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And SN10 and SN11 are in the final stages of assembly, with SN12-SN16 at various pre-assembly stages, plus the booster SH(BN1) also under construction.
The 'LabPadre' live feeds are excellent.
Plus the Marcus House weekly updates are very informative.
Both on YT. I thoroughly recommend both.
 
The second Starship test flight resulted in a crash landing / explosion similar to the first one.
2nd SpaceX 'Starship' explodes during landing test

SpaceX tested one of its giant, silver "Starship" prototypes — with dreams of Mars and the moon — Tuesday (Feb. 2). And for the second time in two months, the craft exploded in a ball of fire and smoke on landing.

During a livestream of the launch over Boca Chica, Texas, the private spaceflight company was quick to emphasize that perfection was not the point of the test. John Insprucker, SpaceX's principal integration engineer, stressed that the company had successfully lifted its giant experimental vehicle — reaching 160 feet (49 meters) tall and 30 feet (9 m) wide — to an altitude of 32,800 feet (10 kilometers), before gliding in a controlled manner to its destination, where it exploded on impact on a landing pad in Boca Chica. The same type of explosion happened during an earlier, Dec. 8 test of SN8, which is the eighth Starship prototype and the first of the series to reach that altitude. (The prototype launched today was named SN9.)

"Again, we've just got to work on that landing a little bit," Insprucker said. ...

FULL STORY (With Video): https://www.livescience.com/starship-test-flight-explosion.html
 
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Yes indeed.....It was a cracking flight though, up until the 'hard landing'.
(I think one of the engines went rogue during the last few moments of the attempt)

Still SN10 is on the launch pad and you know what they say....."Third times a charm"
 
Here we go today with SN10 then - 3rd times a charm indeed....will it nail the landing?

At time of writing this, SN10 is part way through fuel loading, expecting flight to occur in the next hour or so.

 
Today's SN10 test flight was aborted at the very last second (actually, the last fraction of a second) ... They say they'll attempt to recycle and make another attempt today.
SpaceX aborts Mars prototype rocket test launch with 0.1 seconds on the clock

Another SpaceX rocket prototype was fueled and ready for a test flight Wednesday, but in the final moments before liftoff, the vehicle's engines sputtered off and the company announced it had aborted the flight.

The company will recycle the rocket's fuel and attempt liftoff again around 4 pm CT, according to SpaceX engineer John Insprucker on the company's webcast of the attempted launch.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet that the abort was triggered by pre-set standards around the rocket's thrust, which Musk described as "slightly conservative. He added that the company would increase the rocket's thrust limit, giving the rocket more wiggle room for getting a go-ahead for liftoff, and attempt to launch again later Wednesday. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/03/tech/spacex-starship-sn10-test-flight-scn/index.html
 
CNN is reporting that SN10 launched, flew, and successfully landed ... .... only to explode on the landing pad 3 minutes after landing.
SpaceX Mars prototype rocket nails landing for the first time, but explodes on pad

A SpaceX rocket prototype, known as SN10, soared over South Texas during test flight Wednesday before swooping down to a pinpoint landing near its launch site. Approximately three minutes after landing, however, multiple independent video feeds showed the rocket exploding on its landing pad.

SpaceX's SN10, an early prototype of the company's Starship Mars rocket, took off around 5:15 pm CT and climbed about six miles over the coastal landscape, mimicking two previous test flights SpaceX has conducted that ended in an explosive crash. Wednesday marked the first successful landing for a Starship prototype.

"We've had a successful soft touch down on the landing pad," SpaceX engineer John Insprucker said during a livestream of the event. "That's capping a beautiful test flight of Starship 10."

It was unclear what caused the rocket to explode after landing, and the SpaceX livestream cut out before the conflagration. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/03/tech/spacex-starship-sn10-test-flight-scn/index.html
 
Here's the initial space.com news report ...
SpaceX's SN10 Starship prototype lands after epic test launch — but then explodes

SpaceX's latest Starship prototype went out in a blaze of glory.

The Starship SN10 spacecraft touched down successfully after a high-altitude test flight today (March 3), a major milestone for the company and its crewed Mars ambitions. But the vehicle didn't manage to hold itself together, exploding about eight minutes after landing.

The big stainless-steel SN10 (short for "Serial No. 10") launched from SpaceX's South Texas site at 6:15 p.m. EST (2315 GMT), rose 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) into the sky and then came back to Earth for a smooth touchdown 6 minutes and 20 seconds after liftoff. ...

But that wasn't the end of the story. Some flames were visible near SN10's base shortly after landing, and that was a sign of things to come: the vehicle exploded on the landing pad at about 6:30 p.m. EST (2330 GMT), rising up and crashing down again in a huge fireball. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-sn10-test-launch-landing-explosion
 
Well, at least it landed. That's a step forward.
 
They will probably do something about that methane thank leak before the next launch... :bthumbup::party:
 
Damn - such a shame.
SN10 had a successful flight, and descent, and nailed the landing, but due to a minor issue with one of the landing legs it led to a small fire at the base, which then resulted in a catastrophic explosion.
Ah well. But rapid prototyping and construction means that these issues get ironed out very quickly. SN11 will be making it's way to the launch pad within days.
 
Damn - such a shame.
SN10 had a successful flight, and descent, and nailed the landing, but due to a minor issue with one of the landing legs it led to a small fire at the base, which then resulted in a catastrophic explosion.
It occurred to me that as the spacecraft lands back on the launch pad, they could install a powerful CO2 extinguisher system, which could trigger as soon as a successful landing has happened. This would rapidly damp down any fires that may spring up from the launch pad.
 
SN10 had a successful flight, and descent, and nailed the landing, but due to a minor issue with one of the landing legs it led to a small fire at the base, which then resulted in a catastrophic explosion. ...

Take a closer look at the rocket turning to its vertical orientation for landing. It appears to me that there was a flame-burst from inside the rocket as it came down. Similarly, there's visible flame blowing out from underneath the fuselage rim as it lands (in the distant view).

My impression was that there was a fire in progress before it touched down.
 
Possibly. Hard to say for sure though without a number of previous successful flights to compare against as the 'flame-out' might just be a normal part of operations?!
Whatever though, the whole shebang went really well up until the point it had landed wonky. But definitely better than the previous two attempts!
I was surprised to hear that the landing legs are little more than 'L' shaped pieces of steel that drop into place under gravity. You'd think that something better could be designed - but then again, I expect that with the rapid prototyping there is a certain amount of inbuilt redundancy, especially if the chances of nailing the landing are not that good.
SN11 will be much more well-developed I'm sure.
 
Video of a robot dog patrolling the area of a SpaceX rocket's wreckage site has gone viral after viewers compared it to an eerily familiar scene in Black Mirror.


The four-legged mechanic dog, manufactured by Boston Dynamics, was named Zeus by workers at SpaceX.

It was sent to the tech company's south Texas site, Boca Chica, to inspect the wreckage of the rocket prototype known as Starship serial No. 10, or SN10.

The yellow-coloured robot dog shuffles its way past a SpaceX-marked vehicle while the cameraman whistles, saying: "Come here boy!"

Zeus seems to have picked up his call and immediately turns right and walks towards the camera.

"He's coming!" the man says.

But viewers were left creeped out by the scene and said it reminded them to Netflix dystopian drama Black Mirror.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/creepy-video-robot-dog-exploring-23615434

maximus otter
 
Todays launch of starship SN11 did not go entirely as planned, even after delays from last week.
Initially the launch had been scheduled for 8am local time after yesterdays planned flight had been scrubbed.
The launch site was enveloped in fog though, but the launch schedule went ahead as planned.
At 8am the roar of the 3 'Raptor' engines could be heard through the mists and an orange glow was seen, then footage from on-board cameras showed that the massive craft was in flight.
It continued with it's flight as planned to (I believe) a 10km apogee, then commenced it's 'bellyflop' manoeuvre.
Then once it reached the point at which it had to relight the engines the cameras cut out.
Shortly thereafter a large number of pieces of debris starting falling around the launch site and it was then evident that a catastrophic failure had occurred.
In SpaceX terms, a "Rapid Unplanned Disassembly" (RUD) had happened.

My suspicion is a fuel leak around the engines, which caused an explosion when they were relighted (there was some minor 'flaming' in that area during the ascent) but we will need to wait for the official details.
 
Such a pity, but fair play to them for keeping on trying.

I think they are learning a lot, but wonder how long they can continue with public perceptions going they way they are.
 
Such a pity, but fair play to them for keeping on trying.

I think they are learning a lot, but wonder how long they can continue with public perceptions going they way they are.
I think he should quit while he is (sort of) ahead and stick to being NASAs Uber/deliveroo
 
Well quitting isn't on his list.
This iteration (SN11) was the last fully constructed of the 'old design'.
12, 13, and 14 were scrubbed and they are skipping straight to SN15 next, which is the first of the redesigned ones.
It should be rolling out to the pad within days to start testing.
Then there are also the 'booster' assemblies which are under construction.
BN1 should be able to be tested during the next week or two.

Rapid prototyping and assembly allows them to find issues and fix them on later models very quickly.
 
Such a pity, but fair play to them for keeping on trying.

I think they are learning a lot, but wonder how long they can continue with public perceptions going they way they are.
Surely most people understand that this stuff is not exactly straightforward. I mean, along with brain surgery, it's a byword for complexity. There's a great sequence in the movie The Right Stuff - a montage of rocket test firings, none of which go exactly according to plan:

 
Todays launch of starship SN11 did not go entirely as planned, even after delays from last week. ...

Here's the NASA recording of the event - recorded on the ground and in dense fog. The explosion occurs at around 2:50 into the video, with debris falling soon thereafter.

It's a spooky sight ...

 
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Elon has tweeted that the first booster, BN1, was just a construction template, used only to see how all the bits fit together and iron out any wrinkles. This booster will not be used for flight testing.
Instead, work has been switched to further construction on BN2.
 
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They will get there, who would think just a few years back that anyone could
land a rocket booster on a ship at sea and reuse it, it's like something out of Buck Rogers,
yet they do, 70 odd times up to now and some have flown several times.
They will get Star Ship right every thing is new and no matter how good it looks on paper
the only real way is to fly the thing, it's great to be able to watch, warts and all.
 
Construction of SN16 continues apace with it being moved to the 'high bay' for upper assembly work.
 
Construction of SN16 continues apace with it being moved to the 'high bay' for upper assembly work.
Sorry, that should have read SN15 not SN16.
Further info from Elon that there was a fault with one of the raptor engines which led to the destruction of SN11.
Also hinting that from SN20 onwards there will be orbital testing.

The regular updates by Marcus House are very detailed and informative.
This most recent one has a lot of updates around this weeks flight and further construction etc.

 
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Space X Starship program - the story so far.
SN1 through to SN11.

 
Trolling SpaceX.

GARETH BRANWYN 4:37 PM THU APR 22, 2021
176982084_10157616516932046_3716396720692039658_n.jpg

A billboard reading "Mars sucks. — Earth" was put up in front of SpaceX headquarters to celebrate Earth Day. The billboard was sponsored by environmental groups including Greenpeace, World Wildlife, Surfrider, and the EDF.


https://boingboing.net/2021/04/22/m...ront-of-spacex-hq-to-celebrate-earth-day.html
 
I can see no reason why there shouldn't there be an equal opportunity for women to be involved in space flight.
As long as whoever is in the spaceship is the best person for the job it's fine.
 
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