 100...
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I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, it's clear the employees are highly motivated. I mean, spaceships to Mars, electric cars, saving humanity, saving Earth. All good stuff. In a way I envy anyone working in that environment.

On the other hand, an eccentric (putting it kindly) multi-billionaire stoking that enthusiasm to enrich himself and push his personal agendas seems a bit abusive.

My hope is that SpaceX succeeds in paving the way, then eventually settles down a bit. And I suppose the employees are at least getting a great experience to put on their resumes for when they eventually go looking for a lower-pressure job.
 
CaptTom said:
I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, it's clear the employees are highly motivated. I mean, spaceships to Mars, electric cars, saving humanity, saving Earth. All good stuff. In a way I envy anyone working in that environment.

On the other hand, an eccentric (putting it kindly) multi-billionaire stoking that enthusiasm to enrich himself and push his personal agendas seems a bit abusive.

My hope is that SpaceX succeeds in paving the way, then eventually settles down a bit. And I suppose the employees are at least getting a great experience to put on their resumes for when they eventually go looking for a lower-pressure job.
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Agree it is a Musk thing....

He did this at Tick-Tock... you need to work long hours or resign....

That would be a big no for me... I did work long hours when I first graduated for a short time per year... but when I went to a job that kept increasing the time requirement (they went from 45 to 50 to 60 to almost 80) ut it was time for me to leave... why? Because my salary did not increase at all.. (to be fair, even if it did I would leave as I wanted a much better work/life balance)...
 
I'd work at SpaceX. I don't know if you could possibly put a value on that feeling of the booster being caught by the arms if you had been on the engineering team and were there watching with all of your friends. When you are 70, are you going to look back on that insurance industry conference with the same feeling?
 
Fermion said:
I'd work at SpaceX. I don't know if you could possibly put a value on that feeling of the booster being caught by the arms if you had been on the engineering team and were there watching with all of your friends. When you are 70, are you going to look back on that insurance industry conference with the same feeling?
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Nope, would not care at all... I think the people who sent man to the moon were much better at getting something done with the available technology at the time (still has not been done since over 50 years later with new tech)... I am sure they were really proud of what they did..

BUT, how impressed would people be hearing that today? I think it would be interesting for a few minutes and then they move on to "did you see them catch that rocket, why did you not do that?"...

OHHHH, just remembered one boss who said that it was psychic rewards for what I was doing when working long hours... I said that did not put food on the table... another boss said that money was not a motivator... I said stop paying people here and see how many show up tomorrow...
 
I was basically "forced*" to work 60+ hours per week for nothing but a trivial piece of legacy electronic garbage.

Hell yeah I'd put that kind of time into something like SpaceX. The political party of my CEO doesn't matter to me as an employee or customer either. I didn't like Teslas before, and I don't like them now. I thought SpaceX was crazy audacious then, and I think the same now. We need some audacious every now and then.

(*-Do it, or you just might be at the top of a list after next quarter's financial report.)
 
I'm sure I'd be willing to work those long hours for something I really believed in, if I were young and didn't have a family or other responsibilities. Work-life balance is easy when your work is your life. Think about Olympic athletes, or aspiring actors. Lots of people work long hours for low pay, because they're motivated by the mission.

That said, I still sort of feel they're being taken advantage of. SpaceX certainly has the resources to pay higher salaries, or hire another shift and let the first shift go home.

It's a dangerous precedent. Corporations look at other companies when setting salaries and employment policies. In my experience, they generally want to emulate the most egregious examples of low pay and high work hours. Basically, if one does it that gives all the others an excuse to do the same. Look at how they all eliminated pensions or cut way back on health care and other benefits.
 
CaptTom said:
It's a dangerous precedent. Corporations look at other companies when setting salaries and employment policies. In my experience, they generally want to emulate the most egregious examples of low pay and high work hours. Basically, if one does it that gives all the others an excuse to do the same. Look at how they all eliminated pensions or cut way back on health care and other benefits.
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It's not much of a precedent. The Valley has been doing this for decades.

And, yeah, it is brutal. That's why I ER'd.
 
audreyh1 said:
Does Musk own TikTok? I think it’s Chinese owned. Maybe you meant Twitter.
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Yep... my bad... I do not do any of these so got it wrong...

I also do not care about the political leanings of the CEO of who I work for... I just like the green!!
 
An interesting 25 minute podcast about the latest Starship flight and what future ones may look like. Also, the podcast reveals that SpaceX came within a second of aborting the chopsticks landing of the booster. Also, some type of protective cover blew off the booster during the descent burn, exposing certain valves to the heat of the rocket motors.
They also talk about what future testing will emphasize.

Despite the podcast title they don't spend much time speculating on who and when other rocket companies will start to match SpaceX.

Podcast: Can Anyone Catch SpaceX? | Aviation Week Network

SpaceX’s Starship booster “catch” at the launchpad wowed the space world, but big hurdles remain to launching humans to Mars in 2028.
aviationweek.com aviationweek.com
 
A bit in Forbes about Sir Peter Beck and the huge uptick recently in Rocket Labs future (new contracts, new rocket and new NASA Mars propasal).

For those who don't know him, his is quite the story. Literally a self taught rocket scientist.

DISCLOSURE: I am a RKLB shareholder. I've done well but should have backed up the truck last year.. oh well.

Meet the World's Newest Space Billionaire
www.forbes.com

Rocket Lab’s Founder Peter Beck Just Became The World’s Newest Space Billionaire

The New Zealand native has turned his scrappy rocket company into a small but determined competitor of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Investors have driven the stock up by more than 300% over the last year.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
 
Koogie said:
A bit in Forbes about Sir Peter Beck and the huge uptick recently in Rocket Labs future (new contracts, new rocket and new NASA Mars propasal).

For those who don't know him, his is quite the story. Literally a self taught rocket scientist.

DISCLOSURE: I am a RKLB shareholder. I've done well but should have backed up the truck last year.. oh well.

Meet the World's Newest Space Billionaire
www.forbes.com

Rocket Lab’s Founder Peter Beck Just Became The World’s Newest Space Billionaire

The New Zealand native has turned his scrappy rocket company into a small but determined competitor of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Investors have driven the stock up by more than 300% over the last year.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
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Behind a paywall.... :(
 
No chopstick catch today of the booster (a no go criteria was tripped), but still cool to see the soft controlled splashdown of the booster and the Starship. And how they tried out the different heat shield configurations and technologies. Great video!
 
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