Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

The video in the X post below shows a very time-compressed version of the main points Kathy Leuders made at the just concluded 2024 meeting of the Mexican Space Agency in Matamoros MX, right across the Rio Grande from Brownsville TX. (I didn't know Mexico had a space agency.)

This video compresses her remarks into about 1/5 the time, by cutting out less relevant stuff and speeding it up. (No, she doesn't talk this fast.)

The biggest news is that Elon hopes to be launching Starships every two weeks by the end of 2025.

https://x.com/spacesudoer/status/1855568792719638939

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Coast Guard Marine Safety Information Bulletin

B13 is preparing to roll down to the pad for Flight 6

(Photo by Starship Gazer) Cybertruck photobomb down at the bottom

13/31 is stacked for its flight on Monday!

Beautiful video of the stacking by Jordan Guidry of WAI (watch this on full-screen with sound on)

https://x.com/FelixSchlang/status/1857473556164260124

Flight 6 of Starship has been pushed back to Tuesday November 19 because of weather forcast Monday at Starbase. The launch window opens at 4:00 PM Central time (5 PM Eastern, 2 PM Pacific, 10 PM UTC/London time)

This late afternoon launch time should permit a daylight flip-n-burn landing in the Indian ocean west of Australia.

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/...p-flight-6

Gav Cornwell of Space Offshore and Nasaspaceflight.com has spotted two small ships that left the mining ports in a remote stretch of Western Australia coast, headed for the coordinates where the Flight 6 ship is expected to do its landing flip-n-burn. It's believed that these ships will be placing the camera buoys that hope to film the event.



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And a new NOTAM has been issued for tomorrow, for the vicinity of the Brownsville airport not Starbase, announcing temporary flight restrictions at the airport for "VIP movement". Speculation is that President-elect Trump is flying in to watch Flight 6 in person. (Update The Orlando Sentinel is now reporting that Trump will indeed be going to Starbase.)



Photo taken last night by the lovely Jessica Kirsch

Joe Tegtmeyer says:

https://x.com/JoeTegtmeyer/status/1858505418672148857

As a recap, here are a few of the test objectives for Starship flight #6 per SpaceX

Note, flight #6 is the end of the era of early Starship prototypes, as this is the last launch of the V1 ships. This is an important transition point for Starship development!

...Starship’s upper stage will fly the same suborbital trajectory as the previous flight test, with splashdown targeted in the Indian Ocean.

An additional objective for this flight will be attempting an in-space burn using a single Raptor engine, further demonstrating the capabilities required to conduct a ship deorbit burn prior to orbital missions...

The flight test will assess new secondary thermal protection materials &will have entire sections of heat shield tiles removed on either side of the ship in locations being studied for catch-enabling hardware on future vehicles.

The ship also will intentionally fly at a higher angle of attack in the final phase of descent, purposefully stressing the limits of flap control to gain data on future landing profiles.

Finally, adjusting the flight’s launch window to the late afternoon at Starbase will enable the ship to reenter over the Indian Ocean in daylight, providing better conditions for visual observations.

Depending on how well Flight 6 goes & the launch site survives the launch & catch attempt, there may be a slightly longer period of time between flight 6 & flight 7. This is also due to the move to a completely new V2 Starship design. Recently, SpaceX has stated their goal is for ~25 Starship launches in 2025, including on-orbit refilling tests, ship catch in the 1st 6 months of 2025, payload deployment & more!

V2 ships, starting with the vehicle planned for 7th flight test, will fly with significant upgrades including redesigned forward flaps, larger propellant tanks, & the latest generation tiles & secondary thermal protection layers as SpaceX continues to iterate towards a fully reusable heat shield.

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1858749709386444819

Great human-for-scale video (on the launch mount to the right of the base of the rocket)

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1858748850787238258

Photo taken tonight by Andrew McCarthy



Starfactory's tall nosecone hall on the left, the SpaceX company headquarters office building on the right, with the new factory section joining them into one building in the middle. The three vertical assembly bays behind. The factory is bigger than it looks here, it extends away from the camera as far as the more distant megabay, which it connects to.

Countdown proceeding uneventfully so far.

An Air Force C17 has landed at Brownsville airport. Speculation is that it is carrying Secret Service, bulletproof limo etc. for Elon's VIP guests.

And what may or may not be a Secret Service advance team has arrived at Megabay 2. Elon and his guests might watch the launch from atop it.

(Photo by Joey Leal of Interstellar Gateway)



And another plane is approaching



Update President Trump's plane has arrived, circled over the launch area, then headed to Brownsville airport to land. I'd hoped to see Elon and Trump arrive at Starbase, but some Secret Service security goons came out and threw a tarp over Lab Padre's rover one livestream camera, apparently figuring that it was a security risk.