Or learn to make their commentary interesting. For example, tell us about the loss of mass per second when the engines are at full chat. Tell us the rate of acceleration and how that increases as the fuel is used up. Explain why the tanks are pressurised or why the exhaust plume is pencil shaped at sea level. There's a lot of science to be explained just by the colour of the exhaust plumes. I do a few STEM talks each year and try to avoid saying anything that the room has heard before. For example, the Shuttle orbital manoeuvring engines are derived from the Apollo SM hypergolic engines that braked the spacecraft into lunar orbit and accelerated it on the way home.

Perhaps I have a retirement job opportunity but I doubt I would last long after too many "clucking hell, that's loud" comments.

Static fire of a single Raptor engine using the header tanks on Flight 4 Starship.

From Starbase to Cape Canaveral: The first Super Heavy booster for future Starship launches from Florida arrived at Port Canaveral this morning.

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I'm assuming that's an April fool gag?

It is.

Some interesting notes:

Flight 4 in a month or so. Aim to get through the high heating regime. Into the ocean at a controlled spot - a virtual tower (soft water landing technique).

If that works, "Flight 5 will land on the Tower" (catch the booster with the chopsticks).

99 percent of all mass from Earth to orbit when Starship is flying (fully operational).

Goal to get 200 tons to orbit with full reusability.

Two pinpoint soft landings are required for Ship for catches. Maybe next year.

Two Towers by sometime next year. Two at Starbase. Two at the Cape - first operation middle of next year (will be 39A).

Planning to build another roughly six boosters and ships and that production rate will increase a lot next year. That's why we're building the giant factory.

Per Mars, need more ships than boosters. - "aim to ramp production to pretty high numbers, ultimately probably a ship every, like multiple ships per day".

Next year aiming to demonstrate ship-to-ship propellant transfer.

Lunar Starship - "we need landing legs. And you don't need a heat shield and you don't need flaps because there's no atmosphere. So the Moon ship would be specialized".

Performance - "we've made dramatic progress on every level for Starship has evolved from, you know, optimistically 185 tons to 280".

"We'll aim to get the booster engines over 330 tons of thrust, which would mean 10,000 tons of total thrust at liftoff. Raptor 3 also will not need a heat shield".

Cost: "The Starship 3 (much taller version) will be 400 times more payload for less than the cost of a Falcon 1. Ultimately, I think we might be able to get the cost per flight to Earth orbit down to around $2 million or $3 million".

Lots about Mars Base Alpha.

Long-term - "we'll probably have some offshore launch sites".

I’m reminded of the concept that generations of machinery start off being very complicated and end up looking very simple - but it’s just the sophistication of the engineering being at a much more basic level…

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Animation of booster landing and capture…The update included near-term priorities for Starship that will unlock its ability to be fully and rapidly reusable, the core enabler for transforming humanity’s ability to send large amounts of payload to orbit and beyond

​​​​​​​Static fire of the Flight 4 Super Heavy booster

That's impressive. 3 weeks from launch to static fire!

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2024...-future-focus/

As IFT-4 prepares for launch, Starship’s future is coming into focus

https://wccftech.com/spacexs-fourth-...nasa-official/

SpaceX’s Fourth Starship IFT-4 Test Is On Track For May Reveals NASA Official

With April nearly over, SpaceX's highly anticipated fourth Starship test flight remains on schedule for a May test attempt, according to comments made by a NASA official earlier today.

NASA and SpaceX are working together to ensure that Starship, the world's largest rocket, can support the agency's multi billion dollar effort to explore the Moon under the Artemis program.

On this front, NASA's deputy associate administrator for the Moon to Mars program, Amit Kshatriya, shared the latest details for Starship at an Advisory Council meeting held earlier today, where he outlined that the fourth Starship test flight is currently scheduled to take place next month…..

At the meeting, NASA's Kshatriya shared that, as of now, the space agency is hoping that the fourth SpaceX Starship test flight will take place by the end of May.

His comments build on statements made by SpaceX's president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell, who had taken the lead in March to share that the fourth Starship test flight was being targeted for May…..

The March Starship launch also saw SpaceX run a crucial test for NASA to transport propellant within the vehicle's tanks. Kshatriya commented that he believes that the test was successful by all means, but a month after the test, NASA is still evaluating the data to make a definitive conclusion.

He added that the crucial Starship un-crewed lunar landing test, which is scheduled before the first crew board the ship, will now also require SpaceX to demonstrate that the spaceship can lift off from the lunar surface to the lunar orbit…..

Sky crane delivering HVAC units to Starfactory.

Super Heavy Booster 11 is moving to the launch complex tonight to prepare for the upcoming test flight 4.

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S29 has left the build site, following B11's barely disturbed footprints, and headed towards the chopsticks for stacking on the giant's shoulders.

​​​​​​​ This is shaping up to be a not-your-usual-quiet-Sunday at Starbase.

An incident with Starship 31 last night which will probably drop it out of the planned launch sequence.

Experimenting with a new type of hot thruster?

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ICYMI: SpaceX bought a Boeing 737-800 from Air China. It's main purpose is shuttle staff between Los Angeles and Brownsville, to support the Starship efforts.

In mid-Feb it had it's first operational flight and this is the mission patch to celebrate.


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Starship flight 4 full stack…..

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d08b67283f.png

Still no news on the launch date though.

Wet Dress Rehearsal tomorrow?

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b04655db08.png