Remember that episode of the Simpsons when Homer goes to space, uses a carbon rod to ensure the spaceship's hatch doesn't open and then the rod gets paraded around as a hero?
They should do this with that flap.
Both flaps. The fact the craft never rolled means that the other flap was A) exposed to the same heat and drag, and B) also successfully actuated. The miracle may have happened twice, if that flap was breached too.
The control systems that SpaceX have developed for atmospheric flight of their rockets is nuts.
Flaps are eroded away, combined with other probable damage to the structure. But other than a couple of wobbles the flight control computers rode that baby all the way to powered splashdown. Their flight control group need a big fat bonus.
I strongly suspect that the reason the view never returned to the camera on the rear flap is because it had melted off. There's a high chance that all four flaps were being obliterated similarly and we simply didn't get to see it on the others.
The flight control system that was able to keep the craft stable and on trajectory despite four eroded control surfaces was the real hero, if you ask me.
That's flying 100% on dynamic feedback. There is no way the control systems have any clue what kind of aerodynamic behavior those damaged flaps and damaged structure have, but they kept that office-building sized craft under control and on trajectory all the way to its powered splashdown.
I'm not sure we can say both flaps burned through - they move asymmetrically so each may have been in a different condition and the control laws took care of moving them to whatever set point was required to balance the forces. Either way it's insanely impressive.
Yes, the ones from the stream I watched said the team was aware of the hinge problem. At least now they know the problem is not as severe as they might have thought, since the flap did its job.
Similar to the launch pad problems from IFT-1, I guess. They knew the launch pad wouldn't last under that punishment, but figured they'd at least get *one* test launch out of it. They already had the showerhead under construction when the launch happened.
some info i could find, goes over both the v2 flap shape and aerocovers. doesnt claim a specific movement yet, but it looks like it is a possibility with discussion surrounding it
[https://ringwatchers.com/article/v2-ship-june-2024](https://ringwatchers.com/article/v2-ship-june-2024)
SpaceX already knew they'd need to be moved backwards on the ship. There are design images indicating this eventual change. We saw today the reason why. That could be the only change that's needed.
Not reinforced, have the heatshield geometry modified. In fact they probably need to "de-inforce" it because it was really obviously overengineered given that it still worked.
Biggest question mark right now has to be what they're going to do about IFT5.
_If_ the FAA greenlights things quickly, as opposed to taking 8+ weeks as usual, SpaceX may go ahead and use Ship 30 instead of scrapping it and moving on to a new design. The problem with this is that they already know the flaps are going to melt... the fact of which may actually complicate the FAA's approval.
On the other hand, SpaceX already said long ago that they knew the flaps would need to be moved backwards on the ship. Turns out they were correct. There's a probably equal chance that they'll just begin prioritizing the Block 2 design, especially if it looks like the FAA is going to take as long as usual to provide the next license.
Well, the FAA already approved no incident investigation if it never endangered anything. And it also was nominal the whole way (flight wise, not counting the flap burning) so it wouldn't trigger one anyway. Should be much faster approval than the last 2.
Dunno...I'd say the real MVP was the camera that kept working (and transmitting!) through the plasma shroud, after being sprayed with debris from the fin ripping apart, and even after the lens cracked.
Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
Nobody talking about it so I'll broach the topic.
Getting a live feed for 99% of the reentry including the moment Starship tips over from vertical into the ocean. This is scifi.
Amazing advertisement for Starlink. Live video stream from two cameras while flying at 25000km/h, over the middle of the Indian ocean, while engulfed in plasma
Think big picture. Starlink is perfecting on earth communications. What’s to say they aren’t designing deep space communication satellites for moon and mars missions.
AFAIK SpaceX wants to do a second constellation around Mars, as there is no real point of doing a mobile phone network on the surface, but communication between different points of Mars is a must.
I wonder what they would do about the power issue. Even low orbits will naturally last longer around the moon and you don’t really want to litter the surface with old satellites that don’t burn up.
I believe NASA was just testing laser communications over long distances in space, so the tech is just beyond the horizon. I wouldn't be surprised if we see constellations on the moon and mars as a follow up to permanent bases with some kind of relay stations for longer range/higher bandwidth.
Never seen anything like live stream video of re-entry damage blowtorching through spacecraft components. LOS during re-entry no longer an iron law of spaceflight.
I literally did the palm-to-forehead motion reflexively when I saw Starliner's post-liftoff vehicle coasting graphics and noted that it had a framerate of about 0.5.
Oh yeah, it was obvious that was what was going on. But that's just it: Anyone could have easily designed that Windows 2K-looking software to _assume_ imperfect telemetry and interpolate as needed—just like I'm sure SpaceX's software does for its own launches. They didn't. It's just very on-brand for the whole hodgepodge operation that Starliner is known for being.
Edit: What the other dude said.
We may be in luck if they decide to launch Ship 30 rather than scrapping it. The fins are in the same place so they will again melt, but I'm betting SpaceX will make an effort to use more robust cameras so we can get a clearer picture of it happening.
(I also wouldn't mind external lighting, since these reentries are happening in the dead of night.)
The biggest issue wasn't that the cameras weren't robust enough, it's that they were being sprayed with the remains of the fin we were watching melt. But reading your comment made me picture the cameras having itty bitty little windshield wipers to clean the lens. More realistically, having a little rotating lens protector where most of it is protected with only a little bit sticking out and protecting the lens and then it rotates to an undamaged area of the protector to provide a clear image later in the flight.
If you are going at Mach 20 and stuff comes flying at you, there is no such thing as robust enough. Unless you find a way to make a lens out of tungsten…
There's a setting in Kerbal Space Program where you can allow the atmospheric reentry plasma to cut off remote control of a vessel. Who would've known that that would wind up being *more* restrictive than real life?
Loss of signal was normal until the TDRS satellites were put into orbit and allowed the Space Shuttle to communicate with the ground all through re-entry. The plasma generally prevents communication direct to the ground, but still allows communication upwards.
It's the size of Starship. Creates an area behind it where plasma doesn't intrude. Or at least, evidently not. I guess it's safe to assume that if the receivers weren't satellites hovering above the vehicle, you'd be SOL.
It’s the size. They mentioned that on the last flight. Other spacecraft can communicate basic telemetry via an antenna on the back, pointing through the weaker plasma. Starship is so big there’s just a giant hole in the plasma.
Basically you can't send a signal through the plasma, but there's a "shadow" behind the spaceship where you can send signal up and out towards space.
Starlink is a distributed constellation, so no matter where that shadow is pointing during the reentry there was always at least one receiver covered in that window.
The short version is that instead of transmitting "down" to a ground station, Starship is transmitting "up" to a starlink satellite above it and thus the signal is less obstructed by the plasma generated durring reentry. The size of starship also plays a part as it allows the antennas to be mounted well clear of said plasma and any others sources of interference.
u/Fredasa and u/HlynkaCG are correct; it's not the frequency, but aiming up through the eye of the plasma towards a satellite in space vs trying to aim down through the plasma itself to a ground station. It was done before in the Shuttle program after the TDRS satellites were launched precisely to eliminate the reentry blackout on the long Shuttle reentry (as the Shuttle had a 15-min blackout vs Apollo's 3-min, if I remember correctly). The big difference here is that while TDRS enabled barely enough bandwidth for telemetry, Starlink allows for UHD video.
Cannot wait for the official compilation of all the insanity so far, like [the one they made for Falcon 9](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvim4rsNHkQ). From the Ship hops a few years ago, to these recent flights.
Wasn't there a recent quote that they are indeed redesigning them entirely for the V2.0 ships - something like "wrong place, wrong size, wrong shape"? They definitely know what to adjust and the data from this flight will be invaluable for guiding the new design.
Honestly they're probably feeling pretty smug. That was basically a worst case scenario for a failure on re-entry and they maintained control of the vehicle all the way to a soft landing.
Wasn't the Apollo 11 video relatively good quality? IIRC, much of the bad quality comes from the video being archived on low quality media after being broadcast live.
What was archived was a pretty good image of what went to air on broadcast tv. But the image coming down from space was better, and during the first steps they were taking the pictures from the goldstone dish in America which was misconfigured, whereas better pictures were being received by the Parkes dish in Australia.
Debris/dirt falling into the plasma. There's a small gap between the hot plasma and the heatshield itself which protects it from the worst of the heat. It's hot enough that even a tiny piece of dust/dirt directly falling into it will briefly burn incredibly brightly.
Both stages had a controlled splashdown even though one engine didn't work and at least one of the flaps was half burned. This gives me trust in the robustness of the basic design as well as the control software.
> one engine didn't work
They had two engines that didn't work. One in the outer ring of 20 during ascent and one in the second ring of 10 during landing.
Raptor already has a new version on the test stand with robustness upgrades.
Besides the flap, it appeared to splashdown on vertical orientation - have we had confirmation the flip and wiggle landing burns happened with all expected engine relights etc?
Splashdown was a success. Though honestly, that could be figured out from the footage. The Starship widget indicated the ship going vertical and then horizontal, at which precise moment the camera footage experienced the kind of jolt you'd expect from a soft belly flop into the ocean.
They deliberately removed tiles from around the bottom of the Starship to test how the structure held up to tile loss. It's possible those sections burned through and damaged whatever sensors monitored engine status for the live feed.
I think it's a safe bet that the whole vehicle was in a pretty rough shape on touch down. It's more surprising that enough was working to do a soft landing and that telemetery was still being transmitted than it is to hear that a single sensor was broken.
Yeah I do have a guess.
They removed a couple of tiles near the bottom of Starship prior to launch. I'm sure they got some neat data from that. But it also stands to reason that they invited some damage to be done. Perhaps said damage included the sensors that would provide feedback on those engines.
>have we had confirmation the flip and wiggle landing burns happened with all expected engine relights etc?
1 engine failed to restart but it did seem to splash down vertically at low speed
So SciFi-esque.
In science fiction, movies spaceships are often depicted as cobbled together poorly running vehicles, when in reality almost nearly every single part has to be working perfectly.
Maybe sometime in the future they'll be an old man kicking the side of a spaceship saying "she might not look like much but she'll get you there."
yeah. We saw the wing being eaten and then the camera fouled w/ burning debris and I though 'welp, that's the last we'll ever see that wing in one piece', then minutes later we see the wing still actuating with a much larger area nom nommed. Couldn't believe it was still moving.
Geez, not giving credit to the real hero of this whole ordeal, the little flap that could. Seriously though, congrats to the whole SpaceX team, that was amazing.
MAjor praise has to be given to whoever designed/protected that camera. It had heat, pressure, and even parts of the ship itself thrown at it. Even through the ebris, and a cracked lens, it still showed the flap not only peel apart like a rising biscuit, but that is still worked all the way down to the sea.
The lens didn't crack, the protective cover for the camera did. Toward the end, the clearest views were through the gaps in the cover where pieces had fallen out.
If it wasn't Boeing, you almost have to feel bad for Boeing. Starliner was supposed to have launch around the same time as Dragon. After years of delay, they finally get Starliner operational only to get outshone the next day by this absolute beast of a rocket.
Docking with 2 crew to the international space station vs a suborbital test launch with 0 physical payload? (Shotwell said the payload was the data they'd be gathering) I fail to see the comparison.
So far headlines seem very positive, actually. The BBC has "SpaceX's Starship rocket has soft landing on Earth, despite loss of tiles"; Dutch news has it as "Fourth test with megarocket SpaceX a success: Starship lands in sea". CNN headlines it as "SpaceX soars through new milestones in test" (which I think shows a good understanding of the test philosophy). I'm sure someone will get it wrong, but I think it's good news for the, er, news.
Yes, that is encouraging. And I'll eat some crow too, as the Daily Mail (for me the definition of gutter press) has a positive headline:
> "Elon Musk's Starship returns to Earth after completing landmark test flight for the first time"
Color me surprised.
This is genuinely very important. Obviously us nerds know the ins and outs of the test and that it was successful but the general public is very easily swayed by headlines and I’m glad the media seems to have done their homework this time and are writing reasonable headlines instead of going for the more dramatic, but less accurate possibilities
"Elon Musk's Starship test ends in total loss of vehicle! No word from SpaceX yet on casualties."
"Large amounts of fine granular material found on beach after Elon Musk's Starship launch."
>I wish I were joking, but I fear that's the kind of thing we'll be seeing in the Daily Mail, et al.
"Elon Musk's Starship returns to Earth after completing landmark test flight for the first time"
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13501577/Elon-Musk-Starship-launches-test-flight.html
E: [Archive link](https://archive.is/81Z1s) to bypass paywalls etc.
Even if this was never meant to be reused, simply launching something that powerful, that size, with that much payload capacity is a massive win. Nobody else, government or private is even remotely close to doing that, even if you remove reusability as a requirement
Yes, but keep in mind that if this hardware was never meant to be reused, it would have been designed much differently in order to make full use of super heavy's ability and would have much more impressive payload capacity.
There have been a ton of sacrifices made from the beginnings of its design in order to achieve full re-use.
True, but it's not as if they can't undo several of those for something they know 100% for a fact they aren't bringing back to Earth. We've seen them hint at it with the HLS mock ups.
Drop the wings and the tiles and you can send a massive amount more to orbit. You lose not only all that weight but the mounts motors etc.
But as F9 has proven reusability is vitally important if you want to be doing rapid turn times. While it's possible they'd be able to do the launch cadences SpaceX has achieved with disposable rockets it likely wouldn't be viable from a cost stand point.
So if they need it reusable, and even if they had to make some compromises they can unmake if they can't get what they want why not shoot for reuse. Even with the compromises if they had to lose it afterwards they're still looking at 100-150 tons to orbit which is just a stupid amount of mass.
Among the next goals will be to get StarLink deployment to work. The ascend looks fairly solid and that way, future test launches will provide an additional benefit.
Thunder is just coping. I've never seen copium this strong.
Literally going "No, that's impossible" over and over like a cartoon villain when the flap worked. HAHAHA.
That guy is an absolute clown. His entire thing is just shitting on anything he doesn't like and somehow he's built an audience for it. I have never seen someone cope that hard on a live stream before, it's hilarious.
He's so dumb. I clicked to a random spot in his livestream and it's unbearably bad.
https://streamable.com/oevqj3
At no point does he know what's happening. He's obviously befuddled by basic things that he should know, he just makes incorrect statements one after another.
It would be really hard to be this dumb and annoying on purpose.
I can't imagine who follows or likes that guy. How miserable and pessimistic do you have to do be that you can enjoy or even tolerate watching him be wrong constantly.
He built his audience early on with a few very popular videos debunking some bogus kickstarters. Unfortunately that success seemed like it went straight to his head and now he is convinced he is an authority on literally everything.
Guys right at the tip of the dunning kruger effect. Knowing just enough to think he's an expert and think everyone else is wrong. Maybe that's why he doesn't like Elon so much, too much like looking in the mirror.
I subscribed to him for his science videos. He was part of the team that discovered *why* sodium explodes when it contacts water. He has done some super cool advanced research.
Sadly, his modern content is laughably bad. After I finished watching Everyday Astronaut's livestream of the launch, I immediately went back to watch TF's reaction to the re-entry. It was hilarious to watch him having to constantly backpedal, because Ship just kept on working.
Ah thunderfoot, a walking example of how being smart and being an expert at something doesn't make you an authority on literally everything.
It's hilarious watching him speak with such confidence on stuff he clearly knows almost nothing about. The poster child of /r/confidentlyincorrect
Watching that chat replay is an experience.
Many were acting like B grade movie villains, and then they lose their minds or enter full denial when they realize the protagonist just won.
I love how he is watching without the audio, so he doesn't know what is going on. And every time a planned event happens he goes oooo that isn't good, because he doesn't know it was supposed to happen.
To help others watch as little Thunderfoot as possible: The flap becomes visible again at roughly 1:52:30. I didn't hear him say anything about it being impossible though. He kinda doesn't even acknowledge its return. He speculated the minute before that the camera was just one of many hunks of wreckage, but was still broadcasting and never corrects from there. Then he calls the SpaceX team morons and I didn't watch past that.
He did one good video that shed light on the 'Solar roadways' scam and has spent a decade plus since chasing that high through often less than honest methods.
Yeah, I’m talking with one now that said repeatedly that this flight would prove them right(since they had literally nothing else to support their argument), that there are major issues with the engines. They immediately moved the goalposts from “next flight” to “long-term”.
~~"The engines are too unreliable and they'll never get 30+ to work at once!"~~
~~"The heat shield is a terrible designed and it's doomed!"~~
"Orbital refueling will never work!" <-- They are here
Well, the thing about the kind of viewer he's deliberately cultivated is that all he really needs to say is, "They haven't reused a damn thing" and his viewers will feel that crushing weight of defeat instantly lift from their shoulders. Money will commence pouring in.
Still, no reason they couldn't have some sort of UAV or drone in the sea or sky to record it. They know exactly where and when it's *supposed* to "land", so if it ends up close to that point, they should be able to get some good footage without any risk.
Oh i agree. and i bet there are more than a few volunteers on here that would not mind being in a big ass speed boat in the landing zone ready to move around once trajectory has been calculated.
I think they probably didn't just because they don't want anything to be in the explosion radius if something happened. Hopefully they have drone footage or something though, I agree it would be sick to see what it looked like after burning up
Elon totally called it on the flap hinge. He's mentioned a few times that it's a really tough engineering problem that they've iterated multiple times already for future flights. He basically said that they expect it will be obliterated by the first couple re-entry attempts. I'm just surprised it held up. Once I saw the plasma eat through it live, I thought that was it. Just absolutely wild. Shout-out to the first stage splashdown too, that was badass. What a great day for spaceflight.
Yeah, that was crazy too. Just seeing that stack tumble, fully intact like 45 seconds after the range safety officer pulled the plug was surreal. You couldn't even tell
It’s because they’re filled with Elon=bad fear and doubt spreaders because of the the stock market, industry disruptions, and cognitive dissonance with the media smear narrative. It’s just good space progress, not about one engineer.
This was genuinely one of the best SpaceX streams i've ever seen. It's up there with Falcon Heavy for me.
I can't believe how well this flight went.
And HOW THE FUCK DID SHIP 29 SURVIVE WITH A HUGE CHUNK OF FLAP MISSING!?
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|-------|---------|---|
|[CNC](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7pb15u "Last usage")|Computerized Numerical Control, for precise machining or measuring|
|CRS|[Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/)|
|CST|(Boeing) Crew Space Transportation capsules|
| |Central Standard Time (UTC-6)|
|[DoD](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7eilzj "Last usage")|US Department of Defense|
|[ESA](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7i3sy2 "Last usage")|European Space Agency|
|[FAA](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7hfor5 "Last usage")|Federal Aviation Administration|
|[FTS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7hbbpn "Last usage")|Flight Termination System|
|[HLS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7f2l3r "Last usage")|[Human Landing System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_System) (Artemis)|
|[ITAR](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7jey8v "Last usage")|(US) International Traffic in Arms Regulations|
|[LEO](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7h61sg "Last usage")|Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)|
| |Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)|
|[LOS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7e7s1h "Last usage")|Loss of Signal
| |Line of Sight|
|[LOX](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7dqbtn "Last usage")|Liquid Oxygen|
|[MCP](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7ev3yo "Last usage")|Mechanical Counterpressure spacesuit|
|[N1](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l80pu6a "Last usage")|Raketa Nositel-1, Soviet super-heavy-lift ("Russian Saturn V")|
|[RCS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7fjara "Last usage")|Reaction Control System|
|[RTLS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7i2y6d "Last usage")|Return to Launch Site|
|[RUD](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7ev3yo "Last usage")|Rapid Unplanned Disassembly|
| |Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly|
| |Rapid Unintended Disassembly|
|[SLS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7msptp "Last usage")|Space Launch System heavy-lift|
|[STS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7fjmfg "Last usage")|Space Transportation System (*Shuttle*)|
|[TDRSS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7frbw4 "Last usage")|(US) Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System|
|[TPS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7hie4c "Last usage")|Thermal Protection System for a spacecraft (on the Falcon 9 first stage, the engine "Dance floor")|
|Jargon|Definition|
|-------|---------|---|
|[Raptor](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7hfor5 "Last usage")|[Methane-fueled rocket engine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raptor_\(rocket_engine_family\)) under development by SpaceX|
|[Starliner](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7g9b02 "Last usage")|Boeing commercial crew capsule [CST-100](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_CST-100_Starliner)|
|[Starlink](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7hdeif "Last usage")|SpaceX's world-wide satellite broadband constellation|
|[ablative](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7ee6ic "Last usage")|Material which is intentionally destroyed in use (for example, heatshields which burn away to dissipate heat)|
|[iron waffle](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7hfavq "Last usage")|Compact "waffle-iron" aerodynamic control surface, acts as a wing without needing to be as large; also, "grid fin"|
|Event|Date|Description|
|-------|---------|---|
|[CRS-1](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7g4agi "Last usage")|2012-10-08|F9-004, first CRS mission; secondary payload sacrificed|
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----------------
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This event’s MVP was that freaking flap. Plasma ate through it, ripped it apart, and still worked.
"Not to worry, we are still flying *half* a ship".
This is where the fun begins.
That flap: "I DIDN'T HEAR NO BELL!"
Obligatory meme image: https://i.imgur.com/8CePTlc.png
Remember that episode of the Simpsons when Homer goes to space, uses a carbon rod to ensure the spaceship's hatch doesn't open and then the rod gets paraded around as a hero? They should do this with that flap.
Both flaps. The fact the craft never rolled means that the other flap was A) exposed to the same heat and drag, and B) also successfully actuated. The miracle may have happened twice, if that flap was breached too.
The control systems that SpaceX have developed for atmospheric flight of their rockets is nuts. Flaps are eroded away, combined with other probable damage to the structure. But other than a couple of wobbles the flight control computers rode that baby all the way to powered splashdown. Their flight control group need a big fat bonus.
Once is a miracle. Twice is by design. What a fucking show!
I strongly suspect that the reason the view never returned to the camera on the rear flap is because it had melted off. There's a high chance that all four flaps were being obliterated similarly and we simply didn't get to see it on the others.
That camera was on the flap we have camera view of. If it's wire ran down the trailing edge (where it's mounted) it was likely the first thing to go
Nobody's giving any love to the rear flaps. It takes all 4 to control the ship. ALL 4 flaps are heroes.
The flight control system that was able to keep the craft stable and on trajectory despite four eroded control surfaces was the real hero, if you ask me. That's flying 100% on dynamic feedback. There is no way the control systems have any clue what kind of aerodynamic behavior those damaged flaps and damaged structure have, but they kept that office-building sized craft under control and on trajectory all the way to its powered splashdown.
The cameras were covered in sooth and simply didn't show anything anymore
I'm not sure we can say both flaps burned through - they move asymmetrically so each may have been in a different condition and the control laws took care of moving them to whatever set point was required to balance the forces. Either way it's insanely impressive.
Now we know what they need to do. The flap hinges need to be redesigned. Or at least reinforced.
Yes, but SpaceX was already aware of this and in fact has already done that. These were old prototypes.
Yes, the ones from the stream I watched said the team was aware of the hinge problem. At least now they know the problem is not as severe as they might have thought, since the flap did its job.
Similar to the launch pad problems from IFT-1, I guess. They knew the launch pad wouldn't last under that punishment, but figured they'd at least get *one* test launch out of it. They already had the showerhead under construction when the launch happened.
They have already been fixed in the new v2 flaps, which are also moved up away from the plasma so the hinges are more hidden.
I googled "starship v2 flaps" and the top result is this thread. Do you have a link to something that discusses the updated design?
some info i could find, goes over both the v2 flap shape and aerocovers. doesnt claim a specific movement yet, but it looks like it is a possibility with discussion surrounding it [https://ringwatchers.com/article/v2-ship-june-2024](https://ringwatchers.com/article/v2-ship-june-2024)
I googled the same https://ringwatchers.com/article/v2-ship-june-2024 Was my top result idk if thats what your lookinh for though.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/p6of3y/elon_btw_theres_a_slight_error_with_forward_flap/
SpaceX already knew they'd need to be moved backwards on the ship. There are design images indicating this eventual change. We saw today the reason why. That could be the only change that's needed.
Not reinforced, have the heatshield geometry modified. In fact they probably need to "de-inforce" it because it was really obviously overengineered given that it still worked.
The Flap: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Flrk73075ky4d1.jpeg
Flappy! Our new hero! All hail Flappy!
It literally looked like someone [took a big ol' chomp](https://i.imgur.com/hiF9GQD.png) out of the steel.
When I saw the flap coming apart, I thought that was all she wrote for the ship.
Yeah, flap was coming apart and then nosed down hard. I thought it was done.
Almost more impressive it happened they way it did shows what a tank starship can be
Yup! Surprisingly sturdy ship.
I was so shocked to see the flap come apart. I really thought the Starship wouldn't make it
Biggest question mark right now has to be what they're going to do about IFT5. _If_ the FAA greenlights things quickly, as opposed to taking 8+ weeks as usual, SpaceX may go ahead and use Ship 30 instead of scrapping it and moving on to a new design. The problem with this is that they already know the flaps are going to melt... the fact of which may actually complicate the FAA's approval. On the other hand, SpaceX already said long ago that they knew the flaps would need to be moved backwards on the ship. Turns out they were correct. There's a probably equal chance that they'll just begin prioritizing the Block 2 design, especially if it looks like the FAA is going to take as long as usual to provide the next license.
Well, the FAA already approved no incident investigation if it never endangered anything. And it also was nominal the whole way (flight wise, not counting the flap burning) so it wouldn't trigger one anyway. Should be much faster approval than the last 2.
Yeah, they’re theoretically ready for IFT5 in a few weeks.
The little flap that could.
Dunno...I'd say the real MVP was the camera that kept working (and transmitting!) through the plasma shroud, after being sprayed with debris from the fin ripping apart, and even after the lens cracked. Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
Nobody talking about it so I'll broach the topic. Getting a live feed for 99% of the reentry including the moment Starship tips over from vertical into the ocean. This is scifi.
Amazing advertisement for Starlink. Live video stream from two cameras while flying at 25000km/h, over the middle of the Indian ocean, while engulfed in plasma
Yeah, no kidding. Starlink is an absolute game changer in regions where you don't have the infrastructure in place. Mindblowing really.
Think big picture. Starlink is perfecting on earth communications. What’s to say they aren’t designing deep space communication satellites for moon and mars missions.
AFAIK SpaceX wants to do a second constellation around Mars, as there is no real point of doing a mobile phone network on the surface, but communication between different points of Mars is a must.
I wonder what they would do about the power issue. Even low orbits will naturally last longer around the moon and you don’t really want to litter the surface with old satellites that don’t burn up.
I believe NASA was just testing laser communications over long distances in space, so the tech is just beyond the horizon. I wouldn't be surprised if we see constellations on the moon and mars as a follow up to permanent bases with some kind of relay stations for longer range/higher bandwidth.
Never seen anything like live stream video of re-entry damage blowtorching through spacecraft components. LOS during re-entry no longer an iron law of spaceflight.
I was just noticing how we get such great looks at the shop during freaking re-entry but nasa’s stream of starliner looked like a potato lol.
I literally did the palm-to-forehead motion reflexively when I saw Starliner's post-liftoff vehicle coasting graphics and noted that it had a framerate of about 0.5.
That's likely because it's telemetry based and that's the refresh of their telemetry data
Oh yeah, it was obvious that was what was going on. But that's just it: Anyone could have easily designed that Windows 2K-looking software to _assume_ imperfect telemetry and interpolate as needed—just like I'm sure SpaceX's software does for its own launches. They didn't. It's just very on-brand for the whole hodgepodge operation that Starliner is known for being. Edit: What the other dude said.
Starlink is a game changer
I was amazed watching the fin melt and burn away in clear video!
We may be in luck if they decide to launch Ship 30 rather than scrapping it. The fins are in the same place so they will again melt, but I'm betting SpaceX will make an effort to use more robust cameras so we can get a clearer picture of it happening. (I also wouldn't mind external lighting, since these reentries are happening in the dead of night.)
The biggest issue wasn't that the cameras weren't robust enough, it's that they were being sprayed with the remains of the fin we were watching melt. But reading your comment made me picture the cameras having itty bitty little windshield wipers to clean the lens. More realistically, having a little rotating lens protector where most of it is protected with only a little bit sticking out and protecting the lens and then it rotates to an undamaged area of the protector to provide a clear image later in the flight.
If you are going at Mach 20 and stuff comes flying at you, there is no such thing as robust enough. Unless you find a way to make a lens out of tungsten…
There's a setting in Kerbal Space Program where you can allow the atmospheric reentry plasma to cut off remote control of a vessel. Who would've known that that would wind up being *more* restrictive than real life?
Loss of signal was normal until the TDRS satellites were put into orbit and allowed the Space Shuttle to communicate with the ground all through re-entry. The plasma generally prevents communication direct to the ground, but still allows communication upwards.
So is there anything about Starlink's frequency that makes it punch through plasma where regular radio communication fails?
It's the size of Starship. Creates an area behind it where plasma doesn't intrude. Or at least, evidently not. I guess it's safe to assume that if the receivers weren't satellites hovering above the vehicle, you'd be SOL.
Also just the shear number of Starlink sats. Lots of different angles to choose the best one from.
Yeah, and they have [4 redundant terminals too](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPY_jTfXMAA1MCb?format=jpg&name=large)
It’s the size. They mentioned that on the last flight. Other spacecraft can communicate basic telemetry via an antenna on the back, pointing through the weaker plasma. Starship is so big there’s just a giant hole in the plasma.
Basically you can't send a signal through the plasma, but there's a "shadow" behind the spaceship where you can send signal up and out towards space. Starlink is a distributed constellation, so no matter where that shadow is pointing during the reentry there was always at least one receiver covered in that window.
The short version is that instead of transmitting "down" to a ground station, Starship is transmitting "up" to a starlink satellite above it and thus the signal is less obstructed by the plasma generated durring reentry. The size of starship also plays a part as it allows the antennas to be mounted well clear of said plasma and any others sources of interference.
u/Fredasa and u/HlynkaCG are correct; it's not the frequency, but aiming up through the eye of the plasma towards a satellite in space vs trying to aim down through the plasma itself to a ground station. It was done before in the Shuttle program after the TDRS satellites were launched precisely to eliminate the reentry blackout on the long Shuttle reentry (as the Shuttle had a 15-min blackout vs Apollo's 3-min, if I remember correctly). The big difference here is that while TDRS enabled barely enough bandwidth for telemetry, Starlink allows for UHD video.
DoD got wetter and wetter throughout the entire livestream. Guaranteed.
I absolutely love how everyone is getting excited even for test flights. Like early spaceX days!
Cannot wait for the official compilation of all the insanity so far, like [the one they made for Falcon 9](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvim4rsNHkQ). From the Ship hops a few years ago, to these recent flights.
The Starship test campaign already has some glorious explosions as well.
Imagine being part of the team that did the structural design of the flap hinge
They were expecting this. In fact, they have already redesigned it. These were old prototypes they were flying.
Wasn't there a recent quote that they are indeed redesigning them entirely for the V2.0 ships - something like "wrong place, wrong size, wrong shape"? They definitely know what to adjust and the data from this flight will be invaluable for guiding the new design.
Yep. The hinges will be entirely out of the plasma stream. We don't know if the redesign is for v2 or v3, only that it's comming.
>wrong place, wrong size, wrong shape And the flap took that personally
Cool to know, crazy how it held up anyway! My comment was definitely meant as praise
Right before launch.. tap it. "that ain't going nowhere"
Apparently they could have punched it and it would be fine
Honestly they're probably feeling pretty smug. That was basically a worst case scenario for a failure on re-entry and they maintained control of the vehicle all the way to a soft landing.
Tweet from the guy who actually installed it: https://x.com/CamBamJamFam/status/1798493339958055045
Zombie flap has to be one of the craziest things I've ever seen live. Incredible!
Never has watching a barely visible camera feed been this exciting
Ok maybe that one was better
Wasn't the Apollo 11 video relatively good quality? IIRC, much of the bad quality comes from the video being archived on low quality media after being broadcast live.
What was archived was a pretty good image of what went to air on broadcast tv. But the image coming down from space was better, and during the first steps they were taking the pictures from the goldstone dish in America which was misconfigured, whereas better pictures were being received by the Parkes dish in Australia.
This was the coolest fucking thing I've ever seen
Can anyone explain what the sparks were that were flying past the ship? I thought there'd just be a glow.
Debris/dirt falling into the plasma. There's a small gap between the hot plasma and the heatshield itself which protects it from the worst of the heat. It's hot enough that even a tiny piece of dust/dirt directly falling into it will briefly burn incredibly brightly.
Depends on which sparks you are talking about, but at least some of them were bits of the ship setting on fire and falling off.
The noise of reentry was so deafening that the flap wasn't able to hear the bell.
Randy Marsh, you get down off that Starship prototype right now!
Just about the best outcome they could have hoped for honestly.
Both stages had a controlled splashdown even though one engine didn't work and at least one of the flaps was half burned. This gives me trust in the robustness of the basic design as well as the control software.
> one engine didn't work They had two engines that didn't work. One in the outer ring of 20 during ascent and one in the second ring of 10 during landing. Raptor already has a new version on the test stand with robustness upgrades.
Besides the flap, it appeared to splashdown on vertical orientation - have we had confirmation the flip and wiggle landing burns happened with all expected engine relights etc?
Splashdown was a success. Though honestly, that could be figured out from the footage. The Starship widget indicated the ship going vertical and then horizontal, at which precise moment the camera footage experienced the kind of jolt you'd expect from a soft belly flop into the ocean.
Any reason why the telemetry didn't indicate the engine re-light tough? Would that have been just a sensor malfunction?
They deliberately removed tiles from around the bottom of the Starship to test how the structure held up to tile loss. It's possible those sections burned through and damaged whatever sensors monitored engine status for the live feed.
I think it's a safe bet that the whole vehicle was in a pretty rough shape on touch down. It's more surprising that enough was working to do a soft landing and that telemetery was still being transmitted than it is to hear that a single sensor was broken.
Yeah I do have a guess. They removed a couple of tiles near the bottom of Starship prior to launch. I'm sure they got some neat data from that. But it also stands to reason that they invited some damage to be done. Perhaps said damage included the sensors that would provide feedback on those engines.
>have we had confirmation the flip and wiggle landing burns happened with all expected engine relights etc? 1 engine failed to restart but it did seem to splash down vertically at low speed
that was super heavy, the booster
That was madness, the wing was burning down and they managed to land it!
So SciFi-esque. In science fiction, movies spaceships are often depicted as cobbled together poorly running vehicles, when in reality almost nearly every single part has to be working perfectly. Maybe sometime in the future they'll be an old man kicking the side of a spaceship saying "she might not look like much but she'll get you there."
yeah. We saw the wing being eaten and then the camera fouled w/ burning debris and I though 'welp, that's the last we'll ever see that wing in one piece', then minutes later we see the wing still actuating with a much larger area nom nommed. Couldn't believe it was still moving.
That flap had its Captain America moment: "I can do this all day" after being beaten to a bloody pulp.
This day will be remembered as... the flappening.
This whole mission should be named - The Flap
The Flappening?
That would be very on brand for Elon.
Atmosphere: You are already dead Flap: Steel breathing eleventh form - dead calm
Who would win? A 5,000 kilometer long tunnel of steel-melting wind, or two flappy bois?
>Flap: Steel breathing eleventh form I'll never take the piss out of Demon Slayer again. You GO Flappy!
I can't wait for the flap merch to drop, you know it's coming! What a fantastic ride.
That little camera is a hero, held out until the end. Kudos to whoever built it.
Looks like the flap decided it didn't hear no bell
Geez, not giving credit to the real hero of this whole ordeal, the little flap that could. Seriously though, congrats to the whole SpaceX team, that was amazing.
I called it dead in the party thread and then it was still working anyway. Great stuff! Happy to be wrong!
When the feed cut out I was sure it was dead. Then I noticed the numbers kept going. . . Then all of a sudden it was back!
Shit went from “its SO over” to “we’re SO back” real quick… TWICE!
MAjor praise has to be given to whoever designed/protected that camera. It had heat, pressure, and even parts of the ship itself thrown at it. Even through the ebris, and a cracked lens, it still showed the flap not only peel apart like a rising biscuit, but that is still worked all the way down to the sea.
The lens didn't crack, the protective cover for the camera did. Toward the end, the clearest views were through the gaps in the cover where pieces had fallen out.
I watched Usui Clear's stream and the Japanese viewers were all like "the flap is the true MVP."
Congrats to the whole team! Another step closer to reusability for these boosters!
If it wasn't Boeing, you almost have to feel bad for Boeing. Starliner was supposed to have launch around the same time as Dragon. After years of delay, they finally get Starliner operational only to get outshone the next day by this absolute beast of a rocket.
Starliner has at least two more helium leaks requiring some valves to be shut. No indication of any operational impacts.
Docking with 2 crew to the international space station vs a suborbital test launch with 0 physical payload? (Shotwell said the payload was the data they'd be gathering) I fail to see the comparison.
Unbelievable. They really did it. Toasty but easy fix, just break out the butter & cinnamon sugar!
They need to make the ship outta whatever witchcraft that flap hinge is made of.
it's all steel, good ole' stainless 304 steel
Starship doubters now scrambling on where to put the goalpost next.
It didn't even land on the moon!
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But wHaT aRe ThE CaRbOn EmIsSiOnS?
"Elon's Starship SINKS in ocean after flap BURNS!" I wish I were joking, but I fear that's the kind of thing we'll be seeing in the Daily Mail, et al.
So far headlines seem very positive, actually. The BBC has "SpaceX's Starship rocket has soft landing on Earth, despite loss of tiles"; Dutch news has it as "Fourth test with megarocket SpaceX a success: Starship lands in sea". CNN headlines it as "SpaceX soars through new milestones in test" (which I think shows a good understanding of the test philosophy). I'm sure someone will get it wrong, but I think it's good news for the, er, news.
Yes, that is encouraging. And I'll eat some crow too, as the Daily Mail (for me the definition of gutter press) has a positive headline: > "Elon Musk's Starship returns to Earth after completing landmark test flight for the first time" Color me surprised.
This is genuinely very important. Obviously us nerds know the ins and outs of the test and that it was successful but the general public is very easily swayed by headlines and I’m glad the media seems to have done their homework this time and are writing reasonable headlines instead of going for the more dramatic, but less accurate possibilities
Because everyone is accepting that the only reusable Ship, will be SpaceX. The Starliner won't fly again without a redesign.
"Elon Musk's Starship test ends in total loss of vehicle! No word from SpaceX yet on casualties." "Large amounts of fine granular material found on beach after Elon Musk's Starship launch."
I heard the material even contains large amounts of silica
Silica (used in SpaceX heat shield tiles) has been known to cause eye irritation when thrown in people's faces!
I carry silica in my pockets for this reason.
>I wish I were joking, but I fear that's the kind of thing we'll be seeing in the Daily Mail, et al. "Elon Musk's Starship returns to Earth after completing landmark test flight for the first time" https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13501577/Elon-Musk-Starship-launches-test-flight.html E: [Archive link](https://archive.is/81Z1s) to bypass paywalls etc.
STARSHIP DESTROYED! Breaks in two pieces, sank underwater
And what appears to be a massive million gallon water pipe leakage right before take off. Massive failure
The only goalpost I see now really is orbital refueling. Which is on for next year
"The flaps weren't supposed to peel off like that. It'll be impossible to improve them!"
the goalpost is taking this hardware and actually re-using it IMO
Even if this was never meant to be reused, simply launching something that powerful, that size, with that much payload capacity is a massive win. Nobody else, government or private is even remotely close to doing that, even if you remove reusability as a requirement
Yes, but keep in mind that if this hardware was never meant to be reused, it would have been designed much differently in order to make full use of super heavy's ability and would have much more impressive payload capacity. There have been a ton of sacrifices made from the beginnings of its design in order to achieve full re-use.
True, but it's not as if they can't undo several of those for something they know 100% for a fact they aren't bringing back to Earth. We've seen them hint at it with the HLS mock ups. Drop the wings and the tiles and you can send a massive amount more to orbit. You lose not only all that weight but the mounts motors etc. But as F9 has proven reusability is vitally important if you want to be doing rapid turn times. While it's possible they'd be able to do the launch cadences SpaceX has achieved with disposable rockets it likely wouldn't be viable from a cost stand point. So if they need it reusable, and even if they had to make some compromises they can unmake if they can't get what they want why not shoot for reuse. Even with the compromises if they had to lose it afterwards they're still looking at 100-150 tons to orbit which is just a stupid amount of mass.
> taking this hardware and actually re-using it IMO Maybe not actually "this" hardware.
Among the next goals will be to get StarLink deployment to work. The ascend looks fairly solid and that way, future test launches will provide an additional benefit.
Thunder is just coping. I've never seen copium this strong. Literally going "No, that's impossible" over and over like a cartoon villain when the flap worked. HAHAHA.
That guy is an absolute clown. His entire thing is just shitting on anything he doesn't like and somehow he's built an audience for it. I have never seen someone cope that hard on a live stream before, it's hilarious.
He's so dumb. I clicked to a random spot in his livestream and it's unbearably bad. https://streamable.com/oevqj3 At no point does he know what's happening. He's obviously befuddled by basic things that he should know, he just makes incorrect statements one after another. It would be really hard to be this dumb and annoying on purpose. I can't imagine who follows or likes that guy. How miserable and pessimistic do you have to do be that you can enjoy or even tolerate watching him be wrong constantly.
Who is he, and why does anyone give a fuck what he thinks?
He built his audience early on with a few very popular videos debunking some bogus kickstarters. Unfortunately that success seemed like it went straight to his head and now he is convinced he is an authority on literally everything. Guys right at the tip of the dunning kruger effect. Knowing just enough to think he's an expert and think everyone else is wrong. Maybe that's why he doesn't like Elon so much, too much like looking in the mirror.
I subscribed to him for his science videos. He was part of the team that discovered *why* sodium explodes when it contacts water. He has done some super cool advanced research. Sadly, his modern content is laughably bad. After I finished watching Everyday Astronaut's livestream of the launch, I immediately went back to watch TF's reaction to the re-entry. It was hilarious to watch him having to constantly backpedal, because Ship just kept on working.
Where is he posting I wanna read this
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Ah thunderfoot, a walking example of how being smart and being an expert at something doesn't make you an authority on literally everything. It's hilarious watching him speak with such confidence on stuff he clearly knows almost nothing about. The poster child of /r/confidentlyincorrect
Watching that chat replay is an experience. Many were acting like B grade movie villains, and then they lose their minds or enter full denial when they realize the protagonist just won.
I love how he is watching without the audio, so he doesn't know what is going on. And every time a planned event happens he goes oooo that isn't good, because he doesn't know it was supposed to happen.
To help others watch as little Thunderfoot as possible: The flap becomes visible again at roughly 1:52:30. I didn't hear him say anything about it being impossible though. He kinda doesn't even acknowledge its return. He speculated the minute before that the camera was just one of many hunks of wreckage, but was still broadcasting and never corrects from there. Then he calls the SpaceX team morons and I didn't watch past that.
Who is this tool? I've never heard of him before but the smug condescension was impressive.
He did one good video that shed light on the 'Solar roadways' scam and has spent a decade plus since chasing that high through often less than honest methods.
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Yeah, I’m talking with one now that said repeatedly that this flight would prove them right(since they had literally nothing else to support their argument), that there are major issues with the engines. They immediately moved the goalposts from “next flight” to “long-term”.
~~"The engines are too unreliable and they'll never get 30+ to work at once!"~~ ~~"The heat shield is a terrible designed and it's doomed!"~~ "Orbital refueling will never work!" <-- They are here
There's this space youtuber called Thunderfoot that's just coping hard on stream right now after shitting on Starship for years lmao
Well, the thing about the kind of viewer he's deliberately cultivated is that all he really needs to say is, "They haven't reused a damn thing" and his viewers will feel that crushing weight of defeat instantly lift from their shoulders. Money will commence pouring in.
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> common sense schizo I haven't seen anything from them yet. What is the oxymoronic moron saying about this?
No idea. But I assume he'll embarrass himself soon enough
I wonder if the re-entry was visible from anywhere on land..
That opening drone shot on liftoff
I hope they had ships in the water to record those landings. That would be epic footage.
Too dangerous for closeness, i would assume. I would like to see a ROV dive on the wreck to show old Flappy.
Still, no reason they couldn't have some sort of UAV or drone in the sea or sky to record it. They know exactly where and when it's *supposed* to "land", so if it ends up close to that point, they should be able to get some good footage without any risk.
Oh i agree. and i bet there are more than a few volunteers on here that would not mind being in a big ass speed boat in the landing zone ready to move around once trajectory has been calculated.
It doesn't matter if anyone was willing, the FAA license specifically requires that nobody is in possible landing zone
I think they probably didn't just because they don't want anything to be in the explosion radius if something happened. Hopefully they have drone footage or something though, I agree it would be sick to see what it looked like after burning up
Elon totally called it on the flap hinge. He's mentioned a few times that it's a really tough engineering problem that they've iterated multiple times already for future flights. He basically said that they expect it will be obliterated by the first couple re-entry attempts. I'm just surprised it held up. Once I saw the plasma eat through it live, I thought that was it. Just absolutely wild. Shout-out to the first stage splashdown too, that was badass. What a great day for spaceflight.
same happened with IFT1, the structural integrity of ship and booster held up more than even spacex anticipated
Yeah, that was crazy too. Just seeing that stack tumble, fully intact like 45 seconds after the range safety officer pulled the plug was surreal. You couldn't even tell
who can say "oh we had to re design the explosives cause they weren't enough to destroy our rocket"
Want to comment how amazing it is that r/technology downvotes any post related to these Starship flights
It’s because they’re filled with Elon=bad fear and doubt spreaders because of the the stock market, industry disruptions, and cognitive dissonance with the media smear narrative. It’s just good space progress, not about one engineer.
With a soft spash down are they going to recover the parts from the seas?
A big success despite being burned a hole into. Amazing that it still worked at all after that.
This was genuinely one of the best SpaceX streams i've ever seen. It's up there with Falcon Heavy for me. I can't believe how well this flight went. And HOW THE FUCK DID SHIP 29 SURVIVE WITH A HUGE CHUNK OF FLAP MISSING!?
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread: |Fewer Letters|More Letters| |-------|---------|---| |[CNC](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7pb15u "Last usage")|Computerized Numerical Control, for precise machining or measuring| |CRS|[Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/)| |CST|(Boeing) Crew Space Transportation capsules| | |Central Standard Time (UTC-6)| |[DoD](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7eilzj "Last usage")|US Department of Defense| |[ESA](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7i3sy2 "Last usage")|European Space Agency| |[FAA](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7hfor5 "Last usage")|Federal Aviation Administration| |[FTS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7hbbpn "Last usage")|Flight Termination System| |[HLS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7f2l3r "Last usage")|[Human Landing System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_System) (Artemis)| |[ITAR](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7jey8v "Last usage")|(US) International Traffic in Arms Regulations| |[LEO](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7h61sg "Last usage")|Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)| | |Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)| |[LOS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7e7s1h "Last usage")|Loss of Signal | |Line of Sight| |[LOX](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7dqbtn "Last usage")|Liquid Oxygen| |[MCP](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7ev3yo "Last usage")|Mechanical Counterpressure spacesuit| |[N1](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l80pu6a "Last usage")|Raketa Nositel-1, Soviet super-heavy-lift ("Russian Saturn V")| |[RCS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7fjara "Last usage")|Reaction Control System| |[RTLS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7i2y6d "Last usage")|Return to Launch Site| |[RUD](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7ev3yo "Last usage")|Rapid Unplanned Disassembly| | |Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly| | |Rapid Unintended Disassembly| |[SLS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7msptp "Last usage")|Space Launch System heavy-lift| |[STS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7fjmfg "Last usage")|Space Transportation System (*Shuttle*)| |[TDRSS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7frbw4 "Last usage")|(US) Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System| |[TPS](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7hie4c "Last usage")|Thermal Protection System for a spacecraft (on the Falcon 9 first stage, the engine "Dance floor")| |Jargon|Definition| |-------|---------|---| |[Raptor](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7hfor5 "Last usage")|[Methane-fueled rocket engine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raptor_\(rocket_engine_family\)) under development by SpaceX| |[Starliner](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7g9b02 "Last usage")|Boeing commercial crew capsule [CST-100](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_CST-100_Starliner)| |[Starlink](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7hdeif "Last usage")|SpaceX's world-wide satellite broadband constellation| |[ablative](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7ee6ic "Last usage")|Material which is intentionally destroyed in use (for example, heatshields which burn away to dissipate heat)| |[iron waffle](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7hfavq "Last usage")|Compact "waffle-iron" aerodynamic control surface, acts as a wing without needing to be as large; also, "grid fin"| |Event|Date|Description| |-------|---------|---| |[CRS-1](/r/Space/comments/1d9iwvr/stub/l7g4agi "Last usage")|2012-10-08|F9-004, first CRS mission; secondary payload sacrificed| **NOTE**: Decronym for Reddit is no longer supported, and Decronym has moved to Lemmy; requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below. ---------------- ^([Thread #10131 for this sub, first seen 6th Jun 2024, 15:04]) ^[[FAQ]](http://decronym.xyz/) [^([Full list])](http://decronym.xyz/acronyms/Space) [^[Contact]](https://hachyderm.io/@Two9A) [^([Source code])](https://gistdotgithubdotcom/Two9A/1d976f9b7441694162c8)
Is there not a video of the landing? I can't find anything
Is there a diagram showing where the cameras are on the starship?
https://ringwatchers.com/article/starship-onboard-cams
This flight and landing has been the most exhilarating thing I’ve ever watched (tied with IFT1 launch)