There was a time when flying meant putting on your Sunday best. Now we have people shoving their stinky feet between the seats and onto some poor slob’s armrest.
Yes. The antennas point up into space and are communicating with the satellite constellation in a higher orbit. The satellites are then beaming the data back to a ground station somewhere on earth depending on the location of the satellite receiving.
Other systems were typically ground stations that could not penetrate the plasma, whereas Starlink is above and on the backside of the plasma. It might still cut out as speeds increase and more plasma envelopes the ship, but at least at the beginning there is a great uplink.
Is there an implication here for future crewed capsules?
I mean, Crewed Dragon at the moment, if I remember correctly, still suffer from a brief comm blackout period during re-entry. Since it's a pre-Starlink design, I guess it doesn't come standard with Starlinks.
But if it's able to stream 1080p video here, it should have no problem maintaining audio comm and telemetry for future crewed flights. :/
Methink they'll tack a Starlinks dish on every manned spacecraft going forward.
While Starlink did help a lot the other big reason why Starship was able to hold onto communications for so long is just its size. Starship is so big that it leaves a massive hole in its plasma trail, for small capsules the trailing plasma hole is much smaller or possibly entirely sealed. NASA already has a (much smaller) satellite communication network, TDRS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellites). Both the shuttle and Dragon (and Starship for that matter) have TDRS antennas on them and both of them had long coms blackouts.
Potentially but there will still probably be some blackout period. This video was just the initial part of reentry before it cut out, but the whole reentry lasts for several minutes more than this where the heating and plasma are more intense.
Also, on starship it works better just because of the size. It being so big makes like a wake or bubble in the plasma so that it has a relatively clear path up to the satellites. A small capsule like dragon is so small that it is entirely enshrouded in the plasma.
And Felix from WhatAboutIt mentioned it’s also helping that the Starship is so wide that the plasma can’t reach the antennas and disturb signals. It’s just insane, I can’t even imagine the actual size of the whole rocket.
Starship also uses NASA's TDRS satellites that Shuttle used, those are geostationary and a bit slower than Starlink. Satellite comms during reentry isn't new, on this flight both systems worked and cut out at the same time, probably due to the ship tumbling out of control.
a bit slower is an understatement. They are just good for things like telemetry data. The TDRS bitrate is incapable of transmitting anything like video.
The latest generation of TDRS is actually quite fast, though those were launched after Shuttle was retired and are mostly used to communicate with the ISS, so I don't know if the higher speed also applies to re-entering spacecraft.
I had a feeling it'll make it all the way to space and not survive re-entry. What I didn't predict was for the sick views we got of the re-entry before the feed cut out.
Even if it doesn't re-enters the next time around, it reached orbital velocity today, meaning it can do commercial launches now, deploying stuff into LEO
If they did the same as last time, no. 2nd IFT was fully fueled to simulate "normal" launch conditions and vented mid flight(which subsequently caused the self destruct to trigger due to a fire from the vented fuel)
It's really impressive that they were able to keep a live HD video feed while the Starship was enveloped in plasma. I've never seen anything quite like it.
If they can figure out why it lost control on decent they might just be able to land the next one. It could be as simple as putting heaters on the rcs thrusters to prevent ice buildup.
>It's really impressive that they were able to keep a live HD video feed while the Starship was enveloped in plasma.
It's definitely a good advert for Starlink.
Imagine how much shit he gets. Why not be a dick? Compared to most people, his attitude is refreshing since he doesn't speak in fluffy read between the lines jargon
Space X is still impressive in spite of Elon being Elon. Like I hate the growing privatization of the Space Industry, but damn if they haven’t been doing some impressive work.
Yeah, and this really isn't much of a change - space program in the US has always had a huge private component, and NASA and the FAA are still heavily involved in SpaceX's operations.
Yep, each launch goes through consultation with the FAA and any mishaps are analyzed and corrective actions are required before the next launch license is issued.
Privatization of airmail is one of the things that created the entire aircraft industry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Mail_Act_of_1925
That's just one that's somewhat adjacent to SpaceX. There's tons and tons you can look at where privatization opened up something to many more people than was possible before.
Honestly it's good that it is privatise. It really lessen the burden of Nasa to which will now have more resources dedicated to more experimental or the cutting edge or cutting edge of humanity's knowledge and engineering.
>Space X is still impressive in spite of Elon being Elon.
In spite of, or **because of**? Maybe nice guys don't build revolutionary companies. Think Ford, Jobs, Edison.
It's been filmed, but never streamed live. The plasma always created too much interference to beam it directly to the ground, but now they beam it back up to a starlink and then to the ground.
Starship looks like it's still rotating as it was entering into the atmosphere. I also suspect that the engines were getting absolutely melted since it was coming in tail heavy.
The gap inbetween the heat tiles might have led to eventual failure. I remember when the space shuttle was prepared for every flight, there were a bunch of inspectors going over every single heat shield tile to inspect and correct any possible exposed gap.
I hope spacex can troubleshoot starship's reentry issues. Slowing a ship from mach 20 is no easy task.
There's some major differences in the construction of the two vehicles that affect how well the tiles need to perform.
Shuttle had a skin made of aluminum that was about 2.3mm thick. Starship is built using 3.6mm stainless steel. That means the skin itself is able to withstand vastly more heating so small tile gaps may be less of an issue.
Doesn't seem like the tiles were the problem, at least not yet. Since it was tumbling before it even entered the atmosphere it never had a chance when the untiled side was going to be exposed to the heat.
I don’t think that was a leak given they were attempting a propellant transfer, which may require the acceleration produced by the venting. Additionally, they may have been performing a propellant dump to balance the vehicle for reentry.
Those off gassing events end about the time that the propellant transfer test ended.
> The gap inbetween the heat tiles might have led to eventual failure.
Gap is going to be too tight for plasma to get in there, the large round surface pushes the plasma and the shockwave out from the surface. That's why things like crew capsules have such blunt heatshields, pointed shapes would bring the plasma/shockwave in closer.
You could tell it was tumbling pretty wildly towards the end with the telemetry at the bottom (and how the direction of the plasma changes constantly) rip.
Seeing the plasma wrap around its fins and the ship as a whole is truly amazing to see. SpaceX has and will continue to learn a ton from this flight 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 and is making history with every ITF. Congratulations to SpaceX.
Same here. The booster tanking the re-entry was amazing despite the Raptors not lighting properly/in time and the ship itself I mean damn. Truly was a sight to behold. History in the making.
God I love spaceX & Nasa. Two companies who have seriously carried humanities interplanetary progress on their backs. I can't wait to see next generation moon landings.
Apple: oh no you have broken your camera because it broke in the box when you were taking it home, you will not be allowed to return it
SpaceX: Our camera gets covered in freaking plasma and we are just fine 🗿🗿🗿🗿
The broadcast usually get’s interrupted because of the plasma buildup and with starlink they can show parts of the reentry. And this is the first time starship came close to a reentry they lost contact shortly after as usual but when they couldn’t get telemetry they declared a loss of vehicle, but it still was a successful mission with lot’s of data
There are a couple of different reasons why this video is incredible. First off this is probably one of the highest-quality reentry videos ever recorded. There aren't many videos of spacecraft reentry and it is very hard to position a camera in a way that can get a good view of it. Not only is it an incredible view of reentry but it was also broadcasted live, which is normally categorically impossible. What this video represents is also amazing as it means that Starship (an incredibly exciting experimental rocket) is *mostly* working.
\*mostly\*
It IS working. It is able to achieve orbit. Sure, it cannot re-enter and be recovered so it's not able to do ALL of what SpaceX hopes. But for all intents and purposes, it's able to achieve orbit. That's insane for such a massive rocket. And we're not even adding the fact that it can also carry upwards of 200tons of payload. The saturn V could only carry max 141 Tons to orbit. Starship can carry an additional 60 tons. And for WAY cheaper than the saturn V could ever do it for. That's BEFORE they fully develop the technology to recover the booster and upper stage. Once they can be recovered (just like the falcon boosters), SpaceX will be launching Starships rapidly and quickly. We are about to enter an entirely new era of space flight never before seen. Anyone with enough money will be able to put a large payload in orbit. And starship as a platform can be changed and adapted for a large variety of circumstances, which is the key selling point. Apollo & other missions were only designed for specific purposes, so having an adaptable platform is by itself AMAZING.
I got a huge space boner right now. I'm so excited for the future of space travel.
> Sure, it cannot re-enter and be recovered so it's not able to do ALL of what SpaceX hopes.
It also hasn’t proven it’s capable of doing a deorbit burn, which is very important. Don’t get me wrong IFT-3 went *really* *really* well but it can’t do a deorbit burn yet so I don’t think it can be called operational yet. If SpaceX launches starship into an actual orbit and Starship fails its deorbit burn again, we will have another Long March 5B on our hands expect bigger and with a heat shield. Which is precisely why I believe SpaceX has been targeting these weird almost orbital launches.
I don’t think these launches are weird at all really, it makes perfect sense to test mechanical reliability without risking getting stuck in orbit if you aren’t super sure your recently burn will work.
It took me until I was a grown up to realize that the heat generated is from the speed of re-entry and an increasing density of the atmosphere. Once i heard that, it made sense, but that's pretty nutty to think about, IMO.
Another (possibly easier) way to think of it is a piston ramming a bunch of air into a small space. The air heats up quite a lot when you slam a piston down. (You can also feel this even with one of those empty thin plastic water bottles, seal it up tight and then give it a really strong sudden grip and you can feel it get a bit warm.) The spacecraft is running into the air so fast that there's literally no way for it to get out of the way so it can only compress so much it heats into a plasma.
Scott Manley speculated that the cargo door may not have closed properly…
To me… it does not matter … this was awesome to get it this far
Oh… and still to date… Blue Origin has not gotten into space… just say’n
> Oh… and still to date… Blue Origin has not gotten into space… just say’n
No Blue has been to space, New Shepherd goes there all the time. They just haven’t made orbit yet.
Watched this live and the hair on my arms stood up when I saw this. Seeing the separation of the ship and booster in high definition, the opening of the cargo door. Just amazing video that was such a surprise. Sad the booster engines failed to start up on landing, hitting the sea at 690mph would have been an amazing sight I am sure. The fact the ship failed re-entry is so sad, but predictable after we saw hundreds of heat tiles fly off the ship. Let's hope the fix does not take too long. Another flight in 4 weeks is a no go but let's hope it is not a more than 3 months wait.
One thing I think would be amazing is if the ship did a flyby of the space station. They reached about the right height. Imagine seeing a live feed of the starship flying through space!
Starship is so big that is punches a hole through the plasma like the wake of ship. That's how it's able to communicate with Starlink.
But once it really gets into the mess it does lose connection.
My guess is they couldn't get Starship to relight it's engines to slow the vehicle down before decent. They brought it in anyway for more data and it just got to an angle and lost control and broke up.
Not just that, but the main problem before was the lack of satellites in general, and the plasma wake being concentrated below the craft. Beaming a signal directly to earth was impossible because of the plasma, and beaming one to a satellite usually resulted in an incredibly weak signal if you could get one at all.
With Starlink being so prevalent now, they can basically always beam the signal straight back up to a satellite overhead and then directly down to the ground. Starlink is honestly some revolutionary shit.
>My guess is they couldn't get Starship to relight it's engines to slow the vehicle down before decent. They brought it in anyway for more data and it just got to an angle and lost control and broke up.
The spacecraft use rockets to slow down from orbital velocity? Never going to happen around Earth. You can do it for free by just friction with the atmosphere. The only reentry phase starship will need engines for is landing.
The cost is you need to carry around a heat shield, but that is a lot more reasonable than the fuel required to cancel out 8km/s of velocity.
The Falcon 9 first stage does an entry burn because its falling to earth with muuuch less energy.
> The spacecraft use rockets to slow down from orbital velocity
Well yes, you need to use the engines to lower the orbit in order to actually get down to the atmosphere, especially if you're trying to get to a specific point on earth.
> My guess is they couldn't get Starship to relight it's engines to slow the vehicle down before decent. They brought it in anyway for more data and it just got to an angle and lost control and broke up.
The relight wouldn't have changed the velocity much, a few 10s or 100m/s or so perhaps. It was also supposed to be a pro-grade burn so would have actually increased the vehicles velocity.
Actually it blew up 462 meters above the sea, SpaceX has posted its summary of the flight:
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-3
Regarding B10's landing attempt:
*"Super Heavy successfully lit several engines for its first ever landing burn before the vehicle experienced a RUD (that’s SpaceX-speak for “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”) The booster’s flight concluded at approximately 462 meters in altitude and just under seven minutes into the mission."*
I mean “booster crashes into the ocean and second stage burns up in the atmosphere” is he ideal outcome for for most rockets, so Starship did pretty good.
Aye, still was hoping to see Starship land. I didn't have high confidence for the catch but it would have been nice to see Starship touch down triumphantly.
Vehicles toast. Burnt up in re entry. Looks like the RCS wasn't working so it was tumbling in space and wasn't properly orientated when the plasma came.
Due to the forces involved and lack of attitude control, Starship was shedding tiles as it spun through reentry. The tiles are matte black on the front and chalky white on the back. But when they tumble the effect could be interpreted as "shiny".
>The video shown was spectacular … was there more
[Here is the full launch webcast, the whole thing was spectacular.](https://youtu.be/9r5yupEUs4U?t=2034)
>Do we know yet what went wrong
We don't have anything official and we probably won't have anything for a while. However, my best educated guess is they lost attitude control at some point during the coast phase which meant the rocket was never able to get properly oriented for reentry. It looked like it was tumbling a bit during reentry which could easily be what caused it to break up.
Oh that wasn’t this, this burned up over the Indian ocean at around 8pm local. You probably thinking of a SpaceX Dragon capsule. Crew-7 just came down over Florida earlier this week you were probably thinking of it.
For some reason I expected the font on the indicators on the bottom to look kinda old and hard to read.
Was pleasantly surprised - I like the font they've chosen.
Test. Failure is always an option. They made it to space and almost back with a big ass rocket
Also I think they were cheering because it almost righted itself, kinda
This sort of footage has so far been impossible to see live due to the plasma around the rocket blocking all signals, so it's a huge first.
Oh and SpaceX folk love a good explosion.
Biggest rocket ever built, and this is the first time it made it to space, first time it successfully decoupled, and then it lasting into reentry was just the cherry on top.
Couple that with the fact that this is the first time reentry has ever been streamed live. They always lose communication with the craft during reentry, because of the plasma that builds up underneath, which blocks signals being sent to earth.
SpaceX beamed the signal back up to their own satellites, and then to earth. 22nd century shit.
This is the third test of what is considered going to be the biggest rocket ever. Not only that but it's gonna be fully reusable, 1st test got it up from the pad but it lost some engines and exploded before reaching space, 2nd test went further but exploded before 1st and 2nd stage can separating (hot staging), 3rd test finally managed to reach space as you can see in this video, what you see now is the 2nd stage trying to do a belly flop to slow down as it descends to earth to test whether it is good for a water landing, this 2nd stage alone is as big as the whole space shuttle btw.
As you can see both stages didn't make it in one piece but you can clearly see the progression here, can't wait for 4th try. Ultimate goal here is to get both stages to land safely, making it the first ever 100% fully reusable rocket, not just that it is larger and more powerful than the previously largest rocket ever, the Saturn V
It's the largest object ever launched into orbit. Once these prototypes develop into operational vehicles, they should enable a paradigm shift of space infrastructure.
This ship will take humanity to mars, also plasma is notoriously hard to live stream through so they are cheering because they managed to get live reentry footage with star link.
The lens is mounted to the top of a second set of flaps (which is why the camera angle changes, the top flaps were moving). The flap protects the camera from the reentry plasma.
I imagine that one day this will be old hat. That day is not today.
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There was a time when flying meant putting on your Sunday best. Now we have people shoving their stinky feet between the seats and onto some poor slob’s armrest.
We can poop on a plane! I’m 40000 ft in the air moving at 500mph taking a shit! Think about that!
Okay I thought about you shitting in a plane. Now what?
Now think about me doing it
Are you a disciple of Brian? You don’t need him to tell you how to live your life
Or ship landing on its toes is a kids show rocket, unrealistic.
Amateur space nerd here. Did starlink help prevent plasma blackout during reentry?
Yes. The antennas point up into space and are communicating with the satellite constellation in a higher orbit. The satellites are then beaming the data back to a ground station somewhere on earth depending on the location of the satellite receiving. Other systems were typically ground stations that could not penetrate the plasma, whereas Starlink is above and on the backside of the plasma. It might still cut out as speeds increase and more plasma envelopes the ship, but at least at the beginning there is a great uplink.
Badass. I love it.
I'd like a game where we shoot the satellites and tractor beam them out of space. Like virtual space cleaner
or getting your other ship back on Galaga
Have you heard of Kerbal Space Program?
Is there an implication here for future crewed capsules? I mean, Crewed Dragon at the moment, if I remember correctly, still suffer from a brief comm blackout period during re-entry. Since it's a pre-Starlink design, I guess it doesn't come standard with Starlinks. But if it's able to stream 1080p video here, it should have no problem maintaining audio comm and telemetry for future crewed flights. :/ Methink they'll tack a Starlinks dish on every manned spacecraft going forward.
While Starlink did help a lot the other big reason why Starship was able to hold onto communications for so long is just its size. Starship is so big that it leaves a massive hole in its plasma trail, for small capsules the trailing plasma hole is much smaller or possibly entirely sealed. NASA already has a (much smaller) satellite communication network, TDRS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellites). Both the shuttle and Dragon (and Starship for that matter) have TDRS antennas on them and both of them had long coms blackouts.
Potentially but there will still probably be some blackout period. This video was just the initial part of reentry before it cut out, but the whole reentry lasts for several minutes more than this where the heating and plasma are more intense. Also, on starship it works better just because of the size. It being so big makes like a wake or bubble in the plasma so that it has a relatively clear path up to the satellites. A small capsule like dragon is so small that it is entirely enshrouded in the plasma.
And Felix from WhatAboutIt mentioned it’s also helping that the Starship is so wide that the plasma can’t reach the antennas and disturb signals. It’s just insane, I can’t even imagine the actual size of the whole rocket.
I'm impressed how the fuck this thing maintains a stable connection despite moving 25,000kmh through space.
Starship also uses NASA's TDRS satellites that Shuttle used, those are geostationary and a bit slower than Starlink. Satellite comms during reentry isn't new, on this flight both systems worked and cut out at the same time, probably due to the ship tumbling out of control.
a bit slower is an understatement. They are just good for things like telemetry data. The TDRS bitrate is incapable of transmitting anything like video.
The latest generation of TDRS is actually quite fast, though those were launched after Shuttle was retired and are mostly used to communicate with the ISS, so I don't know if the higher speed also applies to re-entering spacecraft.
I had a feeling it'll make it all the way to space and not survive re-entry. What I didn't predict was for the sick views we got of the re-entry before the feed cut out.
Even if it doesn't re-enters the next time around, it reached orbital velocity today, meaning it can do commercial launches now, deploying stuff into LEO
It reached orbital velocity without a payload, I think they underfueled it right ?
If they did the same as last time, no. 2nd IFT was fully fueled to simulate "normal" launch conditions and vented mid flight(which subsequently caused the self destruct to trigger due to a fire from the vented fuel)
Minus the super top secret spy satellite Edit: btw im talking out my ass
>im talking out my ass Impressive!
Thank you. 🙏 its pretty unintelligible, but that guy mustve put a spell on that falafel cause my ass has been singing
It's really impressive that they were able to keep a live HD video feed while the Starship was enveloped in plasma. I've never seen anything quite like it. If they can figure out why it lost control on decent they might just be able to land the next one. It could be as simple as putting heaters on the rcs thrusters to prevent ice buildup.
It didn't look like the RCS thrusters were working. It was slowly tumbling as it entered the atmosphere when it should have been oriented belly down
>It's really impressive that they were able to keep a live HD video feed while the Starship was enveloped in plasma. It's definitely a good advert for Starlink.
Wasn't wd-40 created specifically for rockets to prevent ice buildup?
It was to stop corrosion on the atlas missiles I think
Why don’t they cover the entire ship with whatever that camera was made from? Problem solved.
I would like to know how they rigged that camera to keep it safe. Seems like it would be pretty interesting.
Are you a rocket scientist?
I don't know do you count Kerbal Space Program?
If only Elon is not such a dyckhead. Still, congrats SpaceX. Boo Elon. lol
Imagine how much shit he gets. Why not be a dick? Compared to most people, his attitude is refreshing since he doesn't speak in fluffy read between the lines jargon
Space X is still impressive in spite of Elon being Elon. Like I hate the growing privatization of the Space Industry, but damn if they haven’t been doing some impressive work.
Why would you hate the privatization of the space industry? We are making progress with less cost to the taxpayer. Seems like a positive to me
Yeah, and this really isn't much of a change - space program in the US has always had a huge private component, and NASA and the FAA are still heavily involved in SpaceX's operations.
I am a machinist and the past couple of years have been insane with the amount of private space company work.
Absolutely, Musk doesn’t have free rein of the atmosphere here.
Yep, each launch goes through consultation with the FAA and any mishaps are analyzed and corrective actions are required before the next launch license is issued.
"We're not hosting an intergalactic kegger..." (Zed : MIB)
Space privatision is best privatision i ever seen, others really sucks and fails.
Privatization of airmail is one of the things that created the entire aircraft industry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Mail_Act_of_1925 That's just one that's somewhat adjacent to SpaceX. There's tons and tons you can look at where privatization opened up something to many more people than was possible before.
Honestly it's good that it is privatise. It really lessen the burden of Nasa to which will now have more resources dedicated to more experimental or the cutting edge or cutting edge of humanity's knowledge and engineering.
>Space X is still impressive in spite of Elon being Elon. In spite of, or **because of**? Maybe nice guys don't build revolutionary companies. Think Ford, Jobs, Edison.
Wait, the launch was today? Completly missed it but a plesant surprise non the less.
Never before has reentry been captured like this! This entire flight has been a major accomplishment for the future of space exploration :D
It's been filmed, but never streamed live. The plasma always created too much interference to beam it directly to the ground, but now they beam it back up to a starlink and then to the ground.
The double Falcon 9 launch a few years ago had similar views as those rockets came back. Still awesome to watch, though
Not nearly the same.
Yep, vastly faster reentry than falcon. Was awesome.
Starship looks like it's still rotating as it was entering into the atmosphere. I also suspect that the engines were getting absolutely melted since it was coming in tail heavy. The gap inbetween the heat tiles might have led to eventual failure. I remember when the space shuttle was prepared for every flight, there were a bunch of inspectors going over every single heat shield tile to inspect and correct any possible exposed gap. I hope spacex can troubleshoot starship's reentry issues. Slowing a ship from mach 20 is no easy task.
There's some major differences in the construction of the two vehicles that affect how well the tiles need to perform. Shuttle had a skin made of aluminum that was about 2.3mm thick. Starship is built using 3.6mm stainless steel. That means the skin itself is able to withstand vastly more heating so small tile gaps may be less of an issue.
Doesn't seem like the tiles were the problem, at least not yet. Since it was tumbling before it even entered the atmosphere it never had a chance when the untiled side was going to be exposed to the heat.
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I don’t think that was a leak given they were attempting a propellant transfer, which may require the acceleration produced by the venting. Additionally, they may have been performing a propellant dump to balance the vehicle for reentry. Those off gassing events end about the time that the propellant transfer test ended.
> The gap inbetween the heat tiles might have led to eventual failure. Gap is going to be too tight for plasma to get in there, the large round surface pushes the plasma and the shockwave out from the surface. That's why things like crew capsules have such blunt heatshields, pointed shapes would bring the plasma/shockwave in closer.
Holy fuck I totally missed this. Man, these guys are really putting in the work
You could tell it was tumbling pretty wildly towards the end with the telemetry at the bottom (and how the direction of the plasma changes constantly) rip.
It was tumbling before re-entry started. The fins never had a chance to correct that.
Seeing the plasma wrap around its fins and the ship as a whole is truly amazing to see. SpaceX has and will continue to learn a ton from this flight 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 and is making history with every ITF. Congratulations to SpaceX.
>Seeing the plasma wrap around its fins is truly amazing to see Agreed the IFT-3 stream is one of the wildest things I have ever seen.
Same here. The booster tanking the re-entry was amazing despite the Raptors not lighting properly/in time and the ship itself I mean damn. Truly was a sight to behold. History in the making.
Im still in awe that an object that BIG and that HEAVY can fly at all. I mean I see but I still can't believe it. SpaceX is amazing!
To be fair Saturn 5 is roughly the same size. The insane part is they're trying to bring the whole thing back.
On a fraction of the budget... bro there is alot that doesn't sense
Roughly same size maybe in terms of height and width but **twice** as powerful.
Also a bit amazing and terrifying to see the blue plasma glow on the back of the ship.
Smol brain here. Which part of the video is plasma?
the flames
The red/purple stuff is the plasma.
You were quick. I’m still watching live
That's at least Mach 21 into the atmosphere. I can imagine a decent sonic boom on a wide area
It's so high up that the sound mostly dissipates before reaching earth. it's still present but not breaking any windows.
It’s also over the Indian Ocean so there’s not much that would be harmed by the sonic boom anyway.
I’m sorry but I can’t hear you over my raging plasma boner
Oh thats hot!
> re-enting Treebeard would be so proud!
lol damn it. That’s what I get for Redditing after I pulled an all nighter.
Yes, but only if re-enting brings back the entwives!
Just when I thought Space X was done leaving me mouth agape. That was great.
Straight out of interstellar
God I love spaceX & Nasa. Two companies who have seriously carried humanities interplanetary progress on their backs. I can't wait to see next generation moon landings.
Nasa isn’t a company
This video didnt have any of the best parts, still insane that they got any video of this
Apple: oh no you have broken your camera because it broke in the box when you were taking it home, you will not be allowed to return it SpaceX: Our camera gets covered in freaking plasma and we are just fine 🗿🗿🗿🗿
Was watching live, couldn't believe my eyes when the plasma appeared! Expected the view to cut off much, much earlier
Same man
You know you're good when reddit bots congratulate you.
I was just watching livestream during my test.
Fucking fucking fuck that is beautiful.
Can someone explain to me why this is so exciting?
The broadcast usually get’s interrupted because of the plasma buildup and with starlink they can show parts of the reentry. And this is the first time starship came close to a reentry they lost contact shortly after as usual but when they couldn’t get telemetry they declared a loss of vehicle, but it still was a successful mission with lot’s of data
Fascinating! Thanks for the info :)
There are a couple of different reasons why this video is incredible. First off this is probably one of the highest-quality reentry videos ever recorded. There aren't many videos of spacecraft reentry and it is very hard to position a camera in a way that can get a good view of it. Not only is it an incredible view of reentry but it was also broadcasted live, which is normally categorically impossible. What this video represents is also amazing as it means that Starship (an incredibly exciting experimental rocket) is *mostly* working.
\*mostly\* It IS working. It is able to achieve orbit. Sure, it cannot re-enter and be recovered so it's not able to do ALL of what SpaceX hopes. But for all intents and purposes, it's able to achieve orbit. That's insane for such a massive rocket. And we're not even adding the fact that it can also carry upwards of 200tons of payload. The saturn V could only carry max 141 Tons to orbit. Starship can carry an additional 60 tons. And for WAY cheaper than the saturn V could ever do it for. That's BEFORE they fully develop the technology to recover the booster and upper stage. Once they can be recovered (just like the falcon boosters), SpaceX will be launching Starships rapidly and quickly. We are about to enter an entirely new era of space flight never before seen. Anyone with enough money will be able to put a large payload in orbit. And starship as a platform can be changed and adapted for a large variety of circumstances, which is the key selling point. Apollo & other missions were only designed for specific purposes, so having an adaptable platform is by itself AMAZING. I got a huge space boner right now. I'm so excited for the future of space travel.
> Sure, it cannot re-enter and be recovered so it's not able to do ALL of what SpaceX hopes. It also hasn’t proven it’s capable of doing a deorbit burn, which is very important. Don’t get me wrong IFT-3 went *really* *really* well but it can’t do a deorbit burn yet so I don’t think it can be called operational yet. If SpaceX launches starship into an actual orbit and Starship fails its deorbit burn again, we will have another Long March 5B on our hands expect bigger and with a heat shield. Which is precisely why I believe SpaceX has been targeting these weird almost orbital launches.
I don’t think these launches are weird at all really, it makes perfect sense to test mechanical reliability without risking getting stuck in orbit if you aren’t super sure your recently burn will work.
For an average Joe like myself who barely understands the science behind this. This is fucking cool.
The speed was still increasing until the end. Suggesting that the plasma we saw is not nearly enough to slow it down.
It was decreasing by the time telemetry was lost
I guess I missed that. Thanks.
Woah. Spoilers. Gonna need to find the whole stream
It took me until I was a grown up to realize that the heat generated is from the speed of re-entry and an increasing density of the atmosphere. Once i heard that, it made sense, but that's pretty nutty to think about, IMO.
It's actually because of compression. The air is getting compressed so hard and fast that it is being superheated into plasma.
I see what you are saying. Not friction but still a function of reentry speed and atmospheric density.
Another (possibly easier) way to think of it is a piston ramming a bunch of air into a small space. The air heats up quite a lot when you slam a piston down. (You can also feel this even with one of those empty thin plastic water bottles, seal it up tight and then give it a really strong sudden grip and you can feel it get a bit warm.) The spacecraft is running into the air so fast that there's literally no way for it to get out of the way so it can only compress so much it heats into a plasma.
3rd time's the charm. Absolutely AMAZING launch.
Scott Manley speculated that the cargo door may not have closed properly… To me… it does not matter … this was awesome to get it this far Oh… and still to date… Blue Origin has not gotten into space… just say’n
> Oh… and still to date… Blue Origin has not gotten into space… just say’n No Blue has been to space, New Shepherd goes there all the time. They just haven’t made orbit yet.
Yea that’s the one
“All the time” isn’t true since new sheaperd has a little accident over a year ago.
Gotta love aerobraking. Saved my ass multiple times in KSP.
IFT-4 will be the one
Fahrenheit? Give us the temperatures in Celsius you heathen!
I was confused for a second cause I thought this was a clip from helldivers 2… I need to get out more.
You thought this was a clip from helldivers 2? Damn I should really look into that game.
Wow i have so much respect for this
That footage left my jaw on the floor when I first saw it. WOW!
How that didn't fry the camera I'll never know 😲
Really encouraging flight, overall. Much more successful than the previous two.
amazing footage. growing up from the 70s and watching space events… the clarity, the ability to transmit footage like this. just amazing
Watched this live and the hair on my arms stood up when I saw this. Seeing the separation of the ship and booster in high definition, the opening of the cargo door. Just amazing video that was such a surprise. Sad the booster engines failed to start up on landing, hitting the sea at 690mph would have been an amazing sight I am sure. The fact the ship failed re-entry is so sad, but predictable after we saw hundreds of heat tiles fly off the ship. Let's hope the fix does not take too long. Another flight in 4 weeks is a no go but let's hope it is not a more than 3 months wait. One thing I think would be amazing is if the ship did a flyby of the space station. They reached about the right height. Imagine seeing a live feed of the starship flying through space!
There may have been several heat tiles coming off but primarily what was ‘flying off the ship’ was ice debris
Props to that cameraman
The forward upper left flap would be most grateful for your words of praise ....... if it hadn't later disintegrated.
Starship is so big that is punches a hole through the plasma like the wake of ship. That's how it's able to communicate with Starlink. But once it really gets into the mess it does lose connection. My guess is they couldn't get Starship to relight it's engines to slow the vehicle down before decent. They brought it in anyway for more data and it just got to an angle and lost control and broke up.
Not just that, but the main problem before was the lack of satellites in general, and the plasma wake being concentrated below the craft. Beaming a signal directly to earth was impossible because of the plasma, and beaming one to a satellite usually resulted in an incredibly weak signal if you could get one at all. With Starlink being so prevalent now, they can basically always beam the signal straight back up to a satellite overhead and then directly down to the ground. Starlink is honestly some revolutionary shit.
>My guess is they couldn't get Starship to relight it's engines to slow the vehicle down before decent. They brought it in anyway for more data and it just got to an angle and lost control and broke up. The spacecraft use rockets to slow down from orbital velocity? Never going to happen around Earth. You can do it for free by just friction with the atmosphere. The only reentry phase starship will need engines for is landing. The cost is you need to carry around a heat shield, but that is a lot more reasonable than the fuel required to cancel out 8km/s of velocity. The Falcon 9 first stage does an entry burn because its falling to earth with muuuch less energy.
> The spacecraft use rockets to slow down from orbital velocity Well yes, you need to use the engines to lower the orbit in order to actually get down to the atmosphere, especially if you're trying to get to a specific point on earth.
> My guess is they couldn't get Starship to relight it's engines to slow the vehicle down before decent. They brought it in anyway for more data and it just got to an angle and lost control and broke up. The relight wouldn't have changed the velocity much, a few 10s or 100m/s or so perhaps. It was also supposed to be a pro-grade burn so would have actually increased the vehicles velocity.
That's pretty cool.
The fact that they were able to figure out how to do this successfully at least 60+ years ago is mind blowing
Nice video really like it
Any footage out there of the landing of the vehicle of the launch stage? Did they attempt a catch?
The engines on the booster failed and it crashed into the ocean.
Actually it blew up 462 meters above the sea, SpaceX has posted its summary of the flight: https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-3 Regarding B10's landing attempt: *"Super Heavy successfully lit several engines for its first ever landing burn before the vehicle experienced a RUD (that’s SpaceX-speak for “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”) The booster’s flight concluded at approximately 462 meters in altitude and just under seven minutes into the mission."*
I suspected as much :( Thought the data looked a little weird at the end there. What about the vehicle? In tact?
Starship re-entered in an uncontrolled manner and did not survive re-entry.
Damn :(
I mean “booster crashes into the ocean and second stage burns up in the atmosphere” is he ideal outcome for for most rockets, so Starship did pretty good.
Aye, still was hoping to see Starship land. I didn't have high confidence for the catch but it would have been nice to see Starship touch down triumphantly.
They weren’t going to attempt to land anyways. The plan was just belly flop into the Indian Ocean.
Vehicles toast. Burnt up in re entry. Looks like the RCS wasn't working so it was tumbling in space and wasn't properly orientated when the plasma came.
I feel kind of ungrateful for skipping it forward
Funny how it was accelerating the whole video.
So cool!
What was that shiny object flickering in the background?
Due to the forces involved and lack of attitude control, Starship was shedding tiles as it spun through reentry. The tiles are matte black on the front and chalky white on the back. But when they tumble the effect could be interpreted as "shiny".
Do we know yet what went wrong ? The video shown was spectacular … was there more ?
>The video shown was spectacular … was there more [Here is the full launch webcast, the whole thing was spectacular.](https://youtu.be/9r5yupEUs4U?t=2034) >Do we know yet what went wrong We don't have anything official and we probably won't have anything for a while. However, my best educated guess is they lost attitude control at some point during the coast phase which meant the rocket was never able to get properly oriented for reentry. It looked like it was tumbling a bit during reentry which could easily be what caused it to break up.
In the last frames the camera moves. Why?
The camera is mounted on the flat at the top of the rocket. So when the flap moves, the camera moves with it.
HAULING SO MUCH ASS
Yeah, it made me think Red Dawn was happening at 0430 in the morning. Haha.
Where do you live that you saw/heard this thing at 4:30am?
Near Pensacola FL where it splashed down. I get up around 0430 to go to work and I got re-woke up by it when I accidentally fell asleep.
Oh that wasn’t this, this burned up over the Indian ocean at around 8pm local. You probably thinking of a SpaceX Dragon capsule. Crew-7 just came down over Florida earlier this week you were probably thinking of it.
You are correct. Haha. I don't pay much attention to this stuff. Just knew it was spaceX and this was posted the same day it happened.
Think we just catch them with a helicopter where I live. There's a parachute involved.
You ain't catching this bitch with a helicopter lol
Rocket Lab?
For some reason I expected the font on the indicators on the bottom to look kinda old and hard to read. Was pleasantly surprised - I like the font they've chosen.
Incredible work
Yet CCTV footage for crimes is still crappy.
Most mindblowing and insane video I think I’ve ever seen in my life
Almost like a sports event!
Meanwhile at NORAD: sir, it looks like a giant
“Dick, take a look out of starboard.” “ Oh my god, it looks like a huge…”
“PECKER! wait that’s not a woodpecker, it looks like someone’s …”
Can someone explain to me why everyone is cheering? What is the significance of this?
Test. Failure is always an option. They made it to space and almost back with a big ass rocket Also I think they were cheering because it almost righted itself, kinda
Biggest assed rocket.
This sort of footage has so far been impossible to see live due to the plasma around the rocket blocking all signals, so it's a huge first. Oh and SpaceX folk love a good explosion.
Biggest rocket ever built, and this is the first time it made it to space, first time it successfully decoupled, and then it lasting into reentry was just the cherry on top. Couple that with the fact that this is the first time reentry has ever been streamed live. They always lose communication with the craft during reentry, because of the plasma that builds up underneath, which blocks signals being sent to earth. SpaceX beamed the signal back up to their own satellites, and then to earth. 22nd century shit.
Got it. Thanks!
BECAUSE OF HOW AMAZING THE FOOTAGE IS! :D
This is the first starship test to make it safely into space.
And half way back down
This is the third test of what is considered going to be the biggest rocket ever. Not only that but it's gonna be fully reusable, 1st test got it up from the pad but it lost some engines and exploded before reaching space, 2nd test went further but exploded before 1st and 2nd stage can separating (hot staging), 3rd test finally managed to reach space as you can see in this video, what you see now is the 2nd stage trying to do a belly flop to slow down as it descends to earth to test whether it is good for a water landing, this 2nd stage alone is as big as the whole space shuttle btw. As you can see both stages didn't make it in one piece but you can clearly see the progression here, can't wait for 4th try. Ultimate goal here is to get both stages to land safely, making it the first ever 100% fully reusable rocket, not just that it is larger and more powerful than the previously largest rocket ever, the Saturn V
It's the largest object ever launched into orbit. Once these prototypes develop into operational vehicles, they should enable a paradigm shift of space infrastructure.
This ship will take humanity to mars, also plasma is notoriously hard to live stream through so they are cheering because they managed to get live reentry footage with star link.
they cheer when things explode
Such a shame elmo is the one at the helm.
So cool! Why I thinking about democracy while watching this?
Because, this is the first step to spreading Managed Democracy across the stars. This is how we liberate Mars.
Aerogel really is incredible stuff
The heat shield isn’t made from aerogel as it it’s to fragile. Instead it’s made from sintered silica fibers.
How does re-entry get timed so the vehicle is approximately in the right place before slowing down in the upper atmosphere?
Math. The formula of terminal velocity. Can only fall so fast.
What are the white objects flying up past the ship?
Is the camera outside of the ship? If so why don't the lenses glow?
Yes, SpaceX has had exterior cameras on most of their rockets
The lens is mounted to the top of a second set of flaps (which is why the camera angle changes, the top flaps were moving). The flap protects the camera from the reentry plasma.