Elon's money in space and back

[rockytopva]

The fourth test flight of the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built is in the books, and what a dramatic and nail-biting trip for SpaceX it was.
SpaceX Starship launches nail-biting Flight 4 test of the world's most powerful rocket (video, photos)

 

[rockytopva]

With much joy, jubilation, and the crowd going insane @ 8:00 with the successful booster water landing.

 

[rockytopva]

Statship re-entree beginning @ 48:00 with much heat exposed to the spacecraft and much joy from the crowd on hand.
Hottest point @ 51:00 with heat shields protecting the spacecraft and the atmosphere slowing the spacecraft down.
Sensors measuring effectiveness of the spacecraft @ 54:00 with quite a lightshow
Pieces of the spacecraft coming off @ 58:00 as it heads towards the Indian Ocean
Made it through maximum aerodynamic pressure @ 1:02:00 cracking the camera lens as it did.
Regaining the video @ 1:04:00 with views of the flaps actuation along with much cheers from the crowd.
Jubilation @ 1:06:00 with the successful splashdown and first ever starship landing burn.
Great coverage!

 

[Van]

Will the star-ship take humans back to the moon in 2026? It it looking more likely!

 

[rockytopva]

Interesting new Starship landing video

 

[rockytopva]

There are two rockets here...

Booster - Returns from the upper atmosphere to a barge somewhere at sea
Starship - Re-enters the atmosphere from space where it ended up in the Indian Ocean

Right now the Starship has been disintegrating upon re-entree. I would say the next step forward is a successful landing of the Starship on a barge somewhere out in the ocean. I would wonder if they could not orbit earth and try for a landing in American waters.

 

[rockytopva]

Dale Earnhardt accident - 2/18/2001
Space Shuttle Columbia accident- 2/01/2003

I lost interest in both NASCAR and NASA after those terrible events. It is in my hopes that SpaceX will be able to send a manned Starship into space and return the astronauts safely. I would say that there will always be margins of error in such a proposition. But... They have my curiosity up!

 

[rockytopva]

SpaceX is working on improvements to the starship 5. The main issue, as in the space shuttles, is keeping everything intact during the intense, asteroid dissolving heat of reentry....

 

[rockytopva]

Another goal is the attempt to catch both the Booster and the Starship with the tower arm.

 

[rockytopva]

Elon Musk talking about a month before the Starship 5 launch. Which should be around July sometimes. The main issue is re-entry and returning the spacecraft from re-entry intact.

"Tiles are about twice as strong that were on the last flight. We want to put secondary structure that offer a blade of protection so that if a tile cracks or comes loose it doesn't cook the rocket." - Elon Musk around 4:00 in the video below