SpaceX's Starship gets all clear for Texas takeoff
FAA grants license to fly, though not fry local wildlife:
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has given SpaceX clearance to try launching the monster Starship / Super Heavy combo from the company's Boca Chica facility.
It has taken some time, at least in terms of the rapid iterative approach adopted by the company for its other vehicles. Still, SpaceX is set for another attempt seven months after April's effort.
Residing at the bottom of an FAA advisory are three possible dates for flight two of the SpaceX Starship Super Heavy. The primary date is November 17, with backup dates on November 18 and 19.
The FAA grounded SpaceX's Starship after the rocket demolished a chunk of its launchpad and scattered debris over the surrounding area. The launch was aborted a few minutes into flight, although there was a worrying delay between the red button being pushed and the tumbling rocket detonating.
See Also:
YouTube video: Musk Confirms License: Starship To Launch Friday!
Watch SpaceX's Starship Launch for 2nd Time Ever on Nov. 18
Liftoff is scheduled for Nov. 17, during a two-hour window that opens at 8 a.m. ET:
Update for 3 pm ET: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says the second Starship launch is postponed to no earlier than Saturday, Nov. 18 to replace a grid fin actuator on the launch stack.
SpaceX plans to launch its Starship vehicle for the second time ever on Friday (Nov. 17), and you can watch the historic liftoff live.
SpaceX aims to launch Starship, a next-generation system designed to take people and payloads to deep space, on Friday during a two-hour window that opens at 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT). Liftoff will occur from Starbase, the company's site in coastal South Texas.
You can watch the action here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company. Coverage will begin at 7:30 a.m. EST (1230 GMT).
Backup launch windows run on Saturday (Nov. 18) and Sunday (Nov. 19), according to multiple media reports citing U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) advisories.
[...] Should Starship get safely into space this time, the expected 90-minute flight will see the spacecraft fly east over the Gulf of Mexico, make a partial circuit of Earth and splash down near Hawaii. Starship and Super Heavy are reusable systems, but this time SpaceX will aim for a simple splashdown in the ocean rather than landing vertically, as the first stages of SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets commonly do.
Technically speaking, Starship won't quite do a full orbit of the planet, but its expected flight should bring it to a near-orbital velocity of 17,500 mph (28,160 kph) at an altitude of 150 miles (250 kilometers).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by corey on Friday November 17 2023, @10:01AM (10 children)
Looks like it’s been postponed to tomorrow according to space.com. Shame because I’m going camping tomorrow and the launch window is when I’ll be sitting around a fire in a remote place.
(Score: 2, Informative) by canopic jug on Friday November 17 2023, @11:49AM (9 children)
SpaceX has been covering up workplace injuries [reuters.com], and many of them at that.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Friday November 17 2023, @02:05PM (3 children)
A fish rots from the head down.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday November 17 2023, @02:46PM (2 children)
> A fish rots from the head down.
I found this reference
https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Spoiled_fish [kenyon.edu]
there is certainly no mention that the head is preferred for fish spoilage. Do you have a citation?
(Score: 3, Funny) by turgid on Friday November 17 2023, @03:00PM
It's an expression.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Interesting) by khallow on Friday November 17 2023, @09:52PM
It's a saying from the Middle Ages. For example, it's used indirectly in Hamlet when one of Hamlet's friends states "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." This foreshadows the coming revelation that the current king obtained the throne through vile means (poisoning the old king by pouring poison in his ear). There are several other allusions/imagery elsewhere to heads and fish (Hamlet accusing Polonius of being a fishmonger or holding the skull of Yorick while giving the famous "To be or not to be" monologue.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Nuke on Friday November 17 2023, @05:27PM (3 children)
It is incredible what Musk gets away with. I don't know whether he simply has politicians and regulators in his pocket, or that they actually believe (like he does himself) that he is the next Jesus Christ, or at least the next messiah, and is therefore not to be touched.
Anyway, I hope that his Mars colony project is successful in getting there, and that he goes with it. As soon as possible.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RamiK on Friday November 17 2023, @07:54PM (2 children)
Just look up the various (board of) directors and principle share holders of Musk's enterprises (start with Tesla and keep going through the VCs that rolled the Twitter buy if you have the time).
compiling...
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Saturday November 18 2023, @01:25PM (1 child)
Alright. Now do the same for any and every corporation. particularly corps that have to play nice with politicians and vengeful federal regulatory organizations. This may hurt your sensibilities, but to get actual things done in the real world you have to deal with the power structure that is in place. They demand their toll, and that usually includes bringing them into your organization. the higher profile you are the worse it is.
Most posts here seem like losers seething. you know the type. the narcissists: "I'm a super smart guy! That should be me. I could have totally done that too."
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Saturday November 18 2023, @10:58PM
The question was whether:
1. [Musk] simply has politicians and regulators in his pocket.
2. Politicians and regulators actually believe [in him].
given what he's saying and doing. To that, my answer was and is that the Tesla/SpaceX directors and VCs are financially & politically affiliated with the same world view as Musk is expressing in his words and actions so it's a given he won't get fired.
Calling people narcissistic seething losers is a sure way to signal you're not willing to listen to the other side. But regardless, the same criticism is coming from, for a lack of a better term, his peers: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/facebook-co-founder-dustin-moskovitz-claims-elon-musks [linkedin.com]
( The missing spacex data was partially covered here in a recent leak: https://qz.com/spacexs-leaked-financials-reveal-elon-musks-appetite-fo-1850751586 [qz.com] )
Regardless, the real judges are the investment firms and they continue to back Musk so none of this matters until SEC lands a victory.
compiling...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Se5a on Friday November 17 2023, @10:13PM
Reads like a hit piece.
Considering how inaccurate the media is on anything these days, and how they are outright willing to lie for clicks, I'm not putting much stock in this.
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Friday November 17 2023, @06:46PM
Can't wait! What an incredible machine. The launch site is amazing too. Whatever happens, it's going to be exciting. It's very cool to see a rich person do very interesting and innovative things with their money. Rather than buy super yachts and rape children on undisclosed tropical islands, buying off politicians for foreign nations, or pushing some weird doomed utopian ideology through spook tanks and "education reforms".
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday November 18 2023, @02:25PM (6 children)
Better luck next time?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by canopic jug on Saturday November 18 2023, @03:09PM (4 children)
At least it got a somewhat up in the air [wsj.com] a bit this time. It's almost like they run a sloppy, by-the-seat-of-the-pants shop.
His marketing firm / reputation management team will be along shortly with the appropriate mod points.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 3, Touché) by PiMuNu on Saturday November 18 2023, @05:36PM (3 children)
> At least it got a somewhat up in the air
Doing stuff is hard.
> It's almost like they run a sloppy, by-the-seat-of-the-pants shop.
Maybe true, but they can get more stuff into space and cheaper than anyone else.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 19 2023, @08:07PM (2 children)
Would that be true if they had to adhere to the same safety protocols and regulations as their competitors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 19 2023, @09:16PM
Their competitors are pencil pushers.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday November 20 2023, @08:33AM
> Would that be true if they had to adhere to the same safety protocols and regulations as their competitors?
Yes. They have a revolutionary tech that reduces the cost to launch by orders of magnitude.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Saturday November 18 2023, @09:59PM
It was much better than their previous attempt. For example all of the Raptor engines worked, after they have been wonky in flights and some ground tests.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by oumuamua on Saturday November 18 2023, @03:56PM (1 child)
Sort of off topic but does anyone have a link to the Musk anti-Semitic tweet (or if deleted, the full text)?
All the news reports do not link to it or quote the full thing, I scrolled far down Musk's tweet stream and also didn't see it.
(Score: 2) by oumuamua on Saturday November 18 2023, @07:42PM
found one but use an ad blocker if you click the link
https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-antisimite-tweet-racist-truth-1851027888 [gizmodo.com]