The Astronomy Thread

Cybsled said:

Marshlands are pretty important ecosystem wise - they act as buffers for coastal erosion, play a role in ground water supplies, and lots of animals (including ones we eat) use marshlands for spawning/breeding/getting food

As for Starship, I do wonder why they aren't trying to land the Starship unit itself? The diagram makes it look like it will just bellyflop into the ocean. I had thought their original plan was to try to attempt a water landing, if feasible, just to see if it would still work after orbital flight

Click to expand...

Sure, marshlands across the globe are important, but the amount of concern given to this shithole of a launch site environment is totally disingenuous.

Let's goooo

I'm sure this has been disseminated before, but in this interview Musk said the biggest reason there's a gap between Starship flights is they had to redesign the Raptor engine. I don't understand the details but everything I read about the Raptor makes me think it's "very cool". The way they mix the propellants is beyond me but I like the way Musk described it as "It's as if God himself mixed the fuel and oxidizer.".



In many ways I view today's test as a test for Raptor 2 more so than the Superheavy booster or starship.

I wouldn't be surprised if this whole thing doesn't reach a critical success because of a significant design flaw and they have to go back and design V3. Shit, they probably already have a V3 on the drawing board and are just using this to confirm or tweak the design choices.

of course they are