Starship/Super Heavy is SpaceX’s next-generation super heavy-lift reusable launch vehicle. The first stage, known as Super Heavy, will produce 71.2 MN of thrust, compared to the Saturn V’s 34 MN of thrust. This will make it the most powerful rocket ever made. When it’s operational, Starship will liftoff from either Boca Chica, Texas; Cape Canaveral, Florida; or an offshore launch platform.

Starship is SpaceX’s plan to colonize Mars and dramatically bring down the cost of space travel. With an estimated eventual cost of $2 million per flight, Starship will be one of the cheapest orbital rockets ever, especially on a cost-per-kilogram basis. Starship will be able to carry 100 tonnes to just about anywhere, due to orbital refuelling.

SpaceX will try a significantly different approach to landing its future reusable rocket boosters, according to CEO and founder Elon Musk. It will attempt to ‘catch’ the heavy booster, which is currently in development, using the launch tower arm used to stabilize the vehicle during its pre-takeoff preparations. Current Falcon 9 boosters return to Earth and land propulsively on their own built-in legs – but the goal with Super Heavy is for the larger rocket not to have legs at all, says Musk.

The Super Heavy launch process will still involve use of its engines to control the velocity of its descent, but it will involve using the grid fins that are included on its main body to help control its orientation during flight to ‘catch’ the booster – essentially hooking it using the launch tower arm before it touches the ground at all. //

Another potential benefit raised by Musk is that it could allow SpaceX to essentially recycle the Super Heavy booster immediately back on the launch mount it returns to – possibly enabling it to be ready to fly again with a new payload and upper stage (consisting of Starship, the other spacecraft SpaceX is currently developing and testing) in “under an hour.”

Although Russia's newest spaceport is located in the far eastern part of the country, it still lies several hundred kilometers from the Pacific Ocean.

This means that as Soyuz rockets climb into space from this location, they drop their stages onto the sparsely populated Yakutia region below. With the Soyuz rocket, there are four boosters that serve as the rocket's "first stage," and these drop away about two minutes after liftoff. Then, the "Blok A" second stage drops away later in the flight. //

as he shared photos and video of these operations on Twitter and Facebook, the chief of Russia's space program, Dmitry Rogozin, could not help but take what he perceived to be a swipe at SpaceX. In his comments, Rogozin referenced Boca Chica, where SpaceX is building a prototype of its Starship Mars rocket, and wondered whether SpaceX would be capable of working in as harsh conditions as his hardy Russian experts.
"This is not Boca Chica. This is Yakutia, and in winter. The team in the area of the fall of the second stage of the One Web mission was deployed two days before yesterday's launch. Temperature - minus 52°," Rogozin wrote on Facebook. "I wonder if gentle SpaceX is able to work in such conditions?" //

The irony, as noted by some users in response to Rogozin, is that "gentle" SpaceX engineers do not need to brave inclement weather to recover their rocket stages. They have built a smarter rocket. SpaceX designed the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage to return to land or set itself down on an autonomous drone ship for future reuse. And its second stage can be commanded to reenter the atmosphere and burn up. //

Rogozin has had a difficult year. As the Falcon 9 has continued to draw commercial launch business away from Russia's Proton rocket, SpaceX's Crew Dragon has also ended NASA's need to buy seats on the Soyuz vehicle for its astronauts to reach the International Space Station.

nimelennarArs Scholae Palatinaeet Subscriptorreplyabout 5 hours agoignore user
Barleyman wrote:
"Technically speaking, it landed".

It's just a little disassembled; it's still good! It's still good! //

trimetaArs Praefectuset Subscriptorreplyabout 5 hours agoReader Favignore user
khebeln wrote:
show nested quotes

Wikipedia: Triethylborane is strongly pyrophoric, igniting spontaneously in air, burning with an apple-green flame characteristic for boron compounds. Thus, it must be handled and stored in nitrogen or argon

The Raptor engine does not use TEB (or TEA, for that matter); it's spark ignition. So the only substance around that burns green is the copper which lines the ignition plate. If that's burning, the engine has ceased to be "reusable."

One other note, in addition to low pressure in the methane header tank leading to an oxygen-rich environment looking for something to burn, don't forget that that same methane is used to actively cool the chamber. So you've got hot oxygen and hot copper. Leading to hot green exhaust. //

hamjudo2000Smack-Fu Master, in trainingreplyabout 5 hours agoNew PosterReader Favignore user
This test not only demonstrated that most things worked right, it also freed up a parking place for another StarShip.

Starman — the dummy riding a cherry-red Tesla Roadster through space — has made his closest approach ever to Mars.

On Wednesday Russia's state space corporation, Roscosmos, unveiled plans to develop a new "Amur" rocket.

The booster will be powered by new and as yet undeveloped rocket engines that burn methane. Just as significantly, for the first time, Russia is seeking to build a reusable first stage. And Roscosmos is targeting a low price of just $22 million for a launch on Amur, which is advertised as being capable of delivering 10.5 tons to low-Earth orbit.

"We would like our rocket to be reliable, like a Kalashnikov assault rifle," said Alexander Bloshenko, executive director of Roscosmos for Advanced Programs and Science.

What is perhaps most striking about the Amur rocket design, however, is how much it resembles a smaller version of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which can lift about twice as much payload into orbit.

“At some point, commercial entities are going to catch up.”

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has lifted the lid on why reusing Falcon 9 boosters makes economic sense in the long term. //

This week, NASASpaceflight reporter Michael Baylor explained on Twitter that United Launch Alliance, another player in the new space race, has claimed that a company needs to reuse a rocket 10 times for the economics to make sense. SpaceX, Baylor noted, is up to six landings with a single booster.

In response, Musk wrote:

"Payload reduction due to reusability of booster & fairing is <40% for F9 & recovery & refurb is <10%, so you’re roughly even with 2 flights, definitely ahead with 3." //

In 2018, ahead of a Falcon 9 Block 5 launch, Musk broke down the costs again. The boost stage, he stated, costs around 60 percent of the total costs, with the upper stage 20 percent, the fairing 10 percent, and the final 10 percent associated with the launch itself. This, CNBC noted, would instead place the cost of a booster at around $37 million. //

In terms of the marginal costs, the costs associated with producing just one extra rocket, Musk also recently shed some further light on the figures. In an interview with Aviation Week in May, Musk listed the marginal cost of a Falcon 9 at $15 million in the best case. He also listed the cost of refurbishing a booster at $1 million. This would fit with Musk's most recent claim that the costs of refurbishment make up less than 10 percent of the booster costs. //

"I don’t want be cavalier, but there isn’t an obvious limit. 100+ flights are possible. Some parts will need to be replaced or upgraded. Cleaning all 9 Merlin [Falcon 9 engine] turbines is difficult. Raptor [the engine for the upcoming Starship] is way easier in this regard, despite being a far more complex engine." //

SpaceX's rocket reusability program is a long-term investment, and it can be hard to quantify the overall savings due to the myriad of factors at play. Musk noted in March 2017 that the company had spent over $1 billion in reusable launch technologies, which meant the firm also needs to recoup the development costs from the reuse program rather than directly passing on those savings to the consumer.

The Starship, SpaceX's under-construction ship destined for the moon and Mars, has taken its first flight.

Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley describe returning to Earth from the ISS in SpaceX's vehicle. //

During the last ever shuttle mission - STS-135 - in 2011, the crew left a US flag on the space station with the intention that the next crew to launch on a US vehicle return it to Earth. Nine years later, Hurley and Behnken have brought back the symbolic item, which also flew on the first shuttle mission in 1981.

SpaceX managed to snag both halves of a Falcon 9 rocket's falling payload fairing shortly after the successful launch of a South Korean military satellite from Florida yesterday (July 20).

A SpaceX Falcon 9 booster is on track to smash an orbital-class rocket reuse record set by a NASA Space Shuttle orbiter in 1985 – and in more ways than one. On July 11th, SpaceX announced that Falcon 9 booster B1058 had successfully completed a static fire ignition test a few days prior to its … //

Michael Baylor
@nextspaceflight
If Falcon 9 first stage B1058-2 launches before July 23, it would beat the current record turnaround time of an orbital class rocket. The record is currently 54 days between Shuttle Atlantis' STS-51-J and STS-61-B missions.

The space-faring firm has been inviting consumers to sign up for its Uber-like ridesharing service. //

On Wednesday, the space-faring firm announced via Twitter that over 100 spacecraft have signed up to use the service:

"More than 100 spacecraft have been signed up to fly on Falcon 9 since we launched the rideshare program. Small satellite operators can book their ride to orbit online"
The landmark, which comes fewer than seven days after its first ridesharing mission debuted, suggests the program has received a warm reception. SpaceX first announced the SmallSat Rideshare Program back in August 2019, as a way of sending up payloads on other missions rather than scheduling an entire mission just for one payload. Think of something like UberPool, where the firm groups together suitable passengers, and that gives a good approximation.

NASA will allow SpaceX to reuse Crew Dragon spacecraft and the Falcon 9 first stages for launching them as soon as next year. //

SpaceNews.com
NASA to allow reuse of Crew Dragon spacecraft and boosters
by Jeff Foust — June 16, 2020
Demo-2 booster on droneship
The Falcon 9 first stage that launched the Demo-2 mission returning to Port Canaveral, Florida, after a droneship landing. While the booster for the Demo-2 mission was new, NASA will allow SpaceX to use previously flown boosters and Crew Dragon spacecraft on ISS missions starting next year. Credit: SpaceX
WASHINGTON — NASA will allow SpaceX to reuse Crew Dragon spacecraft and the Falcon 9 first stages for launching them as soon as next year.

A modification to the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract NASA has with SpaceX, published last month, will allow SpaceX to reuse both the Falcon 9 first stage and Crew Dragon spacecraft starting with the second operational mission of the spacecraft, known as Post-Certification Mission (PCM) 2 or Crew-2. That change was described as part of a “bilateral modification” that also formally extended the length of the Demo-2 mission from two weeks to as long as 119 days.

The move is a change for SpaceX, as the company originally planned to use a new Crew Dragon spacecraft on each of its commercial crew missions for NASA. That stood in contrast to Boeing, which will refurbish its CST-100 Starliner crew modules between flights.

Company officials earlier this year, though, hinted that they were now considering reusing Crew Dragon vehicles on NASA flights. “We intend for Crew Dragon to also be fully reusable,” said Benji Reed, director of crew mission management at SpaceX, during a briefing about a month before the launch of the Demo-2 mission. The Crew Dragon flying the Demo-2 mission, he said, would be reused, but didn’t say at the time if the spacecraft would be reused on a NASA or non-NASA mission.

NASA spokesperson Stephanie Schierholz said in response to SpaceNews questions about the contract modification that SpaceX approached NASA about allowing the reuse of spacecraft and boosters on later missions.

“In this case, SpaceX has proposed to reuse future Falcon 9 and/or Crew Dragon systems or components for NASA missions to the International Space Station because they believe it will be beneficial from a safety and/or cost standpoint,” she said. “NASA performed an in-depth review and determined that the terms of the overall contract modification were in the best interests of the government.”

The Demo-2 mission used both a new Crew Dragon spacecraft and new Falcon 9 rocket. The same will be true for the first operational mission, Crew-1 or PCM-1, scheduled for no earlier than Aug. 30. PCM-2 would launch some time in 2021, Schierholz said.

The reuse of a Falcon 9 booster or Crew Dragon spacecraft on any NASA mission will require a “delta-certification” review by NASA, she said, and NASA won’t allow any vehicles that are “flight leaders” in terms of service life be used for those missions. SpaceX has tended to test the limits of Falcon 9 booster reuse on its own Starlink launches, including a June 3 launch that marked the fifth launch and landing of the same booster.

SpaceX and NASA took a gradual approach to the reuse of the original cargo version of the Dragon spacecraft for missions under the company’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA. SpaceX won approval to start reusing Dragon spacecraft with the CRS-11 mission in 2017. Eight of the subsequent nine flights used previously flown capsules, with three capsules ultimately making three flights each.

SpaceX started reusing Falcon 9 boosters on CRS missions with CRS-13 in December 2017, which was the fourth Falcon 9 launch overall to use a reflown booster. Four of the seven CRS missions that followed also used boosters making their second flight.

SpaceX successfully launched its first Starlink rideshare mission into orbit today (June 13), lofting 58 Starlink internet satellites along with three Earth-observation satellites before nailing a rocket landing at sea.

SpaceX can apply in low-latency tier, but FCC says it faces “substantial challenge.” //

The Federal Communications Commission said it has "serious doubts" that SpaceX and other low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite providers will be able to deliver latencies of less than 100ms.

As we reported yesterday, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai backed off a plan that would have completely prevented SpaceX and other LEO companies from applying for rural-broadband funding as low-latency providers. But the FCC's full order was released today and suggests that SpaceX will have a tough time convincing the commission that its service will deliver latencies below the FCC standard of 100ms.

After SpaceX's eighth Starlink internet satellite launch, the company released a video of its Falcon 9 rocket jettisoning two $3 million fairings. //

SpaceX on June 3 launched its eighth batch of internet-beaming Starlink satellites into orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
On Tuesday, the rocket company released a new video showing the rocket deploying its clamshell-like fairing, or nose cone, while traveling at about 8,150 mph.
The video shows two fairing halves flying apart and the rocket's upper or second stage propelling a stack of 60 Starlink spacecraft toward orbit.
SpaceX is learning to use boats to recover and later reuse its carbon-fiber fairing halves, each of which costs about $3 million to build. It's also working on a potentially revolutionary new rocket system called Starship.

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite constellation is still deep into testing mode, but engineers say it’s already relaying 5 trillion bytes of data on a daily basis.

SpaceX engineers also reveal machine learning is not used on the Dragon and Falcon spacecraft. //

Each of SpaceX's monthly launches of 60 internet-beaming Starlink satellites carries 4,000 stripped-back Linux computers, SpaceX software engineers have revealed.

SpaceX engineers disclosed the detail in a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) session over the weekend. //

It also means that it's now sent 32,000 Linux computers to space for the existing constellation.

"The constellation has more than 30,000 Linux nodes (and more than 6,000 microcontrollers) in space right now," wrote Matt Monson, SpaceX's director of Starlink software.

"And because we share a lot of our Linux platform infrastructure with Falcon and Dragon, they get the benefit of our more than 180 vehicle-years of on-orbit test time." //

We designed the system to use end-to-end encryption for our users' data, to make breaking into a satellite or gateway less useful to an attacker who wants to intercept communications," wrote Moran.

"Every piece of hardware in our system (satellites, gateways, user terminals) is designed to only run software signed by us, so that even if an attacker breaks in, they won't be able to gain a permanent foothold.

"And then we harden the insides of the system (including services in our data centers) to make it harder for an exploited vulnerability in one area to be leveraged somewhere else. We're continuing to work hard to ensure our overall system is properly hardened, and still have a lot of work ahead of us (we're hiring), but it's something we take very seriously."

SpaceX's workhouse Falcon 9 rocket, which flew NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station, is powered by liquid oxygen, rocket-grade kerosene, and Linux. //

Usually, though, chips that go into space aren't ordinary chips. CPUs that stay in space must be radiation-hardened. Otherwise, they tend to fail due to the effects of ionizing radiation and cosmic rays. These customized processors undergo years of design work and then more years of testing before they are certified for spaceflight. For instance, NASA expects its next-generation, general-purpose processor, an ARM A53 variant you may know from the Raspberry Pi 3, to be ready to run in 2021. Because the first stage of the Falcon 9 lands itself, its chips don't need to be radiation hardened. //

Why three processors? That's because, as explained on StackExchange Space Exploration, SpaceX uses an Actor-Judge system to provide safety through redundancy. In this system, every time a decision is made, it's compared to the results from the other cores. If there's any disagreement, the decision is thrown out and the process is restarted. It's only when every processor comes up with the same answer that a command is sent to the PowerPC microcontrollers.

These controllers, which call the shots for the rocket engines and grid fins, get three commands from each of the x86 processors. If all three command strings are identical, then the microcontroller executes the command, but if one of the three is bad, the controller goes with the last previously correct instruction. If things go completely awry, the Falcon 9 ignores the misfiring chip's commands. //

The point of this triple "tell-me three times" redundancy is to give the fault tolerance it needs without having to pay for expensive space-specific chips. Modern planes, like the newer Airbus planes, use a similar approach in their fly-by-wire systems. //

The Dragon spacecraft also runs Linux with flight software written in C++. The ship's touchscreen interface is rendered using Chromium and JavaScript. If something were to go wrong with the interface, the astronauts have physical buttons to control the spacecraft.
//

So, thanks in part to Linux, we've returned to manned spaceflight in the US. And, this it seems penguins can fly, with sufficient rocket power behind them.