Musk: Starship test not likely to be successful

[TexasTowelie]

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said this week that his company will attempt to launch its futuristic, bullet-shaped Starship to orbit in January, but he’s not betting on success for that first test flight.

“There’s a lot of risk associated with this first launch, so I would not say that it is likely to be successful, but we’ll make a lot of progress,” he said Wednesday during a virtual meeting organized by the National Academy of Sciences.

Musk said he’s confident Starship — launching for the first time atop a mega booster — will successfully reach orbit sometime in 2022. After a dozen or so orbital test flights next year, SpaceX then would start launching valuable satellites and other payloads to orbit on Starships in 2023, he said.

NASA has contracted with SpaceX to use Starship for delivering astronauts to the lunar surface as early as 2025. Musk plans to use the reusable ships to eventually land people on Mars.

The shiny, stainless steel Starship and its first-stage booster — called the Super Heavy — will be the biggest rocket ever to fly, towering 394 feet. Liftoff thrust, Musk noted, will be more than double that of NASA’s Saturn V rockets that carried astronauts to the moon a half-century ago.

Read more: https://myrgv.com/spacex/2021/11/18/musk-starship-test-not-likely-to-be-successful/

[sanatanadharma]

1. Progress? More power and fuel to reach satellite orbit than was needed to go to the moon

Launching satellites into earth orbit using a rocket with twice the power (and larger size) than was needed to reach the moon does not strike me as something to brag about.
Recreating already proven 50 year old technology is not exactly progress.

"The shiny, stainless steel Starship and its first-stage booster — called the Super Heavy — will be the biggest rocket ever to fly, towering 394 feet. Liftoff thrust, Musk noted, will be more than double that of NASA’s Saturn V rockets that carried astronauts to the moon a half-century ago."

[TexasTowelie]

2. Yes, however it can also carry larger payloads

which can be used for construction of a new space station and a possible lunar base. If the US decides not to move along with the project then it will be conceding the space race to China and possibly our national security as well.

[PJMcK]

3. Yeah, it's a head-scatcher

Starship, (grossly mis-named; it’s not even leaving Earth orbit!), seems to be a one-size-fits-all design. Is this really the most functional technology for these diverse missions?

The Apollo rockets and capsules barely fit their requirements as so many technologies and techniques were developed for Apollo. Incredibly, scientists and engineers were able to brilliantly design equipment and systems to accomplish their goals. Will SpaceX follow a similar or different trajectory?

[Ghost Dog]

4. You attach too much credibility to so-called "journalism".

Saturn V did not carry anything beyond Earth orbit, and certainly not to the moon. Apollo stages had their own fuel and engines.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Not recreating. Very different technology. I suppose you think electric vehicles are useless too?

After all, there were electric cars 100 years ago.

(but very different technology)

[Sancho]

5. Project Moonbase