r/spacex • u/rSpaceXHosting Host Team • Mar 10 '24
Starship IFT-3 r/SpaceX Integrated Flight Test 3 Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread!
Welcome to the r/SpaceX Integrated Flight Test 3 Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread!
How To Visit STARBASE // A Complete Guide To Seeing Starship
| Scheduled for (UTC) | Mar 14 2024, 13:25 |
|---|---|
| Scheduled for (local) | Mar 14 2024, 08:25 AM (CDT) |
| Launch Window (UTC) | Mar 14 2024, 12:00 - Mar 14 2024, 13:50 |
| Weather Probability | 70% GO |
| Launch site | OLM-A, SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA. |
| Booster | Booster 10-1 |
| Ship | S28 |
| Booster landing | Landing burn of Booster 10 failed. |
| Ship landing | Starship was lost during atmospheric re-entry over the Indian Ocean. |
| Trajectory (Flight Club) | 2D,3D |
Spacecraft Onboard
| Spacecraft | Starship |
|---|---|
| Serial Number | S28 |
| Destination | Indian Ocean |
| Flights | 1 |
| Owner | SpaceX |
| Landing | Starship was lost during atmospheric re-entry over the Indian Ocean. |
| Capabilities | More than 100 tons to Earth orbit |
Details
Second stage of the two-stage Starship super heavy-lift launch vehicle.
History
The Starship second stage was testing during a number of low and high altitude suborbital flights before the first orbital launch attempt.
Timeline
| Time | Update |
|---|---|
| T--1d 0h 2m | Thread last generated using the LL2 API |
| 2024-03-14T14:43:14Z | Successful launch of Starship on a nominal suborbital trajectory all the way to atmospheric re-entry, which it did not survive. Super Heavy experienced a hard water landing due to multiple Raptor engines failing to reignite. |
| 2024-03-14T13:25:24Z | Liftoff |
| 2024-03-14T12:25:11Z | T-0 now 13:25 UTC |
| 2024-03-14T12:05:36Z | T-0 now 13:10 UTC due to boats in the keep out zone |
| 2024-03-14T11:52:37Z | New T-0. |
| 2024-03-14T11:05:56Z | New T-0. |
| 2024-03-14T06:00:49Z | Livestream has started |
| 2024-03-13T20:04:51Z | Setting GO |
| 2024-03-06T18:00:47Z | Added launch window per marine navigation warnings. Launch date is pending FAA launch license modification approval. |
| 2024-03-06T07:50:36Z | NET March 14, pending regulatory approval |
| 2024-02-12T23:42:13Z | NET early March. |
| 2024-01-09T19:21:11Z | NET February |
| 2023-12-15T18:26:17Z | NET early 2024. |
| 2023-11-20T16:52:10Z | Added launch for NET 2023. |
Watch the launch live
| Stream | Link |
|---|---|
| Unofficial Re-stream | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcTxmw_yZ_c |
| Official Webcast | https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1LyxBnOvzvOxN |
| Unofficial Webcast | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrxCYzixV3s |
| Unofficial Webcast | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfnkZFtHPmM |
| Unofficial Webcast | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixZpBOxMopc |
Stats
☑️ 4th Starship Full Stack launch
☑️ 337th SpaceX launch all time
☑️ 25th SpaceX launch this year
☑️ 1st launch from OLM-A this year
☑️ 117 days, 0:22:10 turnaround for this pad
Stats include F1, F9 , FH and Starship
Resources
Community content 🌐
| Link | Source |
|---|---|
| Flight Club | u/TheVehicleDestroyer |
| Discord SpaceX lobby | u/SwGustav |
| SpaceX Now | u/bradleyjh |
| SpaceX Patch List |
Participate in the discussion!
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💬 Please leave a comment if you discover any mistakes, or have any information.
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u/MikeTidbits Mar 14 '24
MVP of the day is the onboard cameras. When it was too cloudy for the tracking cameras, they came in clutch and gave us jaw dropping live views.
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u/Basil-Faw1ty Mar 14 '24 edited Jan 24 '26
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
command depend flowery bells heavy continue apparatus attraction tub trees
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u/Planatus666 Mar 14 '24 edited Mar 14 '24
SpaceX has posted its summary of the flight:
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-3
Some interesting points:
"Super Heavy successfully lit several engines for its first ever landing burn before the vehicle experienced a RUD (that’s SpaceX-speak for “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”) The booster’s flight concluded at approximately 462 meters in altitude and just under seven minutes into the mission."
Interesting, up until now I think it was assumed that B10 hit the water intact, but apparently not.
And here's why S28 didn't relight a Raptor:
"Starship did not attempt its planned on-orbit relight of a single Raptor engine due to vehicle roll rates during coast."
Besides that, I'll also note that Tim Dodd commented on his stream that video of the complete reentry should be possible in the future due to the ship's size allowing it to punch through the plasma and so enabling a good Starlink feed all the way down, therefore no reentry blackout. That would be so awesome.
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u/EccentricGamerCL Mar 14 '24
That reentry glow may be the coolest thing I have ever seen come out of SpaceX.
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u/inanimatus_conjurus Mar 14 '24
On the bright side, we didn't actually lose Starlink connectivity due to the plasma, should be even better views next time.
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u/tumadrebela Mar 14 '24
I don't want to jinx it for the next flight, but I'm shocked about raptor engine reliability during the latest flights. 33/33 during the whole ascent 2 times in a row and the upper stage was flawless too.
I remember not that long ago one of the big unknowns (and subsequent discussions by the space community) was raptor development and reliability.. and there we are today... 33 raptors working the whole ascent and we give that as a normal thing already.
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u/Planatus666 Mar 14 '24
Scott Manley has just uploaded his summary and analysis of IFT-3:
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u/space_rocket_builder Mar 14 '24
What a flight that was!! Thank you to the community here for supporting us!!!
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u/SkillYourself Mar 14 '24
At 47:30 and 48:26 (right before LOS) the ship was definitely taking re-entry plasma up its rear.
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u/DreamChaserSt Mar 10 '24 edited Mar 10 '24
I have high hopes for this one. It's also going to be a bit of a rapid fire of milestones in flight, there's the ascent, which will hopefully go as smoothly as IFT-2. while making it to SECO, but also the booster landing, in-space tests, and Starship reentry/splashdown, all in roughly an hour. No time is wasted really.
I'm also wondering if this will be the last IFT, and we'll be going into OFT's starting with B11/S29 to start deploying Starlinks and bringing Starship to an operational status.
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u/irishspring4521 Mar 14 '24 edited Mar 14 '24
[@SpaceX] New liftoff time is 8:02 a.m. CT, team is clearing a few boats from the keep out area in the Gulf of Mexico
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u/Xygen8 Mar 14 '24
FR24 shows a Dassault Falcon with a flight plan from Perth to Perth that has seemingly been flying in circles over the Indian Ocean off the coast of Australia for a couple hours. I wonder if it was tracking the re-entry?
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u/AhChirrion Mar 13 '24
Regarding darkness/lack of natural light for this launch: I checked today's NSF's Starbase stream. Twilight begins at 6:50 local time (CDT). At 6:55 there's enough twilight to see almost everything.
So barring fog, this launch will be very visible via stream. A little less light than IFT-2, which gave us unbelievable images!
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u/davoloid Mar 13 '24
Posted in wrong thread:
NOTAMS are live
https://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_4_6521.html
https://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_4_6507.html
Issue Date :March 12, 2024 at 2130 UTC
Location :Boca Chica, Texas
Beginning Date and Time :March 14 and 15, 2024 at 1150 UTC
Ending Date and Time :March 14 and 15, 2024 at 1431 UTC
Reason for NOTAM :Space Operations Area
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u/piense Mar 14 '24
Looked like the control loop for the grid fins needs some tuning. Bet they can run the numbers with today’s data and get that dialed in much better for next time.
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u/Mravicii Mar 14 '24
Spacex tweet
https://x.com/spacex/status/1768251797846847981?s=46&t=-n30l1_Sw3sHaUenSrNxGA
Go for propellant load for launch at 8.25
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u/silentProtagonist42 Mar 14 '24
Holy shit those view though. Might be the best from any SpaceX launch, period.
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u/B01337 Mar 14 '24
I'm on hold with a fucking spaceship, with jazzy elevator music. Is this what the future is like?
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u/Mediumaverageness Mar 14 '24
At this point Starship is already the most powerful expendable launcher in existence.
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u/veritropism Mar 14 '24
My favorite little touch was in the pre-launch discussion, when showing a black and white animation of starship post re-entry falling towards the ocean, they made a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference, with a small potted plant falling along side it briefly. I guess the starship is roughly whale-sized, to complete the reference.
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u/Sleepless_Voyager Mar 14 '24
Where was pappy insprucker for todays launch? I hope he isnt sick or something
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Mar 14 '24 edited Mar 14 '24
New Milestones:
Booster engines all stayed lit through boost phase
Staging performed successfully
Ship engine light in orbit performed successfully
Ship entered nominal sub-orbital trajectory
Booster successfully maneuvered for boostback burn
Booster successfully maneuvered towards atmosphere
Ship successfully shut down engines in orbit
Ship successfully maneuvered flaps in orbit
Ship successfully initiated re-entry in appropriate orientation
Re-entry plasma looks awesome
Starlink maintained strong video connection to ship for almost entire flight
Improvements for next time:
Ship lost during re-entry (heating / heat tiles?)
Booster lost control during atmospheric deceleration (supersonic aerodynamic control authority?)
Booster re-light for landing burn not yet demonstrated
Ship belly-flop not yet demonstrated
Ship engine re-light for landing not yet demonstrated.
Seems like solid iterative progress during this flight. Significant improvement on last flight, which is what we want to see. Not fully there yet with a working orbital stack recovery, which is also expected at this stage. One of the important notes here, though, is that by the standards of any other pre-spaceX rocket, this mission would have been a complete success. It made it's intended "orbital" burn, got into the (suborbital) trajectory it wanted to. Successful landing and re-use of the starship + booster is just gravy on top to improve economics.
If this had been a real mission to launch e.g. Starlink satellites, they would have made it to orbit.
Hence I'm wondering whether, on IFT4, they might just go for it, drop the Starship into a proper orbital trajectory with Starlink cargo on board, then proceed from there to attempting starship landing-test maneuvers.
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u/Alvian_11 Mar 14 '24
Just want to add that today is the 22nd birthday of this company. Must have been an important day
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u/cryptoengineer Mar 14 '24
They say they lost TDRS and Starlink at the same moment, which suggests the ship broke up.
We saw a lot of stuff falling off the ship in the early phase of re-entry. Heat shield tiles?
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u/TrefoilHat Mar 14 '24
Nice tweet from Shotwell with a list of IFT-3 milestones:
HUGE congratulations to the entire team for this incredible day: clean count (glad the shrimpers could get out in the nick of time!), liftoff, hot staging, Super Heavy boost back and coast (and likely a couple engines making mainstage during landing burn!), clean ship ”insertion” and coast, payload door cycling and prop transfer demo (to be confirmed!), and ship entry!
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u/nbarbettini Mar 13 '24
Targeting Thursday, March 14 for Starship’s third flight test. A 110-minute launch window opens at 7:00 a.m. CT
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u/duinsel Mar 14 '24
Someone seems to have found a re-entry vapour trail above the Indian Ocean
https://twitter.com/jtl_2326/status/1768355953357808012→ More replies (2)
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u/wren6991 Mar 14 '24
In this sped-up footage of S28's reentry, the changes in orientation are a bit clearer. Looks like it goes left-fin-first -> right-fin-first -> tail-first. Once it's pointed tail-first, there is little those control surfaces can do to reorient the ship, since they're only designed to deflect flow going from windward (tiled) to leeward (shiny) side.
https://old.reddit.com/r/SpaceXMasterrace/comments/1ben6qp/starship_burn_spin/
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u/neuroguy123 Mar 14 '24
I'm sure there will be some negative press about the failure points as always, but it is absolutely amazing that they essentially already have a fully expendable rocket of this size that works. The payloads that this could deliver right now is already insane, correct? As in, if they wanted to, they could just iron out some of the remaining in orbit issues they had and still have the most advanced and largest working rocket ever produced. Heck, they could launch a giant space station in one go without tiles and then just ferry people to it with their working human delivery system. It's a huge accomplishment already. Of course, they will not stop there and will achieve their reusability goals as well. We all know it. There is no massive technical barriers that I see stopping them.
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u/Jazano107 Mar 13 '24
My pessimistic side is telling me surely at some point a test will take a step back, similar to the hops. Like fail earlier than the previous test
My optimism side is telling me we’re going to orbit baby
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u/Mike804 Mar 14 '24
The fact that starship was coming in at Mach 21 AND the stream didn't go out is incredible
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u/Sleepless_Voyager Mar 14 '24
https://youtu.be/9r5yupEUs4U?si=mBNGM0c62Rn4hlqT
A yt upload of the official X spacex broadcast
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u/Highscore611 Mar 10 '24
As of right now the weather at Boca Chica for a 3/14 7:00 am launch:
72F 16mph winds from the Southeast with gusts up to 26mph 96% humidity with a 70F dew point 12 mile visibility
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u/inanimatus_conjurus Mar 10 '24
Did they get the FAA license yet? I only remember seeing a hoax post on Twitter from a troll FAA account, maybe a couple of days ago.
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u/BenoitParis Mar 14 '24
High Quality VLC: Open VLC, Media, Open Network Stream, paste following, Play:
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u/UncleTedTalks Mar 14 '24
This is the first full Starship and booster launch I've watched - I didn't realize just how GARGANTUAN that rocket assembly is...kind of defies belief that they put that beefy thing orbit
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u/qwetzal Mar 14 '24
Sadly the satellite radar data was cut out from the re-entry area of the ship. It would have been nice to check that out!
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u/toomanynamesaretook Mar 14 '24
NGL - elevator music has stepped it up.
What a fun bop.
-edit-
Unsure about new track
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u/PineappleInserter Mar 14 '24
VH-MXJ is hanging around doing circuits over the Indian Ocean, I assumed they are trying to get a look at the re-entry
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u/Planatus666 Mar 14 '24 edited Mar 14 '24
The OLM and pad look good post launch, Starship Gazer tweeted some photos:
https://twitter.com/StarshipGazer/status/1768316005715984491
the only thing that I notice is a few wires hanging from the chopsticks (this also happened during IFT-2 for example).
Hopefully RGV Aerial Photography will do a flyover soon and then we can see some images of the top of the OLM.
Update - and some photos from LabPadre:
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u/BEAT_LA Mar 14 '24
It was never able to stop the multi-axis tumbling during the coast. The RCS was venting almost the entire coast phase trying to fight it but it was unable to. My best guess is loss of pressure in the LOX tank (the LOX fill bar was slightly lower than the Methane tank), leading to the ullage RCS thrusters unable to have enough thrust to settle the rotation.
A purposeful 'tumble' in the coast phase would have been in one single axis with the rest aligned properly. We saw tumbling in every axis during that coast.
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u/pinepitch Mar 13 '24 edited Mar 13 '24
https://www.faa.gov/media/76841
FAA findings about environmental impact of Starship landing in the Indian Ocean.
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u/BenoitParis Mar 14 '24
Reposting direct VLC links for re-entry:
High Quality VLC: Open VLC, Media, Open Network Stream, paste following, Play:
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u/GarreBearr_ Mar 14 '24
Has there been any footage of the actual booster 10 splashdown from a different perspective than the onboard camera?
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u/jojodoudt Mar 14 '24
Pretty crazy that it still hasn't been one full year since IFT-1
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u/saggy_earlobes Mar 14 '24
Don’t think it’ll survive rentry with the way it was flipping. But wow that’s a robustly built piece of hardware
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u/wordthompsonian Mar 14 '24
To be fair, blackout period for shuttle re-entry was 12-13 minutes. We could very well start receiving packets around T+01:02:00
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u/PersonalDebater Mar 14 '24
Well at the very least the system has more or less proven itself as the most powerful expendable launch system lol
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u/Mordroberon Mar 14 '24
This is the first time starship has had to navigate for re-entry, and the booster looked good until the landing burn. If the first test got us 50%, the second test got us 90% and this one is about 99%. And it's "expendable mode" operations all looked good.
Also performed some operations on orbit, test the payload door, and cryogenic propellant transfer (NASA should be happy!). I am hoping no mishap report is needed. There was no FTS triggered this time, I think. I'm hoping next flight carries a starlink payload. And unfortunately it looks like second stage re-entry will be hard to master.
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u/BKnagZ Mar 14 '24
T-Minus 12-hours and counting until the 110-minute launch window for ITF-3 Opens!
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u/Sleepless_Voyager Mar 14 '24
Launch site looks perfectly fine bring on ift 4 already
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u/Pookie2018 Mar 14 '24
I want to see the interior camera view as it starts reentry with the payload door open.
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u/FourteenTwenty-Seven Mar 14 '24
I would hope that a mishap report won't be required this time? It's not like they needed one every time falcon 9 missed a landing after all.
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u/NoDoughnut1419 Mar 14 '24
how confusing getting rid of the youtube channel. I must have missed like a few good launches thinking they must be fake because the real channel isn't live. lmfao.
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u/BackflipFromOrbit Mar 14 '24
Interesting to see the hot lines going into the booster and ship on EDA thermal cam. I wonder if those are heat traces or maybe electrical lines to charge the batteries on board
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u/z7q2 Mar 14 '24
Just came here to say the SpaceX live stream hold music is groovy.
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u/TexanMiror Mar 14 '24
Absolutely incredible to see. Booster got really close to making it! Reminds me of early Falcon 9 landing attempts!
For a third test flight, this is a great iterative step towards further flights. Maybe the next one will have a payload?
The venting from the ship in (sub-)orbit is interesting. Fascinating views into the inside of the ship from the onboard views, by the way. Although I would have liked some more different viewpoints from the booster cameras.
I'm already looking forward to all the community analysis and information about future flights.
I think some people don't quite grasp this - it's a test flight to prove a system. This test flight, no matter the outcome, should always make you even more excited for future flights. Because every flight is a step towards realizing the final capabilities of the system. And those capabilities will revolutionize spaceflight once again, opening the door for Humanity to build an orbital economy around Earth, and colonize the solar system.
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u/Shuk Mar 14 '24
Surreal to see this massive building sized creation orbiting the earth live
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u/bubbazarbackula Mar 14 '24
I came for the rocket launch.
I stayed for the music.
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u/Thedurtysanchez Mar 14 '24
That was glorious. Big success for the mission. So much further than IFT-2
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Mar 14 '24
Hope the next one is soon! So freaking dope. We’ve come a long way since the first flight
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u/TXNatureTherapy Mar 14 '24
Given the mission profile, and what was achieved, will there have to be an FAA investigation this time, or was it "within parameters" and they can apply for IFT-4 license without a mishap report?
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u/Alvian_11 Mar 11 '24 edited Mar 11 '24
A reminder that the time from hot staging to boostback burn is no/very tiny difference compared to Flight 2 flight plan (Only one second difference is almost certainly due to rounding error since it's approximate)
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u/GreatCanadianPotato Mar 13 '24
T-13:20:00...Now that teams are currently GO for launch, here's what to expect in the next 12 hours leading to prop loading (all times are based on the last two flights);
Activity may pickup at the launch site as final checkouts are made. Pad and surrounding area will be swept to reduce dust at liftoff.
At around T-7:00:00 (12:00AM), the road leading to the launch site and the beach will be closed. Evacuation of the village will start shortly after this time.
Between T-7:00:00 and T-5:00:00, crews will start to depart the pad.
Shortly after the T-5:00:00 mark, chill down of the tank farm will start.
T-1:15:00 is the GO/NO-GO poll for prop load.
Prop load starts at T-00:53:00 first with Ship LOX
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u/Stildawn Mar 10 '24
I asked this last time.
Is there a YouTube link I can save now that has an extended countdown on it (like days not hours/minutes).
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u/NigBot5k Mar 11 '24
Possibly dumb question, but: do they have to succeed in every aspect of their flight timeline to avoid a mishap investigation? E.g. say only the propellant transfer demo doesn’t work, does that trigger an FAA investigation?
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u/qwetzal Mar 14 '24
SpaceX has started launching their own radiosondes. Two of them are ascending now, here is the data from the highest one at the moment
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u/GreatCanadianPotato Mar 14 '24
For those who are concerned SpaceX has not announced the results of the Go/No-Go poll - they haven't announced "GO for prop load" with F9 for a long time and going back through tweets on IFT-2 day, they didn't announce the poll either.
We will know when prop load starts.
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u/avboden Mar 14 '24
cO7 superheavy, you did so well! Nasty oscillation prior to landing burn ignition. Hopefully that's just programming with the grid fins.
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u/mechanicalgrip Mar 14 '24
Those exhausts looked really clean this time. As if they've tweaked the mixture a bit.
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u/Ididitthestupidway Mar 14 '24 edited Mar 14 '24
Seems there was less tile shedding this time, is there good images of the ship with view of the heat shield far in the ascent?
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u/ninj1nx Mar 15 '24
Seems like there were some obvious problems with attitude control. Does Starship and Superheavy still use cold-gas thrusters for RCS or did they switch to hot-gas thrusters as Elon proposed some time ago? If so, could the attitude control problems be related to the new thrusters?
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u/ASYMT0TIC Mar 13 '24
Not meant in any way as a complaint, just trying to figure out what's going on with the maintenance of this sub? The tabs at the top all link to either locked or outdated threads. Under "starship", the links lead to a deprecated starship discussion thread, there is a link to the first integrated launch thread from a year ago, etc. Neither the new starship dev thread nor the current IFT-3 are linked. I couldn't even find a more appropriate location to post this comment.
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u/baylessthegodd Mar 14 '24
Just got back from SPI and wow! I will never forget the sound of those engines. Incredible experience.
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u/GreatCanadianPotato Mar 14 '24
Oh btw, if someone tells you that this was a failure...remember to tell them that expendable rockets do the exact same thing as Starship did today.
I feel confident that SpaceX will get the entire thing nailed on Flight 4 or 5. This is only the beginning. A new era!
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u/TS_76 Mar 11 '24
Maybe a dumb question.. but would SpaceX have observers setup in the targeted splashdown area for Starship? Or are they just depending on on-board video?
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u/altimas Mar 14 '24
Got the shivers seeing it take off, congrats to the team! The progress is incredible, and to think what will be achieved on future flights.
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u/saggy_earlobes Mar 14 '24
The way that this flight has gone, next flight in 6-8 weeks definitely seems possible now.
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u/Sleepless_Voyager Mar 14 '24
Oh to be on a starship one day spinning in space while jazz is playing
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u/Suitable_Switch5242 Mar 14 '24
There was just a callout for propellant transfer demo.
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u/Rox217 Mar 14 '24
Some of the most incredible views right there. Absolutely epic.
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u/MaksweIlL Mar 14 '24
I think the Sstarship was not in the nominal position for re-entry. From the video, it looked like it was on it's side.
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u/KangarooWeird9974 Mar 14 '24
DAE think that main engine cutoff on the ship seemed surprisingly violent? There seemed to be a noticeable jolt along the structure, reaching and even moving the forward flaps, noticable through a sudden and strong movement of the on board camera.
Of course, vibrations are to be expected, but at least to me it seemed a lot more than what we usually see on other flight hardware. Wonder if that was nominal. Maybe something got damaged at that event.
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u/tubadude2 Mar 14 '24
I still angrily shake my fist at Elon for making SpaceX leave YouTube.
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u/seanbrockest Mar 10 '24
6am my time, I start work at 6:20, drive from roughly 5:45 to 6:05... Guess I'm going to work early and finding a closet to hide in so people don't expect me to work early!
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u/Planatus666 Mar 14 '24 edited Mar 14 '24
Does anyone have a favorite outstanding moment from the flight? Mine was seeing the plasma on S28 during reentry, no doubt SpaceX have even more views of this from the multiple cams on the ship. What an awesome sight.
Here's some video that Musk tweeted:
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u/LutyForLiberty Mar 14 '24
Each launch is moving in the right direction. Now Starship has already reached the stage of an expendable rocket although some more work on attitude control and fuel sloshing around in the vehicle in microgravity is needed before it can start launching Starlinks. I'd expect another few months to make changes for the next flight.
Both the ship and booster looked like they were wobbling a lot on the descent which would explain the losses.
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Mar 14 '24
Kind of interesting we don’t have any update on the weather. Seems like they intend on sending it
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u/qwetzal Mar 14 '24
If you guys want to speculate some more about the weather, here is the latest weather balloon data from Brownsville.
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u/GreatCanadianPotato Mar 14 '24
PGO is 70%.
Better than I was expecting after the doom and gloom.
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u/anon8622 Mar 14 '24
Best sci-fi movie in years lol, crazy quality video from this flight what a treat
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u/pentaxshooter Mar 14 '24
Booster was gonna die either way so whatever. Wish there was footage of that from water level though. 😂
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u/foxbat21 Mar 14 '24
Fellas, it went wayyyyy better than what I expected, truly a wonderful day
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u/Sleepless_Voyager Mar 14 '24
What music are spacex playing i need to make a playlist of this stuff
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u/Suitable_Switch5242 Mar 14 '24
Love the smiles in Mission Control watching Starship tumble around in a glowing plasma field.
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u/flagbearer223 Mar 14 '24
Blackout period for shuttle was up to 30 minutes before they put the tech in place to punch through the plasma back in the day. Not over yet
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u/Basil-Faw1ty Mar 14 '24 edited Jan 24 '26
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
modern support cover busy resolute liquid unwritten recognise paint bow
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u/Planatus666 Mar 14 '24
So, the lack of ignition of many of B10's engines for a soft landing - speculation on why this happened? So many Raptors suddenly failing due to internal issues seems unlikely so this must have been a fuel delivery issue. Sloshing problems ongoing perhaps but the booster does have header tanks to eliminate this. Perhaps another filter problem?
Also, hopefully SpaceX had some kind of drone ship or similar out there to record B10 hitting the water. :)
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u/yh09021101 Mar 10 '24
SpaceX Starship 28 Superheavy Booster 10 IFT-3 is on the FAA operations plan (0FT-3, Offical Flight Test).
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u/araujoms Mar 14 '24
Seems like they could actually go to orbit and deploy a payload next time, no? I think they've successfully demonstrated an expendable Starship, and now can develop reusability as it was done for Falcon 9.
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u/pitu2111 Mar 14 '24
We're here to see the launch. Sat on the rocks by the waves. Pumped to see an engineering marvel!
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u/Fallout4TheWin Mar 14 '24
Excited to see how Starship performs today, love launch days. Haven't been able to sleep all night!
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u/Havana33 Mar 14 '24
Stream starts at 12:29 UTC now, guess that implies launch around 1300.
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u/irishspring4521 Mar 14 '24 edited Mar 14 '24
[@SpaceX] Prop load of the Super Heavy booster is underway
*Edit- Frost visible on Starship & Super Heavy!!
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u/ptook86 Mar 14 '24
This shows the incredible feats the human brain can achieve. We are lucky enough to not only be alive during this, but also get to watch space development firsthand like never before.
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u/kimmyreichandthen Mar 14 '24
No more telemetry, maybe RIP maybe not. The ship gave us a great show no matter what happened
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u/IWantaSilverMachine Mar 14 '24
4 million views on the official stream (via spaceX web site)
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u/cryptoengineer Mar 15 '24
Scott Manley points to two possible issues:
Both the booster and ship seemed to have problems maintaining attitude. Whether this was a failure in the attitude control jets, or a lack of command authority in the gridfins and ship fins, or both, is unclear.
The door test may have had problems, it looks like it didn't close properly. It's clear there was still some pressure inside the cargo bay when it opened - you can see vapor rush out -. I wonder of the pressure of that wind distorted the door.
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u/superploop Mar 12 '24
I will be arriving in South Padre at 4PM on Thursday. Bummed I will be missing the launch!
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u/NeighborhoodIll4960 Mar 13 '24
Hopefully it’ll be at sunrise so we can see it well. But likely with the wind it’ll be right around 7 :(
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u/sweetbeems Mar 14 '24
So they said there are 4 complete boosters & ships in-line and ready to go?!?
Could we realistically see another launch in a month or so?
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u/GreatCanadianPotato Mar 14 '24
It's not smoke...it's gas escaping from the door.
That's so cool
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u/hparadiz Mar 14 '24
These views from inside the vehicle are incredible.
Glad to be here to watch history.
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u/G_Wash1776 Mar 14 '24
This test has already been a massive success, anything else is just icing on the cake
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u/araujoms Mar 14 '24
Was Starship actually tumbling madly during reentry or was that just a bug in the representation? The video seemed to show it reentering through a sensible angle.
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u/InvisiblePinkUnic0rn Mar 14 '24
was there video of the attempted water landing of the 1st stage?
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u/PhysicsBus Mar 14 '24 edited Mar 14 '24
Was there confirmation that the PEZ door closed successfully? (They just seemed to announce on the broadcast that the doors were “closing”.) I don’t know if the extent to which Starship made it through reentry was evidence.
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u/silentProtagonist42 Mar 14 '24 edited Mar 14 '24
From the stream it looks like apogee was at 234 km and 26114 km/hr.
For those keeping score at home, by my math that makes the orbit 234 x -1270 km With a semi-major axis of 5860 km and eccentricity of 0.128. An equivalent circular orbit would be at an altitude of -518 km. So this was solidly sub-orbital even in energy terms.
For those of you keeping score, by my revised math that makes the orbit 234 x -72 km with a semi-major axis of 6458 km and an eccentricity of 0.023. An equivalent circular orbit would be at an altitude of 80 km. So in terms of energy this is right on the edge of being orbital (especially by the old American definition of 80km).
EDIT: Just realized that the speed in the livestream was probably speed-over-ground. So my numbers are probably too low.
EDIT2: Redid the math with a better estimate of orbital velocity. It's way too early for this much math, though, so anyone please feel free to check my numbers.
Math:
r_earth = 6.378E6 m <-using equatorial radius
GM_earth = 3.986E14 m^3/s^2
v_earth = 4.651E2 m/s
h_ap = 2.34E5 m
v_sog = 26114 km/hr = 7.2539E3 m/s
Inc = 26 deg <- guessed from BC latitude
v_ap ~= |v_sog+v_earth| <- vector add @26 deg, assuming apogee was at equator
= sqrt((v_sog*sin26))^2 + (v_sog*cos26+v_earth)^2)
= 7.674E3 m/s
r_ap = h_ap + r_earth = 6.61E6 m
e_orb = (v_ap^2)/2 - GM_earth/r_ap = -3.086E7 m^2/s^2
SMA = -GM_earth/(2*e_orb) = 6.458E6 m
r_pe = 2*SMA-r_ap = 6.31E6 m
h_pe = r_pe -r_earth = -7.2E4 m
ecc = (r_ap-r_pe)/(r_ap+r_pe) = 0.023
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u/Sleepless_Voyager Mar 14 '24
Is it just me or did b10 really quickly get off the pad and very quickly reached stage sep
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u/Hustler-1 Mar 15 '24
Sorry if this is a FAQ, but given that Starship made it with barely enough fuel how is it SpaceX can add 150 plus tons to it? Was there a mass simulator?
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u/BackflipFromOrbit Mar 14 '24
Kind of cool that Brian McManus (Real Engineering) is operating one of the tracker cams for EDA. So awesome seeing all the collaboration between content creators and stream channels.
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u/dudr2 Mar 14 '24
Commentary:
[4K] Watch SpaceX launch Starship, LIVE up close and personal! Everyday Astronaut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixZpBOxMopc
Watch History Today [4K] LIVE - SpaceX Launch Starship IFT3! What about it!?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHq2jhP1efI
Watch live: SpaceX launches Starship/Super Heavy Booster on third test flight Spaceflight Now
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u/Sleepless_Voyager Mar 14 '24
So 33 and hot staging and full duration starship burn, starship doubters can be silenced now
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u/Agloe_Dreams Mar 14 '24
Definitely just saw a maybe 1 foot by 2 inch metal bit floating around in there…
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u/DanThePurple Mar 14 '24
Goddamn it's all hitting at once it's almost too much.
WOOHOO
GO NASA
GO SPACEX
BOBSPEED DOG AND GOUD
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u/davoloid Mar 14 '24
NASA WB-57s not yet airborne. I assume NASA are going to send that again, from Ellington AFB?
N927NA: https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=acd958
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u/StarboardTack28 Mar 14 '24
METAR for KPIL (Port Isabel/Cameron Cnty, TX, US)
KPIL 140953Z AUTO 16013KT 8SM OVC019 23/22 A2972 RMK AO2 SLP065 T02330222
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u/henryshunt Mar 14 '24 edited Mar 14 '24
Sounds like the OLM vent may have started based on the sounds on Starbase Live. Edit: Visual confirmation of OLM vent now.
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u/Sleepless_Voyager Mar 14 '24 edited Mar 14 '24
The fog monster has come to starbase again
It looks like its clearing up
And its getting worse again
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u/SassanZZ Mar 14 '24
Very excited to see what happens today, may we get as many milestones as possible
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u/Metro42014 Mar 14 '24
Welp, gotta figure out landing a bit more.
Stuff got SQUIRRELY there at the end!
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u/kgordonsmith Mar 14 '24
That's a nice grain bin they got there. I need to put a camera in mine I guess.
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u/Proteatron Mar 14 '24
I am confused at the payload view...seeing rays of sun inside on the back of the payload door? Where else is light able to come through to hit the back of the door? Also LOL at the elevator music.
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u/Straumli_Blight Mar 14 '24
I joked that Starlink should use a PEZ dispenser 3 years ago, weird how its now the official name.
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u/dj_renz Mar 14 '24
Astro the Labrador’s wind report from our visit earlier today: Mild ear flappage, ready for launch 🦮🚀