Thread

SpaceX's Starship launching to orbit for first time ever today

304 points · 367 comments · geox

motionlessveloc · 1790593197 · focus · HN ↗
Ship will also have to be outfitted with a life-support system ahead of crewed missions, which could be coming relatively soon. For example, NASA picked Ship to the be the first crewed lunar lander for its Artemis program, which aims to land people on the moon for the first time in 2028 on the Artemis IV mission.
Don't worry, there is absolutely no chance this will happen in 2028. There are many detailed takedowns of why the "Human Landing System" schedule is preposterous, but here's HN's idlewords:
<a href="https://mceglowski.substack.com/p/how-should-we-think-about-starship" rel="nofollow">https://mceglowski.substack.com/p/how-should-we-think-about-...
1. ralfd · 1790599637 · focus · HN ↗
  There is (2 minutes before Flight 14, maybe it changes in 10 minutes) low chance, but not no chance.
  > This would be an ambitious but achievable cadence for Starship, particularly if the tanker Starships didn’t have to be reusable, and could be made without a heat shield or control surfaces. Just how much time SpaceX has to reach this cadence is an interesting question, since right now NASA and SpaceX are locked in a game of chicken around who can commit to the least realistic timeline. But it probably has to get in gear by early 2027.
  This is good evaluation. A launch every week in 2027 is ambitious, but not impossible.
  1. tonyhart7 · 1790602189 · focus · HN ↗
    "A launch every week in 2027 is ambitious, but not impossible."
    I don't think a week is enough to gather data and fix subsequent launch
    newsclues · 1790603126 · focus · HN ↗
    Depends on what the issue is, but you don't need to apply fixes to the next launch. You test them when you can, which may tax a few launches.

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