LIVE: SpaceX STARSHIP Superheavy Module full assembly test flight. NEXT LAUNCH 11/18/2023 8:00 AM EST. LAUNCH VIDEO AND RECAP.

[Blue Sky Country]

APRIL 20, 2023.

Launch window opening for SpaceX Starship and Superheavy rocket module right now at SpaceX's own Starbase launch facility in Boha Chica, Texas. Starship is a reusable passenger and cargo 'space bus' designed for ferrying large payloads and up to 15 passengers from Earth directly to the Moon, and can also be used as an interplanetary shuttle to Mars and possibly even the Jovian moons, with a crew capacity of 6 and the rest of the ship carrying enough provisions and life support/medical systems to ensure the mission's success, safety, and return.

Launch window opens for Starship Superheavy 8:30-9:30AM Central Time



WEATHER FOR BOHA CHICA TX 04/20/2023:
Partly cloudy. 74°F at 8:00AM CT. Going up to 80°F with mostly sunny and moderately breezy for later.

NEXT LAUNCH: NOVEMBER 18, 2023:

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LAUNCH RECAP FOR 11/18/2023 8AM EST:



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SPACEX MEDIA PRODUCTIONS: The STARSHIP vision for the future. A short movie:

 

[Short-bus]

I love how Space X makes Nasa look stupid all the time.

I'm really hoping they launch today.

Branden

 

[Blue Sky Country]

I love how Space X makes Nasa look stupid all the time.

I'm really hoping they launch today.

Branden

The wokeness infusions they have been taking seems to have given NASA myocarditis. They are wheezing, barely able to step onto the racetrack. Like Anheuser Busch. "Rectum? Damn near killed 'em"...

 

[XLR308]

So gas stoves and furnaces are bad but burning 1000's of tons all at once of methane based fuel for a rocket launch is good.
1+1= Potato, dont question our authoritie

 

[Maggot]

The wokeness infusions they have been taking seems to have given NASA myocarditis. They are wheezing, barely able to step onto the racetrack. Like Anheuser Busch. "Rectum? Damn near killed 'em"...

Perhaps, but we owe them so much, they took us to the moon. This is Muskie's day.

 

[Short-bus]

Part of me thinks I should do the dirty delete.....but they did say they were going to consider a clearance of the tower a success...and they did that.
I did notice quickly the grenading of a couple motors.

Branden

 

[Bigfatcock]

Super cool!

 

[NoDopes]

Pointy thing goes up... Somebody forgot rule #1.

 

[Bigfatcock]

Too bad we couldn’t have congress on the inaugural flight.

 

[Short-bus]

Lost up to 6 engines at one point and was still accelerating.....but definitely not enough to get to orbital velocities. It did relight one though.

Branden

 

[sirhrmechanic]

I can’t believe the strength of the rocket body…. I expected it to detonate as soon as it went off axis.

Failure… let’s call it amazing data gathering.

I was impressed.

Sirhr

 

[sgtsmmiii]

" rapid, unscheduled, disassembly"..........

 

[Blue Sky Country]

I can’t believe the strength of the rocket body…. I expected it to detonate as soon as it went off axis.

Failure… let’s call it amazing data gathering.

I was impressed.

Sirhr

This. It is a small step with MANY more to come. The 1950s-70s were full of rocket 'failures', including a few costly blowups of the vaunted Titan series of vehicles, but these are what got us here today.

 

[Short-bus]

I can’t believe the strength of the rocket body…. I expected it to detonate as soon as it went off axis.

Failure… let’s call it amazing data gathering.

I was impressed.

Sirhr

I agree, it held together remarkably well once it started to tumble like a stick thrown for a dog. At 37km altitude, there still enough atmosphere that I would have thought the side loads would rip the 2nd stage off, but it didn't.

As usual, those high altitude rocket destructions aren't as satisfying to watch as the ground based failures. More vapor cloud than fire.

Branden

 

[sirhrmechanic]

" rapid, unscheduled, disassembly"..........

The correct description is “rapid un-planned high-altitude disassembly followed by gravitationally-assisted descent into sub-aqueous geostationary orbit.”

Sirhr

 

[Oldloser]

I watched Elon's facial expressions during the launch. He was elated, then his mind got going on the issues that led to the pirouette at 37KM.

The room he was in was full of men working hard. All kinds of interesting ball caps and most had been up most of the night.

Looked like any well led operations tent.

 

[Expert684]

What an absolute waste of money! I would have felt so much better if it was packed nuts to buts with liberals and RINOS!

 

[Nik H]

I can’t believe the strength of the rocket body…. I expected it to detonate as soon as it went off axis.

Failure… let’s call it amazing data gathering.

I was impressed.

Sirhr

Amazing achievement

 

[mikeinfwa]

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Edison apparently tried 6000 ways not to create the electric light bulb before he found the one that worked.

Sometimes progress isn't as easy as one expects. My own personal prime frustration is load development.

 

[Expert684]

Not bragging or anything like that, but I can keep "it" up longer than Elon's rocket can!

 

[SBRSarge]

Not bragging or anything like that, but I can keep "it" up longer than Elon's rocket can!

But are you also all booster and no payload?

 

[Expert684]

But are you also all booster and no payload?

Depends on how much "thrust" I use!

 

[Srgt. Hulka]

Not sure if any of these videos are going to work.

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/a24c2b340df0ce8847adefa6b2f48d41.gif

 

[rhsc]

I think this guy is on to something -





Looks like there were at least 5 engines shut down at one point during ascent -

 

[Maser]

Literally looked like a huge version of my homemade model rockets I used to make as a kid that would tumble around in flight and explode.

 

[GreenGO Juan]

 

[SBRSarge]

Depends on how much "thrust" I use!

It is all about the ‘Pelvic Thrust’

Time Warp

 

[sirhrmechanic]

^^^ You Perv’s are apparently mistaking Musk’s awesome heavy lift rocket for Bezos weak-assed little penis rocket…

Not only was this flying phallus gheyer than jizz on a moustache…. But Bezos runs around wearing astronaut wings and wearing a Speedmaster everywhere like some kind of astronaut…

But he did ride a penis to space. Personally, I wouldn’t have admitted it.

Sirhr

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Just ‘sayin.

 

[Blue Sky Country]

I think this guy is on to something -





Looks like there were at least 5 engines shut down at one point during ascent -

View attachment 8124418

Yoooo, SpaceX gotta completely redo their launchpad layout. Kennedy's two pads have actual trenches underneath them big enough to park an entire NYC subway train and deep enough that if you were to stand on top of that hypothetical train, you still wouldn't be able to peek out beyond the cut. That is the flame channel. The trenches are also fitted with a heat suppression system that blasts hundreds of gallons of water per second on every surface so the steam would carry any remaining waste heat away from the rocket. These engines generate an immediate hypersonic shockwave upon ignition. Faster than the speed of flash powder going off. During static tests you will see "shock diamonds", beads of bright plasma within the exhaust jet of the motor. Those indicate that the jets are exceeding Mach 1. If they are not diverted upon ignition, that overpressure would crush the nozzles or at the very least, blast backward far enough into the fuel mixing chambers that sustained combustion would fail like what we see in these pics.

 

[NoDopes]

Is it just me or should this have been covered in rocket science 101 class?
Maybe SpaceX put the interns on the pad design.

 

[Srgt. Hulka]

Is it just me or should this have been covered in rocket science 101 class?
Maybe SpaceX put the interns on the pad design.

Elon knew it was a potential problem, but he wanted to see if he could get by without a flame trench. I think he sees now that he will have to design his whole launch pad.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

...And folks thought NASA was overly cautious...

BTW, a belt and suspenders also works...

I think that the problem with NASA is News Media in general, and political oversight, combined with a lack of courage on the part of NASA Administrators.

Something goes wrong with a vehicle. The media sets up its circus tents and brings out the elephants. The Politicians get the jitters, and blame it all on NASA; rather than face the fact that the Congressfolks' significant others spend more on face paint than the Congresscritters to give NASA to send actual people to dangerous places. The NASA Administrators look at the trickle, know it's going to dry up further, and ask "why bother anyway?" There's a reason why I no longer work for NASA. In a nutshell; there's no balls in Titusville.

We'll never see another generation like the "Greatest Generation", now that the count of actual testicles in Government has become fewer than the number of members (note that it takes two to equip any who are still willing to retain theirs).

When you look on down to the real bottom of the problem, it's that we've raised several generations of Pussy Whipped "Public Servants".

Servants, my ass.

 

[Bacarrat]

Went down to to Starbase for the original launch date then they scrubbed. Then one of my friends really wanted to go back... glad we did. I would be totally surprised if there was another launch this year with the amount of damage that was done to Stage 0.

SN26 the one hooked up to the crane and Booster 9 should be the next ones to go.

 

[NoDopes]

 

[Bacarrat]

Looks like Space X will be targeting next Friday 11/17/23 for IFT2

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1723158118706839819?s=20

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.

www.spacex.com

Definitely going down there for that!

 

[Blue Sky Country]

Looks like Space X will be targeting next Friday 11/17/23 for IFT2

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1723158118706839819?s=20

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.

www.spacex.com

Definitely going down there for that!

Cannot wait to see that either. Their new flame trench and outgassing diversion system should rectify what had happened to the previous Superheavy, which was damaged by the backblast of it's own rockets upon launch, not because of pre-existing construction mistakes.

 

[Blue Sky Country]

Looks like Space X will be targeting next Friday 11/17/23 for IFT2

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1723158118706839819?s=20

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.

www.spacex.com

Definitely going down there for that!

ETA: Already edited OP text body and title for 11/17/2023 and link to live view will be posted once it is streaming.

 

[Oldloser]

Looks like Space X will be targeting next Friday 11/17/23 for IFT2

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1723158118706839819?s=20

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.

www.spacex.com

Definitely going down there for that!

We need pics.

My dad took me down to the Cape for Apollo 12 when I was little. He flew the Apollo 11 and 12 Lunar Modules down in his Chinooks.

Hope to get my kids down for IFT3. My daughter has a lego model of Starship coming for Christmas. She’s def got the brains and guts to work for SpaceX.

 

[Bacarrat]

We need pics.

My dad took me down to the Cape for Apollo 12 when I was little. He flew the Apollo 11 and 12 Lunar Modules down in his Chinooks.

Hope to get my kids down for IFT3. My daughter has a lego model of Starship coming for Christmas. She’s def got the brains and guts to work for SpaceX.

What we are witnessing right now is the modern day Apollo program. Highly recommend going down there to see Starship. I don't think you are going to see any real rockets this close, let alone the biggest rocket ever created. Can't wait for IFT2 to happen. Then whenever they finally decide to catch the booster, I think I am going to make it down for that one too. It's too insane of a concept not to go down there to watch.

 

[Oldloser]

What we are witnessing right now is the modern day Apollo program. Highly recommend going down there to see Starship. I don't think you are going to see any real rockets this close, let alone the biggest rocket ever created. Can't wait for IFT2 to happen. Then whenever they finally decide to catch the booster, I think I am going to make it down for that one too. It's too insane of a concept not to go down there to watch.

It's far far bigger than Apollo. They had some many follow on ideas for Apollo and it all got cut.

it is insane. I took a seminar from Dr Hans Mark. He walked us through rocket technology and program management. There are even larger re-usable designs that have 50X starships capacity. The limiting constraint has always been engine technology. Starship is optimized to get to Mars and back, not to truly exploit space.

Don't know if you watched all the media output from the first launch. I got a kick out of Musk in the control room. It looked to me like a maneuver brigade command post with all the young dudes dialed in and the old man trying to get oriented..

The Saturn V in Huntsville has to seen to be believed. It was a monster. But Starship is so much bigger.

 

[Blue Sky Country]

LIVESTREAM AND LIVE CHAT IS RUNNING. Video in OP. 19 hours to STARSHIP's second attempt to reach for the sky. GOOD LUCK to everyone and the visions for a spacefaring future!

 

[Bacarrat]

Launch looking like its going to be moved to 11/18? Transporter stand, and load spreader has been sent back to the launch site. The LR11000 crane has also been raised. Starship and the Hotstaging ring are coming down today. Would be a miracle if they fix it and restack it less then 24 hours before flight. Odd since Space X really doesn't close the roads on the weekends since they have limits on how many times they can do it. This might be a exception they can use.

 

[Blue Sky Country]

Launch looking like its going to be moved to 11/18? Transporter stand, and load spreader has been sent back to the launch site. The LR11000 crane has also been raised. Starship and the Hotstaging ring are coming down today. Would be a miracle if they fix it and restack it less then 24 hours before flight. Odd since Space X really doesn't close the roads on the weekends since they have limits on how many times they can do it. This might be a exception they can use.

Yep. 24hr delay is what is on the status board right now. All other clearances are green. Updated in title.

 

[Blue Sky Country]

6 HOURS 50 MINS TO GO...

 

[NoDopes]

Both stages exploded, but well into the launch.
I'm curious if they were both self destruct or not. Looks like launch pad still has some unacceptable damage.

 

[Bacarrat]

Both stages exploded, but well into the launch.
I'm curious if they were both self destruct or not. Looks like launch pad still has some unacceptable damage.

The pad looks good IMO if you were to compare it to IFT1. So well, the roads are already open to the beach. Both stages self destructed, I think in part of not being nominal trajectory. Booster was spinning more than it should so it triggered the FTS. Can't say about ship since it was so far down range but at least it hot staged and expended most of it's fuel and almost got to orbital velocity, which it was not suppose to get to. I think SpaceX was overly cautious on how they did the FTS this time around and programmed it or detonated the booster and ship as soon as they saw any issues to appease the FAA. I would say it's a successful launch. SpaceX during the broadcast outlined the goal of having all the Raptors go off and hotstaging working and it did. Compared to IFT1. This was a much cleaner launch and it was much louder too. I could tell it was picking up speed way faster.

 

[Blue Sky Country]

Livestream is now OFF. Launch footage and recap is on the OP main text body.

All engines fired properly and the stage separations looked pretty spectacular. Keep in mind that this is STILL preliminary testing and actual crewed launches are well off in the future after unmanned tests have passed ALL mileposts.

It is also fitting that the launch was done right at the edge of the ocean, considering that all life, including us, evolved from single celled organisms floating in a prehistoric sea. And now, right next to the ocean, is STARSHIP blasting it's thunder for miles around and heralding the next step for humanity's progress...

 

[Bacarrat]

Went down to Starbase/South Padre Island yesterday to go see IFT3. They fixed all the problems with IFT2, made it to orbit, and completed most of their objectives for the test. When I was on the beach watching booster come down, you can see it thrusting back to earth and readjusting it orientation every once in a while. But it was super hard to see it coming down. Make sense after watching the replay since it's over 100km in the air and you are looking for a 75 meter cylinder in the air. And watching the replay, it was nuts to see the plasma live forming around Starship on reentry.
Not my shot since we couldn't see shit from the beach because of fog and low cloud cover.