SpaceX’s Starship will attempt its virgin orbital flight on Monday morning at 7am. You can view it in person from South Padre Island or online at SpaceX
The launch window opens between 7am and 9:30am. If we have to scrub for technical problems, the window re-opens every morning at the same time for nine days.
Starship is a methane-powered rocket designed to lift enough mass to supply Mars and Luna colonies. It has environmental aspirations of opening up space mining so that we can stop mining on Earth. In short, if this rocket works, it’s a massive game changer for the options humanity has going forward, both on Earth and off. SpaceX
Launch scrubbed this morning. Earliest retry attempt possible is 7am on Wednesday, but weather looks bad… they’ll still set up for the attempt just in case, but in all probability, next attempt is 7am on Thursday.
Next attempt is 8:28am Central tomorrow (Thursday) morning. As of right now, we are go for launch… my co-workers were signing off the revised simulations when I left the office today. All eyes are on the weather, but looking good. I can’t drive down for this attempt, so I’ll be watching online with everyone else.
Great launch followed by rapid unscheduled disassembly. But honestly, it was expected. The Raptor engines are so complex, they hit the limit to how much we can simulate in software without full flight data. The data from today will let us tune the models. This was definitely a successful test. And, by the way, did you see the rocket gyrate as it tried to correct itself? It held together while sky dancing! The structural integrity is proven rock solid.
Thank you to @Stephen-L-M for letting me know about the launch! I went to see the launch on both days. Obviously the launch on Monday was cancelled, but the launch on Thursday ended in a fiery blaze of glory!
It…was…incredible. Thousands of people showed up on a Thursday morning unified in support of the largest rocket ever built. It was like going to a concert. Except there was no opening act–only one headliner, and we couldn’t be more thrilled.
The anticipation leading up to the launch was palpable. The only thing we wanted was for the rocket to not blow up the launch pad. Then, the countdown started…we all held our breath when those engines fired. A plume of smoke enveloped the rocket, obscuring our view. Starship was slowing increasing its thrust as it attempted to lift off. For some time we didn’t know if it had exploded, or petered out. Finally, it rose up through the cloud of its own making, and we cheered like never before.
It was a surreal experience, looking across the bay and seeing the sum of humanity’s knowledge smiling back at you. This is the rocket that will take us to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. How unbelievably glorious does that sentence sound?! It. Is. SO. COOL!
