SpaceX Starship - Orbital Test Flight - Starbase TX

Launch Date: April 20
Launch Window: 8:28am CDT (6:28am PDT, 13:28 UTC) - 62 minute window
Launch site: LC-1? - Starbase, Boca Chica Beach, Texas
Core Booster Recovery: Expended in Gulf
Starship Recovery: Water landing near Hawaii
Booster: Super Heavy Booster 7
Starship: Starship 24
Mass: No mass simulator mentioned
Orbit: LEO-ish
Yearly Launch Number: 26

A SpaceX Super Heavy and Starship launch vehicle will launch on its first orbital test flight. The mission will attempt to travel around the world for nearly one full orbit, resulting in a re-entry and splashdown of the Starship near Hawaii.

Webcast:

 

[DarkandStormy]

Boca Chica, TX and Lower Rio Grande Wildlife Reserve and Texas State Park

Images taken by the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program following an initial launch of the Starship Super Heavy on 4/20/2023. Images show environmental fallout and debris field from the launch, Labeled as a Mishap by the FAA

www.flickr.com

Photos of the damage, including destruction of habitats of many species protected by the Endangered Species Act.

 

[Grendal]

Boca Chica, TX and Lower Rio Grande Wildlife Reserve and Texas State Park

Images taken by the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program following an initial launch of the Starship Super Heavy on 4/20/2023. Images show environmental fallout and debris field from the launch, Labeled as a Mishap by the FAA

www.flickr.com

Photos of the damage, including destruction of habitats of many species protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Sorry. I don't see "destruction" in those pictures. I see damage and pieces of hardware scattered around. I expect SpaceX will be cleaning up the scattered pieces resulting from the launch relatively quickly. The damage will likely be unnoticeable in a month or two. I'm sure hurricanes and major storms, which hits that area every year is more damaging. Let's be real that the entire Eastern coast has been decimated from humanity "going to the beach." I personally find it hypocritical to focus on this one incident when there are tens of thousands of much more damaging regions that "destruction" is happening. Cape Kennedy is also a region of wildlife and the local wildlife has adapted to the many rocket launches that happen there every week.

JMHO.

 

[mongo]

Sorry. I don't see "destruction" in those pictures. I see damage and pieces of hardware scattered around. I expect SpaceX will be cleaning up the scattered pieces resulting from the launch relatively quickly. The damage will likely be unnoticeable in a month or two. I'm sure hurricanes and major storms, which hits that area every year is more damaging. Let's be real that the entire Eastern coast has been decimated from humanity "going to the beach." I personally find it hypocritical to focus on this one incident when there are tens of thousands of much more damaging regions that "destruction" is happening. Cape Kennedy is also a region of wildlife and the local wildlife has adapted to the many rocket launches that happen there every week.

JMHO.

Agree, other than the bird eggs lost in the fire zone. That sucks.

 

[zoomer0056]

launching from a water base

What are the benefits of this?

 

[mongo]

What are the benefits of this?

Far from people
No dust
No need for deluge detention pond
Converted oil rig starts off high off the water.

 

[Grendal]

Agree, other than the bird eggs lost in the fire zone. That sucks.

We don't know whether the mother was harmed by the launch or whether the people taking the picture scared her off. Just approaching a nest to take the picture is disrupting. The eggs looked intact.

 

[mongo]

We don't know whether the mother was harmed by the launch or whether the people taking the picture scared her off. Just approaching a nest to take the picture is disrupting. The eggs looked intact.

True, and I'm not sure what their coloration is supposed to be. Maybe fire was low enough energy to not impact them. If abandoned, maybe they would have been eaten already?
F&W did report lack of wildlife impact:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1651307092022525970

In other news:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1651638991853088768

 

[bxr140]

That seems for sure. I don't understand how SpaceX engineers modeling the forces and heat those 33 engines would generate and for how long, would not have concluded the pad was way underprotected.

Elonco is excellent at first principals; hubris, while a bit antithetical to first principals, is a core competency as well.

Hubris is what drives Elonco to take the biggest risks, which of course most of the time result in big successes.

Was ~destroying the pad a risk? Sure. Was it a failure? Or did it successfully provide quantitative data on how much they need to improve the pad? Probably a bit of both…especially if debris is what took out the motors.

TL;DR: SpaceX needs to TEST experimental ideas until they work fully.

I mean, that’s this whole flight (and SX’s MO) in a nutshell yeah?

 

[DarkandStormy]

Sorry. I don't see "destruction" in those pictures. I see damage and pieces of hardware scattered around. I expect SpaceX will be cleaning up the scattered pieces resulting from the launch relatively quickly. The damage will likely be unnoticeable in a month or two. I'm sure hurricanes and major storms, which hits that area every year is more damaging. Let's be real that the entire Eastern coast has been decimated from humanity "going to the beach." I personally find it hypocritical to focus on this one incident when there are tens of thousands of much more damaging regions that "destruction" is happening. Cape Kennedy is also a region of wildlife and the local wildlife has adapted to the many rocket launches that happen there every week.

JMHO.

Sorry, you're just wrong here.

There was destruction of Snowy Plover nest scrapes. Those are part of the Critical Wildlife habitat protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The Algal Flats were damaged with tons of debris. It's a critical habitat for the Piping Plover and Red Knots, two species protected by the Endangered Species Act. You cannot adapt or facilitate algal formation - it takes 5-10 years to form.

Sorry, these are just the facts.

 

[EVCollies]

In other news:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1651638991853088768

Wow, 2 months repair time, well in Elon months...

 

[mongo]

Wow, 2 months repair time, well in Elon months...

This is hardware bordering on civil engineering, timelines are more accurate than with software. Plus, it's a task that can be accelerated by throwing more people at it.

 

[Electroman]

WOW !!

 

[ecarfan]

There was destruction of Snowy Plover nest scrapes. Those are part of the Critical Wildlife habitat protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The Algal Flats were damaged with tons of debris. It's a critical habitat for the Piping Plover and Red Knots, two species protected by the Endangered Species Act. You cannot adapt or facilitate algal formation - it takes 5-10 years to form.

It’s impressive that you can determine that from where you are in Colorado based on video from cameras set up along the BC beach public road pointed at the launch tower. And that you seemed to ignore the reporting from journalist Loren Grush, posted by @mongo, stating what the US Fish & Wildlife Service determined.

Or perhaps you are in Boca Chica walking the tidal flats but failed to mention that?

This is hardware bordering on civil engineering, timelines are more accurate than with software. Plus, it's a task that can be accelerated by throwing more people at it.

Yes, and they will be working 24/7, as usual, to make it happen.

 

[adiggs]

I mean, that’s this whole flight (and SX’s MO) in a nutshell yeah?

Love it or hate it, it really is this simple.

I'm in the love it camp, in which I project my years of experience on the software and data side with agile, onto the hardware side in which I know nothing . Doesn't mean I'm right, nor does it matter. I'm just a spectator and I'm loving the show.

 

[ICUDoc]

View attachment 932438

WOW !!

What is that, E-man?

 

[Grendal]

Good discussion about the launch. Still speculation though...

 

[ecarfan]

“Clean up on aisle X!”

Looks like most of the large concrete pieces got blasted towards the ocean, not inland.

 

[ecarfan]

I would guess that the two tanks on the left will have to be replaced. The two on the right have a number of much smaller dents but maybe they are still usable since they are double walled.

 

[ecarfan]

Good discussion about the launch. Still speculation though...

Good example in that discussion of why one has to be careful about accepting what online “experts” say. Manley was talking about how Starship is aerodynamically unstable because the control surfaces are all in the top half, ahead of the ”center of pressure” (imagine shooting an arrow with the vanes near the front; it will flip around) and initially ahead center of mass. Thrust vectoring compensates for that but if that is compromised the vehicle will not be controllable. Marcus House then chimes in to say “of course as the thing empties out that problem gets worse…” but Manley quickly corrects him saying that “actually it gets better”; as the booster tanks empty the center of mass moves towards the nose of Starship so that it is closer to the center of pressure.

Manley then makes an important point; while he does think it likely that at least one HPU failed and possibly both by about T+00:50, that does not mean that all thrust vectoring was instantly lost because pressure could have remained sufficiently high in the reservoir tanks for vectoring to have been maintained for some time longer. And that seems to be what we saw.

That video confirms my preference for watching Manley’s videos rather than House’s, which I tried in the past but stopped watching.

Note: Manley thinks that the next launch will likely not be until 2024 or best case late 2023.

 

[mongo]

I would guess that the two tanks on the left will have to be replaced. The two on the right have a number of much smaller dents but maybe they are still usable since they are double walled.

View attachment 932735

I think the left two are the water tanks.
OLS Tank Farm