SpaceX Starship Thread


The Falcon 9 rocket has now launched a total of 139 times. Of those, one mission failed, the launch of an International Space Station supply mission for NASA, in June 2015. Not included in this launch tally is the pre-flight failure of a Falcon 9 rocket and its Amos-6 satellite during a static fire test in September 2016.

Since the year 2020, the Falcon 9 has been the most experienced, active rocket in the United States, when it surpassed the Atlas V rocket in total launches.

The Falcon 9 reached a notable US milestone in January, equaling and then exceeding the tally of space shuttle launches. During its more than three decades in service, NASA's space shuttle launched 135 times, with 133 successes. To put the Falcon 9's flight rate into perspective, it surpassed the larger shuttle in flights in about one-third of the time.

There is no way to know how many missions the Falcon 9 will ultimately fly. At its current rate, the rocket could reach 500 flights before the end of this decade.
 
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You know, that's really what they (NASA, et al) were aiming for: A private enterprise that would lead to cheap, easy, readily available low earth orbit rockets.

Thing is, that takes a boatload of work off of NASA's plate. And it will save people a ton of money not having to deal with NASA just to put a new TV, coms, or weather satellite in orbit.

It's turning out to be exactly what they hoped it would be from the outset. Well done all around by everybody.
 
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The pair have sat on top of one another before, including twice in October 2022. They then separated for individual testing. In mid-December, SpaceX completed a static fire test of Starship 24, firing up one of its six Raptor engines for seven seconds. Prior, the company performed a 14-engine static fire test of the booster in November. The booster is equipped with 33 engines, but SpaceX has yet to fire them up all up at the same time.​
That thing is a dog and pony show. They should have had the engines sorted by now and they still can't even turn them all on at the same time in a static test.
 
I wish people covering this would get their facts straight.

It's not going to orbit. It's a ballistic test only. It's also not going to land. This entire rocket is a throw away.

What's more, Musk has been downplaying it the entire time giving a 50/50 chance of even getting off the launch pad.

Considering that to this day he hasn't had one NOT blow up, I'm wondering what all the hype is about and why he's even trying this.

I would have thought there's still tons of work to do on getting it to NOT blow up.
 
I'll be impressed if he manages to light them all let alone even lift off.
Not me.

That should have been tested long ago and it never was.

The entire development of this rocket has been a complete farce. It's almost like they are simply doing it as publicity stunts with no real expectation of success at all.

Like that replica of Titanic they've been "building" for the last 30 years.