Recent content by ecarfan

Eric Berger will be doing an “Ars Live” livestream discussion on YouTube on June 11 2PM ET, this is just an article announcing the stream. How profitable is Starlink? We dig into the details of satellite Internet.

@JB47394 posted in another thread: Why would the Ground Launch Sequencer software not indicate the reason for the hold?

Sad for Tim Dodd and all the others selected. I guess Maezawa got tired of waiting. Realistically that mission is still several years away.

As per Tim Dodd’s recent video (that you linked to in another thread) SpaceX appears to be trying to reduce the number of seams in recognition of the difficulty they are having with securing tiles in those areas.

Shows all the good bits; the two DSS tests, a “low pressure” water deluge test, the WDR with all tanks reaching full, the high pressure deluge test. Still a few tiles missing.

Elon tweeted: Does he mean that the loss of a single tile will result in a total reentry failure and the ship disintegrating?

Thanks for your report. I agree with your strategy, I’ve found the same.

Typical May/June weather on the central California coast. Not a good time to go to a rocket launch. Sorry you missed it.

Oh yeah!

Quote from that article: And yet… The only criticism in that article that may be true is: So, one persons opinion. I can’t judge if it is valid or not. But would SpaceX employees really call potential customers and “berate” them for doing business with a competitor? Seems counterproductive...

I’m a bit surprised the ship was re-stacked, since won’t it have to be de-stacked again to install the FTS? Maybe they are going to do another WDR.

Old suborbital test pad tank farm is now almost completely gone. Foundation work started for launch tower #2. Will OLM #2 be about where the mouse cursor is? Maybe.

Thanks, I misinterpreted that image, I thought there was a border along the outside edge of the tiles but it’s just the insulating layer underneath which I did know about. My eyes tricked me. :rolleyes:

Some interesting things in this video. I did not realize they were using suction cup devices to test how securely the tiles are attached. There seem to be two types; one is electrically powered(?) and one has a mechanical(?) strain gauge. By the way, in the first image below, the border of the...

It’s arrived. Certainly looks cool. I hope this vehicle is a success.