BFR Developments

[Yazata]

SpaceX says, "After approx. 24 days at sea, the SpaceX Recovery team successfully guided Starship to a location just off the coast of Christmas Island. A team of SpaceX engineers is on their way to conduct additional analysis on the vehicle in calmer waters before attempting to return it to Starbase"

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2089685256085344560

"Return it to Starbase"?!

Photo by Australian wildlife photographer Chris Bray who was on Christmas Island and who got excited about photographing a different kind of wildlife

The missing heat shield tiles on the flaps appears to be the result of waves during three weeks drifting at sea and several unsuccessful attempts at towing it. The steel beneath where the tiles were looks to be in good shape, without any scars or burn-throughs.

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Photos by SpaceX

Lost tiles are also visible at the nose, probably due to wave action

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Worse weather earlier at sea

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Heave away, my brothers, let every sailor know,
The ship that sailed from heaven’s edge still rides the waves below.

---

Photo by Chris Bray

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[C C]

SpaceX says, "After approx. 24 days at sea [...]

24 days?! Sure doesn't seem like that long ago.

[Yazata]

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[Yazata]

Well, we know how they attached the tow line.

Marcus House says "They don't call that a sea level engine for no reason my friends. It has had a very important role to play for Ship 40."

https://x.com/MarcusHouse/status/2089684679096213909

Elon replied, "Way more of a “sea level engine” than expected"

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2089821794253586695

I think the photo is by Chris Bray using his drone

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[Syne]

So it looks like they have had to tow it scooping water the whole time.

[Yazata]

So it looks like they have had to tow it scooping water the whole time.

Yeah, apparently so. They had big hard plastic floatation devices but they didn't work very well. I think it was the waves bashing them against the ship that damaged the tiles. So it looks like they might have just said forget that and just towed it anyway.

[Yazata]

Two big pieces of news this morning:

First Elon said, "Looks like we will probably catch the ship with the tower in a few months. If there had been a tower out to sea where we practiced landing the ship, it would have been caught.

First reflight of the ship will be either end of this year or early next. That will be a fork in the road of history for consciousness reaching the stars."

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2090305535937851863

"in a few months" suggests that they might not try a catch on Flight 14, which is expected next month.

Contrast that with what Elon said on July 24: "Unless we discover problems after mission data review, SpaceX will attempt to catch the ship with the tower on next flight"

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2080876967839031712

And second, the saga of Ship 40 continues. Yesterday the Forte, a Netherlands owned and Maltese flagged semi-submersible heavy lift ship, set sail from Singapore with a stated destination of Christmas Island. While it's unverified that it has anything to do with Ship 40, it's hard to imagine any other use for it at that remote location.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/det...ssel:FORTE

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[Yazata]

Ship 41, the Flight 14 ship, just completed what looked to me like a successful 60 second static fire of all six engines, at the Masseys test site.