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Yes, as much as I admire and respect her, I find little of interest in most of her public presentations.

Spacenews.com reports China on track for crewed moon landing by 2030, space official says Unlike meaningless announcements from Roscosmos, I take what China is saying very seriously and expect them to reach their goals. It won’t be long before key members of Congress wrap their heads around...

Seems a bit risky for NASA to entrust a pair of Mars-bound sats — no matter how small they are — to the first launch of an all new rocket.

Thanks. It would not surprise me in the least to learn that Novus Prime Properties is just a land speculator. Which isn’t necessarily illegal. I suppose it comes down to the nature of the alleged agreement between Novus and SpaceX and if it was legally binding or not.

From that video; It’s incredible to see the change in Boca Chica Village from a few years ago to now. This is a piece of property not owned by SpaceX. The video implies that it is the subject of a legal case and that SpaceX anticipates owning it soon?

Thanks, but actually I’m more boggled by the fact that the graphic only shows about 0.06% of the distance to the nearest star. Check my math. ;)

Ars technica report on Voyager coming back to life, with a very cool graphic. My brain experiences buffer stack overflow trying to envision the scale involved.

Voyager 1 transmitting data again after Nasa remotely fixes 46-year-old probe The JPL Voyager team never ceases to amaze me with their dogged persistence and innovative problem solving skills!

I would not describe it as the “discovery of a fundamental new force” when no explanation is provided as to what the force is. If there is a “new force” I’ll believe it when a plausible theoretical explanation is made and it is then verified independently by multiple researchers with peer review.

Thank you. What a great story!

It certainly does. A conclusion based on baseless assumptions. Is the slashdot commentator seriously saying that?

News report: Tesla’s biggest retail shareholder is voting against Elon Musk’s $55 billion package

Revisiting this old thread from late 2017: The Artemis 1 mission took place in November 2022, so late but not absurdly so. Costs were/are absurd. Okay, so not even close. He didn’t say “land an uncrewed Starship on Mars” which would be hard enough. He wanted humans on Mars in 2023! My...

And that is the core of the problem. If the Chinese weren’t accelerating their human space program so rapidly, and impressively, I don’t think NASA would have the funding that it does. That said, NASA is having to cut space exploration robotic missions to keep SLS going as near as I can tell...

Eric Berger: NASA may alter Artemis III to have Starship and Orion dock in low-Earth orbit No surprise there. So a multibillion dollar SLS launch that doesn’t even get humans to lunar orbit? This is not sustainable.

Eric Berger: Boeing says it will cut SLS workforce “due to external factors”

Thanks for your comment. As someone who bought TSLA before it started its steep climb in 2020, as of now I’m still way ahead despite it being down over 60% from the late 2021 peak. So at this point I’m not looking for further gains. What I’m looking for is a rational plan from the CEO for the...

I did not realize that the CCC had any authority over what happens on US Air Force property that has been there decades before the commission was established. According to this recent article in the issue, the commission cannot limit the number of launches.

As a long time shareholder I’m voting against Elon’s pay package and against the two board members up for reelection; Kimbal and James Murdoch. I’m very concerned about Elon’s apparent decision to cancel/postpone the lower cost “Model 2” in favor of introducing the “robotaxi” on August 8th and...

This news report came to my attention today: By “it” the reporter means any Level 3 capabilities present in the car. Here is the BC bylaw which specifies the fines to be imposed in cases of “Drive or permit driving of” a Level 3/4/5 equipped vehicle. For those not familiar with the various...

And lots of interesting speculation about the hardware changes between the various versions. Well worth watching.

Darn auto correct. :rolleyes: In case anyone is confused, what @Young intended to type is Boltzmann Constant.

It’s unclear exactly what SpaceX is doing to the chopsticks, but the interesting part of this video is at about the 23:00 point showing closeups of a guy working on the tiles at the nose of S29.

As @Oil4AsphaultOnly stated, which is what Elon has stated repeatedly for about a decade. The basic idea is that there are existential threats to humanity if our species is confined to a single planet. These threats fall into two categories: From humans: various types of environmental...

Thanks for posting that link. From the press release: Well…I don’t think that statement is entirely accurate. Starship will be able to reach Mars using chemical propulsion, but will need to be refueled on Mars to return to Earth. So the nuclear reactor is boosted to orbit with a conventional...

Great analysis. Given the level of expertise that SpaceX has acquired in successfully landing over 200 boosters with fairly high precision, I’m confident that they have a pretty good idea of what will be safe weather conditions for catching a Starship booster and ship. Of course the catching...

Elon is only 53 years old. Given the average American male lifespan is currently around 73 years, if SpaceX is able to begin Martian colonization in about a decade it appears that he will be around to see it. If you mean will he be alive to see a million people on Mars — his stated goal — I...

The video states that Astrolab has “already signed an agreement with SpaceX” to take their Flex vehicle to the Moon in 2026. I don’t think anyone seriously believes that Artemis III will happen by the end of 2026. But I did not know that mission is planned to have a lunar rover onboard and...

Eric Berger’s analysis of Elon’s latest SpaceX presentation which was focused on Mars colonization. He then summarizes the main points of the presentation, as @JB47394 has already done in the Starship general development thread. He concludes with: SpaceX has made impressive progress over the...

YouTube channels that steal videos and post them without attribution really tick me off.

I did not realize Starlink sats had a camera. And if this is actually real, how did a YouTube channel get this video?

The difference is that handicapped parking spaces are mandated by state law and everyone knows that. Tesla putting up signs at a Supercharger location, with no way to enforce it, won’t have much of an effect.

Which will happen basically all the time because many Tesla drivers have likely never even seen a Tesla towing something. Only a tiny fraction of Teslas ever tow something, primarily just X owners. Model 3 owners basically never tow anything (there are of course extremely rare exceptions). A...

We do not know if the test flight hot stagings have worked “flawlessly” or not. It is possible that SpaceX had sensors at the top of the booster that indicated damage occurred. Or perhaps the new diagonal design is lighter and just as strong. It also provides increased spacing between the ship...

Reviewing Elon’s new Starship presentation, I’m trying to understand who it was targeted at and why he bothered to do it at all. For us rocket nerds there were some interesting details, but for the general public it was basically just more of the same. The employee audience barely reacted, as...

Sorry, I meant “gimbaled engines”, not thrusters.

And they just look cooler than the first iteration. :D They look like thrusters to me. Maybe they will reduce the number of gimbaled engines? But adding thrusters adds complexity and cost. My totally non-expert feeling is that certainly some gimbaled thrusters are needed.

So it appears that Starship V2 has a different hot staging ring that is taller (includes the “booster cap” that @JB47394 posted about upthread?) but the grid fins are lower and the part of the vehicle below the staging ring is also taller. And the protective skirts around the engines is gone...

I think that’s the Ketamine talking. I say it will take 100 years. And it’s a long shot because it is extremely difficult to keep a massive human enterprise focused and sustained for that long. Thanks for the excellent summary. I did not even know that presentation was happening.

Interesting shape at the ends. And the pins are not all oriented the same way.

I believe the Reuters story is accurate. It appears to be well sourced. Elon did not deny that the Model 2 program has been ended or paused. His “Reuters is lying” post is non-specific and in line with his general rants against news reports that he doesn’t like. And Elon’s recent track record of...

Road is closed, no OP notice yet but NSF livestream states “PA announcement for pad clearing ahead of a SF”. However, workers are currently on the OLM. So maybe the SF is later this afternoon.

Wow, fantastic supercut from SpaceX of IFT-3. Love it.

Tory Bruno: Nothing like a meaningless tautology to clear things up.

The SPMTs look so cool at night with their wheels lit up.

So after the testing it will have to be moved back to the Mega Bay to have that installed, correct?

So NASA is now peddling propaganda* to kids? I wonder if the book has a chapter explaining why a single rocket launch costs billions of dollars. * Think using that word is going overboard? See the definition:

How about this: two Starships launch, one is a stretched V3 Starship HLS, the other is just to go to and from LEO with crew so not a stretched V3 (or could be), the HLS ship refuels in LEO, they dock so crew can transfer to the HLS which then goes to the lunar surface, stays for awhile and then...

I expect that to happen. China will definitely put taikonauts on the Moon, maybe by 2030. Never underestimate the desire for American politicians to appeal to “national prestige” to make themselves look patriotic, whipping up their voters, which then loosens Congressional purse strings. Robotic...