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tkdguy

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SpaceX Starship SN8 prototype launch may occur in the next few hours.  This is a launch up to 12.5km followed by attempted "belly flop" reentry and RTLS.  This launch is very likely to fail, hopefully in an educational manner.

 

Prototype launches tend to have no scheduled launch time, just a warning siren ten minutes prior to launch.  Track launch status at https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/k5y4if/rspacex_starship_sn8_15km_hop_official_launch/ , livestream below.

 

 

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17 hours ago, Old Man said:

Aborted at t plus one second. Better luck tomorrow!


SpaceX hasn't put up another livestream notice and neither Elon nor SpaceX have tweeted out any additional information since the abort. I'm not very confident that there will be another try today. 

 

If I had to bet, I'd say that they will switch to vertical flight a bit too early (to avoid a high speed crash) and have trouble landing straight down. This is because the Raptor isn't fully throttleable and bleeding off speed will be difficult. 

 

I'm also looking forward to Astra's next launch attempt which should be in a few days along with another launch by ULA's Delta IV. 

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56 minutes ago, Old Man said:

Apparently low header tank pressure was to blame for the underthrust and failed landing.  Seems like a solvable problem.

 

Plus the landing legs never deployed. Great explosion though. The entire tank section disintegrated but the nose cone was sitting on the landing spot still mostly intact. I am impressed at the control they showed during the belly flop as well as how quickly they transitioned from horizontal to vertical flight. There was much less swing than all the computer renders I've seen. 

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