BFR Developments

[Yazata]

Looks like a construction tent at the launch area is on fire. Maybe ruptured acetylene bottles and electric arcs.

[C C]

Looks like a construction tent at the launch area is on fire. Maybe ruptured acetylene bottles and electric arcs.

Located that on the LabPadre playback. Glad I stuck with the SpaceX feed. The former was erratic in terms of sound going in and out and most of the flip and descent process wasn't captured. (In the recording after the fact, at that point it switches to a post-crash view with the noise of the flight apparently still continuing in the background.)

[Yazata]

I was left with What - What - for heavens sake WHAT?

I hear'ya C2. I was kind of stunned by what I saw and continue to be. There wasn't anything that I really didn't expect to see. It was a lot like the video renders that talented people have made. But actually seeing it happen in real life, after watching them building these things over all these weeks...

Hopefully Spacex record stays:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf83yzzme2I

Try this one. The flight is right at the end, at about 1:47:00 to the end

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap-BkkrR...be&t=6462e

To me it looked 100% good up to about 500 feet above the landing site.

Elon says that the header tanks lost pressure and weren't feeding propellant to the engines properly. The engines' exhaust turned a weird green right at the end which might suggest that they were overheating and melting internally, consuming themselves. So thrust dropped off and the thing didn't slow as anticipated.

The control system on those raptors is out of this world.

Better than I expected, that's for sure.

My guess is they could have done a perfect landing on 2 raptors if someone hadn't chosen to come in real fast and finish with a flourish.

I don't think that was intentional.

With such precise control of the raptors it looks to me like they could do the crazy elon even without the flapelons.

Elon has already said that the flip would be performed mostly by thrust-vector-control, and that certainly seemed to be true.

Shame about SN8 but apart from that - gorgeous to watch (when a camera was actually pointed at it).

I wish that it had survived, but I'm really happy that it did as well as it did.

[Yazata]

Here's some truly extraordinary video by Mary and Jack Beyer of NSF.

Jack was in South Padre Island, Mary was as close as they would let her get. (I think that she was west of the build site at the closest checkpoint with SpaceX employees but not the general public. (SpaceX knows and likes Mary.) NSF also left a remote controlled camera robot in Boca Chica village, but it wasn't entirely successful.

Both Mary and Jack were using very powerful zoom lenses so tracking the flight took some doing. Mary's a self-taught photographer and her video at times is as good as SpaceX's.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/4XeWoECbywU

[confused2]

Mary and Jack's video seemed to catch the free fall better than the Spacex one - maybe just the angle - if Spacex edited out some of the free fall as boring I think they made a huge mistake.

[Yazata]

If anyone still hasn't had enough Boca Chica action (Elon's ready for more), Sn9 and the second giant crane are scheduled to be transported from the build area to the launch area on Monday (Dec 14) afternoon. Sn9 is expected to be installed on the second launch stand. Since its nose is already installed, it's ready to enter into its own round of pressure proof testing and static fires as soon as it arrives. Transporting it and the crane should be interesting. The crane proved difficult to move last time. And moving Sn9 with its nose already attached will require the services of the new transporter atop what look like two and maybe four SPMTs with a steel I-beam framework on top to support the 16-story-tall rocket. A hell of a thing to drive down a narrow 2-lane road.

https://www.cameroncounty.us/wp-content/....14.20.pdf

[C C]

If anyone still hasn't had enough Boca Chica action (Elon's ready for more), Sn9 and the second giant crane are scheduled to be transported from the build area to the launch area on Monday (Dec 14) afternoon. Sn9 is expected to be installed on the second launch stand. Since its nose is already installed, it's ready to enter into its own round of pressure proof testing and static fires as soon as it arrives. Transporting it and the crane should be interesting. The crane proved difficult to move last time. And moving Sn9 with its nose already attached will require the services of the new transporter atop what look like two and maybe four SPMTs with a steel I-beam framework on top to support the 16-story-tall rocket. A hell of a thing to drive down a narrow 2-lane road.

https://www.cameroncounty.us/wp-content/....14.20.pdf

A little late for the ATV Muddy-Trails Park to address or recognize the importance of [better] infrastructure. Maybe if a starship fell off a transport, Elon would... Nah, he couldn't bear a long pause for new roadwork even then.

[Yazata]

Speaking of a Starship falling off a transport...

Sn9 has had an accident in the High Bay. Hopefully nobody is injured, no ambulances or emergency vehicles have appeared. (Edit: Unoffical word/rumor out of the build site says that there were no injuries.)

Unclear what damage 9's sustained. It may or may not still be flyable. It may be largely undamaged, but there's danger that an accident like this might be fatal and render a rocket totally unusable. Hard to know at this point. As is always the case with SpaceX, this can perhaps be considered a unplanned test - after all, the goal is to build these things strong enough to take some rough treatment if they are ever to fly over and over again. So observing Sn9's condition after the accident might be a useful data point for them.

Even if Sn9 is out for the count, Sn 10's tank section is already complete in the Midbay. Still needs a nose and fins. Sn 11 is in the Midbay too and partially stacked. Parts for 12 through 16 have been spotted.

(Maybe Sn9 saw Sn8's fate, heard that it was up next, and got drunk.)


Mary's on it --

https://twitter.com/BocaChicaGal/status/...8260993024

So is Tim Dodd -- Tim's photos show that the stand that was supporting Sn9 collapsed. He says that there was a loud bang when it collapsed. The bottom skirt looks undamaged. Fins look like they have some damage. Unclear if the lateral sideways force has sprung or bent the body of the vehicle.

https://twitter.com/Erdayastronaut/statu...6465340418

and

https://twitter.com/Erdayastronaut/statu...2590743555

And LabPadre, who has 24/7 cams, has a video of the accident happening

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/s4ag8sEjuOQ

[Yazata]

Elon's posted some great Sn8 photos

[Image: Eo6X0VBUYAAOSEy?format=jpg&name=4096x4096]

[Image: Eo6X0VDVQAAllT_?format=jpg&name=4096x4096]

[Image: Eo6X0VLVgAELNOX?format=jpg&name=4096x4096]

[C C]

Sn8 was pretty much UFO aerobatics at a much slower pace.

If uninformed observers had seen this stuff occurring in the skies of San Clemente, Chile -- rather than Boca Chica, Texas -- that's what they would have been tweeting about: UFO! Amazing alien spaceship aerial stunts!