News Changes to the SpaceX BFR rocket.

[GLS]

T-3 minutes!

 

[GLS]

Might hold at T-40 seconds....

 

[GLS]

T0, liftoff!!!

 

[GLS]

Staging and Starship ignition!

 

[GLS]

Go for booster catch! It is coming back....

 

[GLS]

Lots of venting from the booster....

 

[GLS]

Heat glow in around the engines during entry.

 

[GLS]

CATCH!

 

[GLS]

Small fire around what seems to be a vent, but otherwise it seems intact!

 

[GLS]

Nominal Starship orbit insertion! (or again suborbital?)

 

[GLS]

Starship entry in about 30 minutes, so it still is suborbital like the ones before.

 

[GLS]

Looks like a little bit of damage in a fairing near the aft of the booster, engines still smoking brown...

 

[Thunder Chicken]

They caught it. That's crazy. They're getting pretty good at turning insanity into reality. Some fire suppression system on the pad might not be a bad idea. It was something watching the booster flying back down its own exhaust plume.

If the flaps don't melt off Starship they may have all the pieces of the system together.

 

[GLS]

If the flaps don't melt off Starship they may have all the pieces of the system together.

Starship will go in the ocean.

 

[BrianJ]

Spectacularrrrrr!

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Starship seems to be venting a lot of gas. Is this expected?

EDIT: Also seems to be flying sideways relative to prograde?

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Starship will go in the ocean.

True, they still need to be able to land that, but they have demonstrated that capability already. They may very well try to recover everything next flight.

 

[GLS]

Starship seems to be venting a lot of gas. Is this expected?

Seems similar to what it did in previous flights. The boiloff rates should be interesting...

 

[GLS]

They may very well try to recover everything next flight.

Tim Dodd (a.k.a. Everyday Astronaut just said that because an entry trajectory that gets Starship to the tower would be over land, some (further) successful tests should be required before that is allowed.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Tim Dodd (a.k.a. Everyday Astronaut just said that because an entry trajectory that gets Starship to the tower would be over land, some (further) successful tests should be required before that is allowed.

I suppose using a landing barge is out. Not sure they could accommodate Starship, and they rather need them to keep the F9 fleet going.

Speaking of F9, isn't a Falcon Heavy going up soon?