Perfect viewing conditions for launch and we should get a daytime reentry. I still don’t think a successful booster catch is a certainty but hopes are high after missions 5’s success.
Perfect launch, but… no catch. Can’t tell what went wrong in person, but it looks like it didn’t relight. Will check the steam when I get back to the hotel.
It did relight, remember the booster only relights at the very end of its descent.
We saw puffs of gas at roughly stage separation. Couldn’t tell if it was RCS thrusters or otherwise. Whatever the case, we lost visual contact after a while. No landing burn. Heard some booms after a couple of minutes, but hard to be sure if they were from ocean impact.
It relit successfully and “landed” on the ocean. It may have been a problem with the launch tower. The NASA Spaceflight feed is showing some damage to the small structure that sticks up at the top of the tower, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the reason.
They said they were going for a more aggressive reentry for both Ship and booster. May have not quite met the margins.
Heh, found a coffee shop showing the stream. Ship reentering now! Can actually see surface detail.
Ooooohhhh! What a ride down!
That was great! Glad I found a place to watch it. I still had a 20 minute walk to the hotel and I wouldn’t have seen it live.
Well, the live-live launch was still amazing. You really don’t appreciate the noise they make except in person. Nothing matches the crackle of the exhaust.
I’ve only seen one live launch (Atlas), but yeah. The crackle is indescribable.
I’ve seen a few Falcon 9 launches down in Vandenberg, and they were impressive enough, but this was at another level.
Definitely worth coming down, even if the catch was a bust. Most of my strategy was good. I gave it three days (Mon-Wed) and ended up using two of them. I didn’t really need to arrive Sat, since there isn’t too much to do on the island for non-beachgoers like me, but there were a few minor attractions so Sunday wasn’t a total waste (and I spent some time visiting Starbase). It was definitely wise to get a room on the island, since traffic in and out is a nightmare.
I might get one a little more south next time. I’m a little over 2 miles away. I don’t mind walking but that was a bit much in this heat/humidity (which wasn’t terrible, but not great either). There is a sidewalk that goes the length of the island, but just one of them–and if you get off the path, you might find yourself crossing roads with no crosswalks, etc. Texas ain’t a walking kind of place. I probably could have rented a bike or something but it seemed like a hassle.
Been sticking to food trucks mostly. BBQ, Mexican, Cajun, etc. Pretty good. Big piles of meat for $25. I approve.
I’ll definitely make another trip down, depending on the date. Probably the post powerful machine that’s ever been built (the turbopumps alone produce over 2 GW of power). And by far the heaviest flying machine of any kind. Worth seeing at least once. Especially for someone that is too young for Apollo and never got to see Shuttle.
I wonder how far most people travel to come to these rallies? I suppose big enough fans must make entire vacations out of these.
I’ve seen a Shuttle and a Falcon launch from cruise so silent to us. The time to get up to where we were at 5-7 miles up was short. The time to get a LOT higher was … shorter. Dayum but they can accelerate!
The Atlas was the the only ground level up close that I’ve seen in person.
Going to see a Starship is now On My List. Thanks for the encouragement.
There are undoubtedly people from around the world. Easily on par with a total eclipse in terms of local density (though the eclipse was much bigger due to the long path). I flew in from CA. Honestly not that expensive; I spent about $1k on the flight, hotel, and car. Worth it for a big spectacle like this.
I didn’t want to take the whole week off, so I told my boss that I’ll be off two of the days, but exactly which two might need flexibility. Working remotely the rest of the time.
I’ve seen launches from Vandenberg and Shuttle landings at Edwards. Sounds like watching a Falcon or Heavy launch needs to go on my “Things to Do Once You Retire” list. Which will be soon!
Imagine the day when these are routine enough that people don’t have to plan a special trip to see one!
I’d think that would be Tsara Bomba.
Ok, fine–I’m limiting this to continuously operating machines that do not destroy themselves in the process of functioning.
Most rocket engines are designed for some relatively short lifetimes, and a tiny number of starts, but evidence suggests that Raptor has no such limit. They recently cycled a Raptor 30+ times in a row without any refurbishment. Just on/off/on/off/etc., probably only stopping when their test facility tanks ran dry.
Now that’s an advance in engineering. Back in the upper paleolithic (20th century) I was told that rocket engines ran so hot that every engine was a few seconds away from burning out by the time the stage’s fuel was gone.
It’s not quite that bad these days, even with expendable engines. But still, I’m not aware of any that can relight that many times. Even Merlin needs some minor refurb and it has a chemical igniter only good for a few relights. The screenshot from the guys tracking the test stand was kinda funny:
The official SpaceX update on the flight now confirms this:
During this phase, automated health checks of critical hardware on the launch and catch tower triggered an abort of the catch attempt.
No indication why as of yet, but damage seems like a good bet. Good to hear the booster itself was fine, in any case.