A thread for miscellaneous stuff...

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

Didn't it blow up over the Gulf of Mexico? Seems like immediate success was not expected. I've never seen a rocket spinning like this! Why are people cheering at the end of this video?

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/04/20/science/spacex-launch-starship-rocket

It was considered a successful launch. I guess this is a new thing, so any success is considered a success.

[porschedude996]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

Didn't it blow up over the Gulf of Mexico? Seems like immediate success was not expected. I've never seen a rocket spinning like this! Why are people cheering at the end of this video?

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/04/20/science/spacex-launch-starship-rocket

I have a little different spin on the launch. I grew up by Vandenberg Air Force Base, now Vandenberg Space Force Base, and spent most of my life well informed about early missile launches. My father was employed by Lockheed at the base as a propellant engineer beginning in 1957-1958 and at some point a Site Manager with four launch pads. I entered into the biz working space shuttle after 8 years working aircraft manufacturing and flight test and field engineering before I worked space shuttle. After that went away on the west coast, I worked NRO Payloads as a design engineer. So since the first attempts to get to into space, from 1957 to 2014, i’ve been very familiar with space launch and development.

I can tell you that you just don’t get a perfect mission and one needs to learn to crawl before you walk, and then walk well before you run. It cannot be compared to any other mode of transportation development and the huge risks at any event. I see nothing at fault or going off track of a new flight vehicle. The three representatives were a bit over the top with their development failure commentary, but in this goofy social networking age, the uninformed information written by people that can’t find their gluts, need to bow out. No offense to those here on the forum.

My son works for SpaceX at VSFB on the Falon vehicles, so he’s a third generation missile enthusiast.

So other than the comments, the joyful exuberance, and the Rapid Disassembly comment, everything thing is normal during this development phase.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by porschedude996

I have a little different spin on the launch. I grew up by Vandenberg Air Force Base, now Vandenberg Space Force Base, and spent most of my life well informed about early missile launches. My father was employed by Lockheed at the base as a propellant engineer beginning in 1957-1958 and at some point a Site Manager with four launch pads. I entered into the biz working space shuttle after 8 years working aircraft manufacturing and flight test and field engineering before I worked space shuttle. After that went away on the west coast, I worked NRO Payloads as a design engineer. So since the first attempts to get to into space, from 1957 to 2014, i’ve been very familiar with space launch and development.

I can tell you that you just don’t get a perfect mission and one needs to learn to crawl before you walk, and then walk well before you run. It cannot be compared to any other mode of transportation development and the huge risks at any event. I see nothing at fault or going off track of a new flight vehicle. The three representatives were a bit over the top with their development failure commentary, but in this goofy social networking age, the uninformed information written by people that can’t find their gluts, need to bow out. No offense to those here on the forum.

My son works for SpaceX at VSFB on the Falon vehicles, so he’s a third generation missile enthusiast.

So other than the comments, the joyful exuberance, and the Rapid Disassembly comment, everything thing is normal during this development phase.

You've obviously got far more inside/first hand knowledge than I do. You should start a thread as I'm sure you have lots of super fascinating info.

My assessment of this launch based on what I've seen/read is that this new rocket was built that was larger and more powerful than the Saturn V (which is impressive from the start) AND reusable! You've got to crawl, walk, run, but when they build something like this, they say "Let's see if it'll crawl, and assuming the crawl is successful, lets see if it can walk and then run afterwards." So, the launch was a success, why not see how far it could get afterwards. It seems to me that it walked a bit after it's crawl, so you could consider it as having exceeded expectations by quite a margin which is cause for celebration.

It looked like a huge accomplishment to me.

For folks poo-pooing it as a failure, how many times did SpaceX have to try to land their reusable rockets before that was a consistent success? (still one of the coolest things that I've ever seen)

It'll be great/interesting to follow the development of this new larger reusable rocket.

[Eric Hahl]

I see no reason to poo poo this. This was an incredible achievement among many from Space X. Go Elon! Go Space X! Go Starfleet, lol.

[Steve Carlton]

[porschedude996]

They did make Max-Q which is the most structural stressing condition. In fact if you recall that the space shuttle throttled back while going through Max-Q. I’m not sure if the Super Heavy throttles back. I just asked my son. I’ll post his response.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by porschedude996

The did make Max-Q which is the most structural stressing condition. In fact if you recall that the space shuttle throttled back while going through Max-Q. I’m not sure if the Super Heavy throttles back. I just asked my son. I’ll post his response.

According to the narrator of the video that I saw, they did throttle back and then back up as they passed through.

[porschedude996]

Originally Posted by masraum

According to the narrator of the video that I saw, they did throttle back and then back up as they passed through.

My son said the same. He also said one engine didn’t throttle back. But the root cause has yet to be determined. One engine in thirty isn’t much. They may even have a variable throttle back to adjust total thrust at a given condition.

[flatbutt]

I don't generally like most of the "non traditional" renditions of our anthem but this kid did a great job.

[porsche tech]

Umpire’s chair at the WTA Stuttgart Open where Porsche is a major sponsor…

[stevej37]

Amazing...still another grandson still alive.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/grandson-10th-president-john-tyler-dies-180975992/

[flatbutt]

Sacred feces! Imagine your million dollar house just sliiiiding into the canyon that used to provide a nice view.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/videos-capture-utah-homes-sliding-down-cliff-into-a-canyon/ar-AA1afUiH

[flatbutt]

Any reco's on a brand?

[flatbutt]

My hands have gotten too weak to tighten these things. I'm looking at this. Any input?

https://www.penntoolco.com/precise-1-8-5-8-wrench-for-keyless-drill-chucks-3700-0294/

[masraum]

Originally Posted by porsche tech

Umpire’s chair at the WTA Stuttgart Open where Porsche is a major sponsor…

I'd love to have one of those as my desk chair, but I'm not going to pay several thousand for one. One of these days I'd like to get a seat out of an old 911 and get it mounted to a base.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

Sacred feces! Imagine your million dollar house just sliiiiding into the canyon that used to provide a nice view.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/videos-capture-utah-homes-sliding-down-cliff-into-a-canyon/ar-AA1afUiH

I suspect that would be heartbreaking. Hopefully the people that lived there had enough noticed to be able to get their stuff out of the house, which would be a little better. This is probably far better than losing your home to fire or flooding, and at least no one was along for the ride.

[cstreit]

Originally Posted by masraum

I suspect that would be heartbreaking. Hopefully the people that lived there had enough noticed to be able to get their stuff out of the house, which would be a little better. This is probably far better than losing your home to fire or flooding, and at least no one was along for the ride.

Part of the issue I see there is poor erosion control. Its probably exacerbated by the drought. Homes also built up against hillsides where those occasionally slump and push them off the foundations.

Limited land and a rush to build...

[masraum]

Originally Posted by cstreit

Part of the issue I see there is poor erosion control. Its probably exacerbated by the drought. Homes also built up against hillsides where those occasionally slump and push them off the foundations.

Limited land and a rush to build...

Yep, and I'm guessing insufficient prep of the site for a home based on the geology of the site.

I feel like there's an engineer of some sort, somewhere that would have said "you shouldn't build there, but if you do, you need to make sure you do X, Y, and Z to make sure the house doesn't slide down the hill.

[flatbutt]

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8kliyb

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

My hands have gotten too weak to tighten these things. I'm looking at this. Any input?

https://www.penntoolco.com/precise-1-8-5-8-wrench-for-keyless-drill-chucks-3700-0294/

keyless chucks suck...
bump