Full steam ahead at Space X, after another record day
Image source, Reuters Image caption, People gather to observe the launch of SpaceX's Starship
It was another record breaking day for the team at SpaceX.
Its engineers achieved something never done before.
Rather than have the booster land in the ocean, as is typical, SpaceX managed to slow it from speeds in excess of 17,000 mph (27,350 km/h), guide it gently back to the launchpad and catch it in a pair of giant mechanical arms.
This is not only a step forward for the company but for the field of space exploration. Being able to capture the booster, and therefore reuse it, has the potential to significantly lower the cost of future trips.
It's full steam ahead at SpaceX.
We're ending our live coverage now. For more, read our main story on the history-making SpaceX flight.
bucky133 on October 13rd, 2024 at 13:24 UTC »
Here's a video of the catch
ethan1231 on October 13rd, 2024 at 13:20 UTC »
To anyone outside the space industry, this is massive. Not just because it’s an insane engineering feat, but what it does for space launch
Starship does the following (assuming they can successfully also land the second stage on future attempts):
• brings down launch costs down by another order of magnitude. This is after falcon 9 (F9) already dramatically reduced launch costs. Starship is advertised to be in the $200/kg range to low earth orbit. That is basically free in space terms
• larger fairing. Remember how the James Webb telescope had to be unfolded in space? That was because they had to make it smaller to fit on a launch vehicle. This adds insane cost and complexity. Starship has a much bigger fairing, reducing the need for unfolding and complexity (reduce, not eliminate)
• massive amount of capacity. Starship is yuggggee. launch is a bottleneck.
• starlink can launch bigger satellites, enabling them to have better bandwidth. You know the articles about starlink speeds have declined? Well this the answer • reusable second stage - first ever (I believe). This is future tense and hasn’t been proven yet
WillSRobs on October 13rd, 2024 at 13:11 UTC »
So whats next? What are the next steps before we start seeing payloads and trips to the moon or something with this ship.
I'm sure someone smarter than me can fill in the casual viewer