FAA gives SpaceX a Go for Launch

[Startrek]

I just heard on NSF that the FAA have approved the licence for SpaceX to launch Starship as of Monday
Hopefully we will be witnessing the launch of the worlds most powerful rocket within 2 weeks.
Musk gives the launch and mission a 50/50 chance of success
I remember back in 2018 he gave Falcon Heavy a 50/50 chance of success as well , but it ended up a success ( with the exception of the centre core landing )

Can’t wait to this behemoth get off the launch pad with just over 17 million pounds of thrust , more than twice the power of Saturn 5 and Artemis

[Constant]

Truly this is a great moment, as glorious and inspiring Apollo's missions were, we all knew the program was financially crippling even for the USA at the hight of its economic dominance.
Starship has been designed for ongoing profitable exploration and exploitation of space.
Unfortunately we all know the nightsky we see today will be the best we'll see, Starship with lead to unprecedented cluttering of objects in LEO and beyond. Maybe Starship will prove too be so cheap that Citizen Scientists will fund their own meter array telescopes in space, imagine the views! Lets live in hope.
If Starship delivers and lives up too the hype then we may bear witness to the "democratisation" of space, now that's truly exciting.
God speed Starship and all those involved in it's development, with higest praise reserved for Elon.

[astronobob]

Definately one to watch live, 'for me anyway ! If it gets to Max Q that would be pretty awesome for Space-X !!
Hoping it gets off the Pad, think it be happenning with in a week actually, The oridginal Flight Plan has changed somewhat, Booster to do a soft land over the water in the Gulf, and StarShip heads to Hawaii but Not doing a landing burn, just a full speed Belly Flop apparently, and no recovery attempt..

Best of Luck Star-Ship.. :anaut:

[glend]

Yeah, I will be happy if it gets off the pad and survives MaxQ. Stage Separation and ignition of Starship if achieved pretty much ticks all the boxes.

[glend]

Countdown timer is now active, T-10:30. Several Utube channels are streaming already, including NASASpaceflight.com
SpaceX is targeting 8am CT for the launch.

It will be reasonable to expects delays, holds, etc.

[Startrek]

Or a complete scrub !!
Let hope not
Extremely complex controlled methane mega bomb ( I mean launch vehicle)

[glend]

SCRUB. Launch is scrubbed for tonight, due to a Booster issue. They treated this as a Wet Dress Rehersal.. Program will be recycled, which means ac48 hour delay before next attempt to launch.

[astronobob]

Primarily, a frozen pressurant valve appears to have been the main deciding factor. After the problem was determined, work began to see if it could be fixed during the countdown.
Despite never lighting an engine, a bunch of valuable information was gained that will be applied to the next attempt in 48 hours or more.

[Hans Tucker]

What ... a bit of hot water couldn't fix the problem.

[glend]

Ironic, that a valve in the booster was the same show stopper on the SLS.

[glend]

Who was going to volunteer to go out to the pad with the kettle?:lol: Maybe put an astro heater strap around it.

[Deepfieldastro]

blueballed launch makes me sad

[astronobob]

Maybe put an astro heater strap around it. :lol:

" Teams are working towards Thursday, April 20 for the first flight" announced in an updated description of the highly anticipated test mission.
SpaceX will have a Thursday launch window that opens at 8:28 a.m. CT and closes at 9:30 a.m. CT. The company will also live stream the launch attempt on its website, starting about 45 minutes before liftoff.

[Startrek]

Thanks Bob,
Can’t wait to see a bit of history on Thursday
Unless the weather turns bad , I reckon they will get this huge monster of a rocket off the launch pad. Whether it reaches suborbital altitude, who knows , as long as it doesn’t blow up.

[Startrek]

A second launch attempt of Starship is scheduled today ( tonight from 10.00pm EST )
This time hopefully no issues and we get to see a spectacular lift off , the biggest and most powerful the world has ever seen.

Let’s hope the weather holds out and the rest is up to Space X

[glend]

Yep, T- 10:25 at this point. Fingers crossed that the "issues" are resolved. They certsinly spent a lot of hours, through the night working around the booster quick disconnect assembly.

[glend]

Looking at the planned flight path, it maybe visible from Australia as it begins to descend towards Hawaii. At the very least we should be able to see the big bright object in the northern sky, transiting from west to east. Not sure what time as it will depend on launch time.

[astronobob]

Its been mentioned that this 2nd attempt is being 'pushed-back' ?
I can't confirm but ?

Guess we'll see before too long,,

EDIT- The 'Every Day Astronaught - Tim Dodd is streaming currently as if all is Go Ahead ,, approx 1:20 mins till attempt lift-off,,

Live Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAl3gVvMNNM

[AdamJL]

That was excellent. So great to see it launch

[astronobob]

That was the coolest thing seen, Starship took flight, well, Lifted off, cleared the lauch Pad and powered away, 3 or 4 engines did not fire but Stage Seperation at 40km Altitude failed, Booster trying to flip and head back but with star ship still attached causing the whole shebang to doing CartWheels and then Flight Termination was activated causing a RUD,,,
Quite the Excitment Elon mentioned,,
That was pretty Awesome,,,
Maybe another Flight Test in a couple/few months, obviousely depending on Ground Zero conditions/damage if any and FAA Licence etc ?

[glend]

Well, SpaceX triggered the flight termination system (FTS) after the stage separation failed. The booster performed well, despite having three engines out at launch, it climbed well, then through MaxQ and ran to its designed shutdown point. . I was watching The SpaceX coverage and it was clear that the separation mechanism failed and the whole stack started to tumble. It was up high enough to be in very thin atmosphere but clearly flight path could not be resumed. You could tell they set off the FTS.
So back to the drawing board I think. Elon had talked in the past about the simple separation system, involving pins and a twist by the Starship, or booster grid fins, to shake the booster loose. I doubt they will be able to find much to examine on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Now they need to rethink the separation system, and this may mean a serious program delay, as the next completed boosters and Starships all have this questionable design.

[astronobob]

The seperation System is fundementaly different to other rockets where as Starship 'yes Glen' using the Flip Manouver to centrifigul force assisting the seperation, so agree - back to the drawing board unless there was another issue or glitch in the release pins activation, who knows, lots of data to sift through..

Anyway, Ground Zero sure copped some Punishment
Check Out this Crater under the Launch Mount,

[Hans Tucker]

Love SpaceX tweet:

"SpaceX Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before the Super Heavy separation."

This rear end shot reminded me of the Soviet N1 rocket .. which had similar control issues.

[Startrek]

They got the world’s most powerful rocket of the pad , cleared the tower , through Max Q and continued on accelerating to a respectable altitude.
I call it a success in anyone’s book
The separation issue will be fixed in a timely ( Space X ) manner, a very minor issue in the general overall mission
Even half a dozen failed raptors didn’t stop it !!!

Great coverage from Space X again ( leaves NASA back in the 70’s ) vistas of Boca Chica facility , the employees cheering , drone footage , external and internal live video from launch vehicle , the block house and so on

Tremendous, I’ve watched it over and over again

[thunderchildobs]

"The new self-destruct button has been successfully tested".

[Hans Tucker]

Me thinks that Mr Elon and SpaceX are going to receive a number of Compo claims for peripheral damage the launch caused. Now the FAA has grounded all SpaceX's Starship rockets.

[astronobob]

Some ideas floating around about dealing with Ground-0, Vid Link Below :

Will be interesting to see how much damage to Launch Pad is realised over the coming weeks, if the launch mount is still sitting square and ground repairable then maybe another attempt in 6 months'ish (just a guess) all else going well, but if that mount has shifted it will all need to come down and start from scratch, which could take a year or so,,
Hmmm,

https://youtu.be/rDAyK3jRPCM?t=49