BFR Developments

[Yazata]

Tomorrow, Elon will be making a presentation at Starbase before Flight 9 launches.

The presentation will be at 12 noon CDT and will be streamed here:

https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1rmxPyOEBWXKN

and here

https://www.spacex.com/

It's believed that Elon will provide news about upcoming plans, including sending a Starship to Mars in late 2026. Uncrewed certainly and probably without attempting to land. Once they perfect orbital refueling, it should be quite doable.

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SpaceX will stream the flight on their website

https://www.spacex.com/

And there will be a variety of enthusiast streams as well

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/gr7P1Lrom5A

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/hAdLlG9Rfd4

[Yazata]

Elon's presentation has been pushed back to 8 PM CDT, after the flight.

https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1rmxPyOEBWXKN

[Yazata]

Here's Tim Dodd's stream

https://www.youtube.com/live/T6tP0il4z64

[Yazata]

T - 1 hour. Go for prop load.

T - 33 minutes. SpaceX say they are working no issues.

T - 18 minutes. SpaceX says no issues. Weather good.

T - 4 minutes

Holding at T - 40 seconds due to temperatures out of range on one raptor engine.

Clock is rolling - go for launch

Hold called again. Back to 40 seconds

Clock rolling

Engines lit

Cleared the tower

All engines running

Max-Q

Good staging

Booster appears to have exploded when landing burn started

Ship is at the point last two failed.

Ship engine cutoff

Preparing for payload deploy demonstration

Great views inside the cargo bay

Cargo bay door jammed & wouldn't open all the way. Unable to deploy the starlink simulators

They appear to have lost attitude control and ship is tumbling. This will make planned heat shield tests impossible, since without attitude control, ship will burn up on reentry like flight 3 did.

All in all, not a great flight.

[C C]

Seems unlikely Starship will be going to Mars even 3 years from now, much less next year.

[Yazata]

Elon gave his presentation at Starbase today.

Yep. Elon is still thinking big! Science fiction made real.

video here:

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1928185351933239641

(SpaceX graphics and renders)

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[Yazata]

First confirmation that a new air-separation plant is under construction in Brownsville, intended to serve liquid oxygen, liquid nitrogen and maybe argon as well to Starbase. Earth's atmosphere is about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and a little less than 1% argon. (We hear a lot about CO2 and global warming, but it's only about 0.04%.) The air separation plant separates out the component gases from the surrounding air and liquifies them.

The air separation plant doesn't belong to SpaceX but to Linde PLC headquartered in Britain with operations globally.

(Screenshot from a video by Starship Gazer)

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[Yazata]

FAA advisory gives June 29 as the tentative date for Flight 10.

https://www.fly.faa.gov/adv/adv_spt.jsp

[Yazata]

Welp... Flight 10 definitely isn't happening on June 29 after dramatic events tonight at the Masseys test site.

They had fueled Ship 36, the flight 10 ship, for a full six engine static fire. Engine ignition appeared immanent when the ship spectacularly exploded!! (As Elon says, excitement guaranteed!)

Video here:

https://x.com/LabPadre/status/1935550102518579436

Fire department inbound

https://x.com/NASASpaceflight/status/193...5612741675

SpaceX has issued the following statement:

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1935572705941880971

"On Wednesday, June 18 at approximately 11 p.m. CT, the Starship preparing for the tenth flight test experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase. A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for.

Our Starbase team is actively working to safe the test site and the immediate surrounding area in conjunction with local officials. There are no hazards to residents in surrounding communities, and we ask that individuals do not attempt to approach the area while safing operations continue

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This was another of the seemingly cursed Version.2 ships, none of which have worked properly.

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[confused2]

I'm hoping this was mostly sound and light effects which won't leave a huge crater where a lot of expensive things used to be.