Stage 1 landing confirmed!

M-vac shutdown.

MECO, stage separation, M-vac ignition, and fairing separation.

Liftoff!

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1859622109456236913

Propellant load underway for this morning’s Falcon 9 launch of @Starlink satellites from Florida

or that the idea of turning them off is simply inconceivable (why would I turn mine off and let others make money)

If that’s the issue, it seems like time-of-use rates or smart metering could be an easy solution. If the price of electricity were negative during periods of oversupply, I bet people would figure out how to disconnect their solar panels pretty quickly. This pricing model would simultaneously incentivize energy storage projects.

Seems like a neat idea. Do you know if it’s possible to embed loops videos in a Lemmy post? I just browsed the community a bit, and I think I would enjoy it more if I didn’t have to click twice on every post.

Huh, TIL: Ansel Adams

Always “Pluto, Pluto, Pluto”. Why does no one ever remember Ceres, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake? They’re each as much of a planet as Pluto is. Dwarf planets, but planets nonetheless.

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1859364942039875749

Targeting Thursday, November 21 for a Falcon 9 launch of 24 @Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Florida

Starbase activities (2024-11-20):

• Nov 19th cryo delivery tally.
• Nov 20th road closure is revoked.
• 1-hour road delay was posted for Nov 21st (00:00 to 03:00) for transport from factory to pad, but then revoked.
• Build site: S26 moves to Highbay, the LTR1220 crane delivers a ring spreader, and the lower 4 rings of S26 are removed. (ViX 1, ViX 2, ViX 3, Beyer, DeffGeff)
• Booster transport stand arrives at the production site. (ViX)
• Potential raptor delivery truck is spotted. (ViX)
• Pad A: Chopsticks and launch mount inspections overnight. (Starbase Pulse)
• Launch mount work platform rolls back out to the pad. (ViX, NSF)
• Three truckloads of cryo piping are delivered. (ViX)
• Booster stabilization pins are moved back towards the launch mount. (ViX)

IFT-6:

• Gulf of Mexico: Final sighting on Nov 19th of B13 heading south into Mexican waters, guarded by support aircraft. (LabPadre)
• Two out of three support ships return to port. (Cornwell, Cornwell 2)
• Indian Ocean: The two ships slowly move west, likely following the remains of S31. (Cornwell 1, Cornwell 2)
• “What caused the catch abort?” Elon: “Lost comms to the launch tower computer. Catch would probably still have worked, but we weren’t sure, so erred on the side of caution.”
• “What happened to the banana?” Elon: “Well, the fairing did blow up when the ship fell over after landing in the water (as expected)”
• FAA confirms no mishap. All outcomes were within the scope of the launch license. (Beil)

Other:

• “Is the perspirative cooling still off the table?” Elon: “Metallic shielding, supplemented by ullage gas or liquid film-cooling is back on the table as a possibility”
• The FAA publish a revised Environmental Assessment draft (Revised Draft EA, PDF warning) for increasing launch cadence to 25 per year. Document includes (pg. 153 and 154) a map showing the planned trajectory for Starship RTLS, passing over Matamoros (Mexico) and the outskirts of Brownsville. (thanks u/Nydilien and u/scarlet_sage in The Other Place)

I think their point was not that the grid should be abolished, but that when energy generation is decentralized, the grid becomes less susceptible to single points of failure.

I’m surprised that you happened upon this thread six months later, and pleased that you decided to finish it.

N

Ooh, it seems we’ve rounded a bend!

They didn’t say what that criteria was

They have since clarified that it was an issue with the tower, not the booster. Although “Tower is go for catch”, was called out during the webcast, it seems like a later check identified an issue which triggered the abort:

Following a nominal ascent and stage separation, the booster successfully transitioned to its boostback burn to begin the return to launch site. During this phase, automated health checks of critical hardware on the launch and catch tower triggered an abort of the catch attempt. The booster then executed a pre-planned divert maneuver, performing a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

I hope we get to find out what the “automated health checks” were.

Starbase activities (2024-11-19):

IFT-6:

• Launch pad clearing begins. (ViX 1, ViX 2)
• Road is closed. (LabPadre)
• A few cryo deliveries continue. (ViX 1, ViX 2)
• Chopsticks open to launch position. (LabPadre, ViX, NSF)
• Booster transport stand arrives at the roadblock. (ViX, NSF)
• Chopstick landing rails are raised. (LabPadre, ViX)
• Frost and venting are observed on the vaporizers to the left of the D2 gate. (ViX)
• Helicopter and fast boats are spotted, presumably for range duty. (ViX, NSF, RGV Aerial)
• Tank farm, tower, and launch mount venting. (LabPadre, ViX, NSF 1, NSF 2, Golden)
• Frost on ship and booster, propellant is loaded. (LabPadre, SpaceX)
• IFT-6 happens. The payload is a single banana. (ViX, Cornwell)
• Booster catch attempt is aborted. B13 performs a soft splashdown, propellant tanks rupture when booster tips over. (LabPadre, ViX, NSF)
• SpaceX marine assets approach B13. (Cornwell)
• B13 continues to to belch fire over an hour after splashdown. (LabPadre, Golden)
• In-space raptor relight test is successful. (SpaceX, LabPadre)
• Slight warping of the hull is observed during reentry. (Golden)
• S31 survives reentry and performs a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean. (SpaceX, courtesy of marine assets)
• S31 had an older heatshield design, fewer tiles, and flew a steeper reentry profile. (Tankwatchers, Maxarick 1, Maxarick 2)
• Cause of catch abort: Although “Tower is go for catch”, was called out during the webcast, it seems like a later check identified an issue which triggered the abort: “Following a nominal ascent and stage separation, the booster successfully transitioned to its boostback burn to begin the return to launch site. During this phase, automated health checks of critical hardware on the launch and catch tower triggered an abort of the catch attempt. The booster then executed a pre-planned divert maneuver, performing a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.” (Golden’s thoughts](https://x.com/CSI_Starbase/status/1859074034698183118))

Non-IFT-6:

• Nov 18th cryo delivery tally.
• Build site: A Bigge BG-28H drill rig, Bigge Tadano crane, and drill bits are delivered. (ViX 1, ViX 2, ViX 3, Golden)
• Minor damage to the lighting and communications pole on Tower A. (NSF, Golden)
• Booster load spreader moves into Megabay 1. (ViX)

Other:

• Elon shares flight 6 objectives. (Elon)
• SpaceX share updated HLS renders. (SpaceX, Golden)
• SpaceX share photos of heatshield tests in simulated martian atmosphere. (SpaceX)
• Elon shares some numbers: “Flight 6 liftoff thrust is ~7500 tons and mass is ~5000 tons. The tanker version of Starship V3 will weigh over 7000 tons.”
• Elon shares more Starship V3 info: “Same diameter of 9m (~30 ft), but longer and at least 2 versions. The propellant tanker version will be especially heavy, as the payload volume in the forward section will mostly contain propellant. Thrust goal will be ~10k tons (3X Saturn V) and liftoff mass of tanker version ~7k tons. This should be capable of ~200 tons of orbital refilling. Note, 3% of liftoff mass as useful cargo would be insanely good for a fully reusable orbital rocket. Most expendable rockets aren’t that good.”
• Elon regarding flight 7 and 8: “We will do one more ocean landing of the ship. If that goes well, then SpaceX will attempt to catch the ship with the tower.” This puts S34 as potentially the first RTLS ship.

Better to destroy one booster than risk the damage to the launch pad or chopsticks, I suppose. I’ll be curious to hear what the cause of the abort was.

The reduced heatshield on the ship held up impressively well.

One reason it’s so hard to make predictions about the fusion age is that we’re still not sure what the best fusion device will even look like. A tokamak, the doughnut-shaped machine Commonwealth is building? A giant laser, like Livermore Lab’s? Or one of the many other shapes and concepts that other start-ups are working on?

At this point, aren’t we pretty sure that laser confinement won’t easily scale to continuous operations? All the fusion startups I can think of are using some form of magnetic confinement.

I’d put the batteries somewhere other than in the engines

Nah, the main combustion chamber is obviously the optimal battery location.

Wow, a perfect anagram!