Geenstijl

De tweede vangst, maar Starship 33 is niet meer

De Super Heavy booster-raket voor de tweede keer gevangen door vangarm Mechzilla. Daarover zei de aanstaande CIA-directeur John Ratcliffe gisteren: "There's only one country in the world that can parallel park a 200-foot rocket booster. The Chinese can't do it. The Russians can't do it. We do it." Hoorah. En met bemanningsmodule Starship 33 bovenop de Super Heavy ging het ook bijna wel goed. Al vernevelde deze helaas wel tijdens z'n terugkeer, of zoals dat heet: een 'Rapid unscheduled disassembly'.

Elons lezing van de testvlucht: "The booster flight was a success, the ship flight was 1/4 successful, hence cup being ~5/8 full. New ship forward flaps, higher thrust engines and tile adherence on ascent were tested. Improved heat shield performance was the only major thing that wasn’t tested, along with the “Pez” payload dispenser. Probably solved in next month’s launch. The 9 meter diameter version of Starship will probably fly ~10,000 times, so this is barely a bump in the road. Doesn’t change the likely date at which Mars becomes self-sufficient."

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