Giant Steel Rocket #4 is in

[glhs837]

The books, and the water.

Four milestones this time. In order of occurrence, not importance.

1. Successful jettison of the hot staging ring.
2. Successful reentry and "soft" water landing of the booster.
3. Successful* reentry of the Starship. Including severe damage to one of the flaps which it survived.
4. Even damaged, the ship managed to perform the flip and burn and pull off the soft water landing.

Watch the streams, they had live footage the whole time thanks to Starlink

 

[glhs837]

That flap aft edge burning off looked like it was the end.

 

[Sneakers]

It held in. Thought for sure it would have been lost along with the landing.

 

[glhs837]

It held in. Thought for sure it would have been lost along with the landing

Friken nailbiter.

"Captain, shields have failed, sustaining structural damage"

"Hold together, baby, just a little bit more!!!"

 

[stgislander]

Would have loved to see the flap damage. With the soft splashdown, shame they don't recover it.

 

[glhs837]

Would have loved to see the flap damage. With the soft splashdown, shame they don't recover it.

Well, that one landed in the Indian ocean 60kms off the planned point. not sure they could have got to it before it sank.

But heres how good the landing calc on the booster was. They evidently placed a camera on a buoy that captured the final descent. Keep in mind, this was with one of the nine engines used for the final burn having blown itself to pieces, it was still this controlled. And keep in mind, the ground camera is not stabilized, so a lot of what looks like booster movement is actually the camera bobbing with the waves.

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1799458...KjG3-ZL7nxcTMPP7Z6R2OAX3ghPo4fUKnn-JkT2pfMOg_

 

[Sneakers]

That flap aft edge burning off looked like it was the end.

BTW... those excellent images were provided via the StarLink low earth orbit satellites. The camera images were beamed to the sats and back to earth stations. They can provide video/telemetry during the 'blackout' phase that other direct telemetry systems can't.

 

[glhs837]

Well, that one landed in the Indian ocean 60kms off the planned point. not sure they could have got to it before it sank.

EDIT: It was only 6kms off, not 60.

But heres how good the landing calc on the booster was. They evidently placed a camera on a buoy that captured the final descent. Keep in mind, this was with one of the nine engines used for the final burn having blown itself to pieces, it was still this controlled. And keep in mind, the ground camera is not stabilized, so a lot of what looks like booster movement is actually the camera bobbing with the waves.

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1799458...KjG3-ZL7nxcTMPP7Z6R2OAX3ghPo4fUKnn-JkT2pfMOg_

 

[glhs837]

BTW... those excellent images were provided via the StarLink low earth orbit satellites. The camera images were beamed to the sats and back to earth stations. They can provide video/telemetry during the 'blackout' phase that other direct telemetry systems can't.

No kidding. Absolute game changer. We saw the 1080p stuff, but they received 4k the whole way. I think we've only begun to see what true high speed net on a global basis means. Think of how much human potential goes to waste simply because it cannot connect.