Space X can stich together a cracking video...

Evacuation notices have gone out for Thursday, looks like they're going to have a go...

Yep, SpaceX don't need clear skies. It'll launch but we won't get to see it. 😒

Launch licence…


https://hasspacexreceivedtheift3laun...licenses/69476

Original Issue Date: April 14, 2023
VOL 23 129 Rev. 2 Issued: March 13, 2024
VOL 23 129 Rev. 2 Effective: March 13, 2024

The FAA has granted license authorization for the third launch of the @SpaceX Starship Super Heavy vehicle. The FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy and financial responsibility requirements.

IT’S HERE!!! Starship flight three launch license!!! Game on for tomorrow morning, 7:00 am central [12:00 UTC], watch our 4K livestream starting tonight!

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Streaming live on the above link. Go SpaceX :ok:​​​​​​​

https://www.spacex.com/launches/miss...rship-flight-3

Live stream just showed a tephigram from a balloon ascent. It looks like there is a clear air gap above the fog but a deep layer of cloud above that. I didn't get a decent look at the data

Fuel is being loaded.....woo hoooo ! that's about 45 mins to ready to launch or thereabouts.

Wow! I mean, kudos to them but those images were extraordinary!
Looks like they lost it on re entry. Onwards and upwards.

Well.... f*ck a duck as they say, sensational. The payload door looked a bit fragile and presumably it would be on top during re-entry. A weak point perhaps for a cylindrical body. Any roll and it's game over.

Pretty sensational footage from the early stages of reentry! I got the impression that the ship's position wasn't completely stable into that phase... but I may have misinterpreted what I was seeing, since we're not used to footage like this.

I have seen a lot of re-entry footage and the stability thrusters are normally firing quite frequently, possibly due to most capsules being a lifting body shape, allowing a degree of steering. The Apollo, Dragon etc. capsules can even climb to bleed off speed.

Here is a recap video:

Another 6 flights planned this year. Whilst the booster didn’t make a success burn it landed where planned and the Starship re-entered where planned, so I can’t see a need for a further FAA investigation and licence renewal should be routine.

The failure of the engines to relight for the booster landing will have been fully covered by telemetry and I foresee it being resolved for the next flight.

The Starship is more moot. SpaceX has landed Falcons but never from orbit. Their capsules are totally different from the Starship and, even if enough telemetry was gathered, it might need major redesign across the board in heat tiles, flaps, payload door or even internal structure. The 8nternal investigation and and modifications will be the timing factor for another landing attempt.

There are other upper stages that can be tested of course - such as tankers which are not planned to be recovered as well as prototype lunar landers.

Though I note the planned Ship engine relight did not happen. Would this not cause the ship to re-enter much too fast or off trajectory leading to its inevitable loss (or perhaps deliberate destruction) ? Isn't retardation what the planned burn was for?
Astonishing achievement. That system really looks like a practical space vehicle in a way no other has even remotely achieved to date. The future is going to be very excitng, and greatly improved if only they'd ditch the juvenile, trite and largely incoherent children commenting on it with all their repeated 'aasum' s and picking their jaws off the floor - and especially idiocy like 'rud' and all that goes with it. This is serious space stuff, not a cheap TV gameshow - better to treat it as such.

From what I could gather listening to the SpaceX feed, the engine relight wasn't required as it's trajectory was spot on. They were not going to fire it retrograde either. IE the thrust from the engine would have increased the ships speed not slow it down.

“SpaceX had planned to perform a brief relight of a Raptor engine on Starship about 40 minutes after liftoff, but the company said on the webcast that this test was skipped for reasons not immediately known. The company later said the engine test was called off because of the vehicle’s roll rates.”

Consensus is that the Starship was out gassing continuously in orbit and the thrusters weren’t able to control the roll rate.

Roll continued during re-entry and exceeded the ability of th3 flaps to correct until the vehicle broke up.

Reason for the oitgassing needs to be pinpointed and corrected and thruster design may need to be rethought, perhaps going back to hot thrusters.

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/in...opic=60479.440

I guess the plan is to enthuse the "likes"/ feelz generation, not the Jack King acolytes amongst us...but I'm inclined to agree that at times some of the commentators (not just those involved in SpaceX) don't appear to be on top of their brief.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_King_(NASA)

Second link shows how much it was rolling…

​​​​​​​When watching this in real time I was really hoping Ship 28 would magically cancel out its tumbling and wind up in the perfect orientation for re-entry. That would have been extremely impressive.

I hope SpaceX will eventually say whether or not this portion of the Orbital Ballet Show was intentional.

It would be amazing to see the complete uninterrupted 45 minute video from this camera angle

Did a quick hack job on this to stabilize the rotation!