SN8 Test Flight - Just Wow!

Well that was awesome. Starship SN8 just made its first (and only test flight). Really does make a return to the Moon and on to Mars seem so much closer than the Team Artemis announcement.

T - 2m16s

That belly-flop was just awesome

Imagine that filled with a platoon of Imperial Marines!

Just about to touch down when the fuel pressure goes

OK so it didn't end well but it proved so much, just seeing the belly flop and swing actually work was quite something, and I'm sure SN9 will nail it on the next test.

Starship SN8 Assembled

 

Starship SN8 was finally assembled early on Friday morning (c. 0100 UK time) - bit annoying as I'd stayed up to midnight just before hoping to see it! Awesome photos that morning - screen-grabs from LabPadre's YouTube stream. Can't wait to see the 15km hop.

SpaceX Starship Assembly

Spent most of the last week watching the Lapadre Live YouTube feed of the assembly of the SpaceX Mk1 Starship. All week it seemed like they were about to mate the two halves, and you've never seen so many cranes and in the end I managed to be out at the shop for the 5 minutes it took to lift the nose section up!

This is just before assembly as they put the 2nd canard on the nose cone. That big yellow crane in the middle was used to do the main lift. Great (clean) chatter on the YouTube channel with all the cranes named and the different types of worker.

The finished result the next day after Elon Musk's presentation where the forward plan seems to be:

• Nov - first flight (10s of km) of Mk1
• This year - 200km flight of Mk1
• Mk2 then probably takes over testing, still suborbital, no heat shield
• Mk3 makes first orbital flight ~ 2Q20
• Mk4 joins testing programme
• Work starts on the first Super Heavy booster
• Work starts on a "production" generation of Starships
• Lunar orbital flight ~ 2021
• Lunar landing ~ 2023 (prob before NASA)
• Unmanned flights to and landing on Mars (and return?) before human landing