It shows how much more (over?) ambitious Starship is than New Glenn… but hopefully the new heat shield works out for them and we can see some progress to the Artemis HLS moon lander version soon!
Booster catch was awesome! And allegedly using some refurbished engines in that booster?
So a demonstrated re-use of the booster is exciting.
But it seems like they lost the Starship at or around scheduled engine cutout?
X-splosions, from Michael Bay!!! POW bla-bla-BOOM!
Mission loss confirmed by SpaceX. A bit sad after the New Glenn win.
But still, progress with the reusability of the boosters!
Come to think about it:
SpaceX didn’t reach orbit this time, but landed the booster, while Blue Origin reached orbit, but didn’t land the booster. That’s kinda funny.
I quipped to a friend the solution is obvious here…
You know, I wondered if this might happen, but didn’t feel I was knowledgeable enough to properly articulate my concerns. Who is responsible to inform who about what and what to do if things go wrong seems a bit murky.
I heard that an aircraft was close enough to the debris path to feel the need to divert, but then again the FAA already said a trigger for an NTSB investigation would be any part of the mission falling outside the designated launch and landing exclusion zones…
So not really a surprise. Hopefully they already have a good idea what went wrong, and the investigation can conclude quickly - and more importantly this doesn’t happen again!
I used to think about a scenario, imagine being a shark just chilling in the ocean and suddenly a chunk of space junk splashes down on top of you. I never thought about just chilling in an airliner and having space junk suddenly shoot me down.
I love his point at the end: Is the go fast and break things mentality the most professional use of our airspace? And don’t forget about our tax dollars. SpaceX isn’t 100% privately funded. They get government grants, and the government (DoD, NASA) pays them for certain things. Despite being a resident of a foreign country working for a foreign institution getting paid in foreign currency, I have to report all my earnings to Uncle Sam and, above a certain threshold, I’m effectively double-taxed both by my host country and my home country. I would not appreciate my taxes going towards Elon.
I don’t appreciate the double standards around the new space industry - NASA loses a mission and it is a “disaster”, SpaceX loses a mission and it is an “awesome RUD! Man, that was so cool to see on my tiny phone screen!” (This is not aimed at anyone here, just generally at the “social” media )
Anyway, I’ll stop - if they didn’t have the mentality to push the boundaries they wouldn’t exist in the first place. We just need the push and pull of the regulatory agencies to keep them in line
Regulation is sorely needed. I fear the US will not have the regulatory abilities it used to, but that discussion would derail the thread.
Huh, the tax laws must have changed. When I was living abroad, as long as you were out of the country for all but 30 days in the first year, you could claim foreign residency and not pay income tax in the US. After that, you just had to be out of the US more than in each year. I paid taxes where I was living according to the local laws, mostly Germany and Italy, but not in the US, until I moved home. I also paid for supplemental health insurance in Germany, which was a requirement, but a welcome one, because it covered me wherever I traveled for work or pleasure.
You fire for an exemption but still have to file the good old 1040 (or a variant of it) with the IRS. If you make above a certain amount, you owe.
It’s a major pain because very few online tax filing systems work for expats. They claim you’re not eligible for free filing, but then when you try to pay for their services they only accept US-issued credit cards with US billing addresses…which I don’t have on account of me being an immigrant…Paper filing is absurdly complex compared to the Japanese system, which a first grader could properly fill out.