Starship is the largest and most powerful space carrier ever built, and its purpose is to take astronauts to the Moon and Mars. After a series of increasingly complex test flights—which began in 2019 with brief tests on a vehicle dubbed Starhopper that initially lifted just a few meters off the ground—SpaceX has moved on to more ambitious tests of the Starship capsule and Super Heavy rocket.
The [most recent test](https://www.wired.com/story/spacex-starship-superheavy-mars-launch-elon-musk/) before yesterday’s was in June, when both the rocket and the spacecraft managed, despite some serious issues, to survive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere and practise ocean landings, with Super Heavy simulating its future return to the launch tower by maneuvering in a controlled descent to a specific spot over the Gulf of Mexico.
Landing rockets after flight is a feat that SpaceX has already managed to accomplish many times with its smallest rocket, the Falcon 9, which is a staple of its current operations. Starship, however, is a much more powerful and complex system than Falcon 9. With its 33 engines, which are more powerful than those used on the Falcon, the Super Heavy booster offers about 10 times as much thrust at takeoff, and is a much larger piece of machinery, making the landing feat more difficult.
I heard the hardest part is mining for energy on Mars for return flights. Any progress there is crucial but I dont’ think they have started
FakinFunk on
The engineering behind something like this is just astounding. Simply amazing what humans working together can do.
There will still never be human colonization of other planets, but we can significantly ramp up the exploration of our own solar system with robot probes and explorers. But Earth will always remain the only place that hosts a permanent human population.
Beahner on
Accurate in that it is a step closer.
But, relative to all the big and remaining challenges of interplanetary travel, it is one very small step.
One exciting very small step….
LazyLogics on
Accept that this was the 5th flight of the rocket and it still can’t make orbit let alone bring any cargo with it…pretty fuxking useless and a huge waste of tax money. I doubt any rocket will be caught by the launch tower after they drop this project.
Decronym on
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|——-|———|—|
|[LEO](/r/Space/comments/1g3g606/stub/lrx6n3k “Last usage”)|Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)|
| |Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)|
|[LLO](/r/Space/comments/1g3g606/stub/lrw9mi8 “Last usage”)|Low Lunar Orbit (below 100km)|
|Jargon|Definition|
|——-|———|—|
|[Sabatier](/r/Space/comments/1g3g606/stub/lrwqtgy “Last usage”)|Reaction between hydrogen and carbon dioxide at high temperature and pressure, with nickel as catalyst, yielding methane and water|
**NOTE**: Decronym for Reddit is no longer supported, and Decronym has moved to Lemmy; requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.
LOL, that has got to be the most ridiculous sentence I’ve seen all year. It is in reality a nothing burger. Do it five times in a row and we are on our way to saving money while we try and make it back to the moon.
ShambolicPaul on
Thunderfoot was saying there is no market out there for this rocket or starship. He can’t see a use case for either. Nobody wants or needs to get to the moon, let alone Mars. Leaving space x wholly dependent upon government contracts.
8 Comments
Starship is the largest and most powerful space carrier ever built, and its purpose is to take astronauts to the Moon and Mars. After a series of increasingly complex test flights—which began in 2019 with brief tests on a vehicle dubbed Starhopper that initially lifted just a few meters off the ground—SpaceX has moved on to more ambitious tests of the Starship capsule and Super Heavy rocket.
The [most recent test](https://www.wired.com/story/spacex-starship-superheavy-mars-launch-elon-musk/) before yesterday’s was in June, when both the rocket and the spacecraft managed, despite some serious issues, to survive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere and practise ocean landings, with Super Heavy simulating its future return to the launch tower by maneuvering in a controlled descent to a specific spot over the Gulf of Mexico.
Landing rockets after flight is a feat that SpaceX has already managed to accomplish many times with its smallest rocket, the Falcon 9, which is a staple of its current operations. Starship, however, is a much more powerful and complex system than Falcon 9. With its 33 engines, which are more powerful than those used on the Falcon, the Super Heavy booster offers about 10 times as much thrust at takeoff, and is a much larger piece of machinery, making the landing feat more difficult.
Read more: [https://www.wired.com/story/spacex-starship-super-heavy-mechazilla-catch/](https://www.wired.com/story/spacex-starship-super-heavy-mechazilla-catch/)
I heard the hardest part is mining for energy on Mars for return flights. Any progress there is crucial but I dont’ think they have started
The engineering behind something like this is just astounding. Simply amazing what humans working together can do.
There will still never be human colonization of other planets, but we can significantly ramp up the exploration of our own solar system with robot probes and explorers. But Earth will always remain the only place that hosts a permanent human population.
Accurate in that it is a step closer.
But, relative to all the big and remaining challenges of interplanetary travel, it is one very small step.
One exciting very small step….
Accept that this was the 5th flight of the rocket and it still can’t make orbit let alone bring any cargo with it…pretty fuxking useless and a huge waste of tax money. I doubt any rocket will be caught by the launch tower after they drop this project.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|——-|———|—|
|[LEO](/r/Space/comments/1g3g606/stub/lrx6n3k “Last usage”)|Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)|
| |Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)|
|[LLO](/r/Space/comments/1g3g606/stub/lrw9mi8 “Last usage”)|Low Lunar Orbit (below 100km)|
|Jargon|Definition|
|——-|———|—|
|[Sabatier](/r/Space/comments/1g3g606/stub/lrwqtgy “Last usage”)|Reaction between hydrogen and carbon dioxide at high temperature and pressure, with nickel as catalyst, yielding methane and water|
**NOTE**: Decronym for Reddit is no longer supported, and Decronym has moved to Lemmy; requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.
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^([Thread #10694 for this sub, first seen 14th Oct 2024, 17:52])
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LOL, that has got to be the most ridiculous sentence I’ve seen all year. It is in reality a nothing burger. Do it five times in a row and we are on our way to saving money while we try and make it back to the moon.
Thunderfoot was saying there is no market out there for this rocket or starship. He can’t see a use case for either. Nobody wants or needs to get to the moon, let alone Mars. Leaving space x wholly dependent upon government contracts.