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SpaceX's Starship launching to orbit for first time ever today

99 points geox 2 hours ago 23 comments

317070 1 hour ago | parent

Does someone know where to watch the official livestream? The internet is so swarmed with all the recasters I cannot find the official stream anymore...

Edit: https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-14

petterroea 1 hour ago | parent

Only on X, sadly.

My experience however is that NASASpaceflight provides an overall better coverage than the official stream, only recasting when they don't have camera angles themselves (Such as when the ship is in space or during reentry)

LunicLynx 1 hour ago | parent

They have a stream on their page starting 40min before launch.

Also can recommend the restream of everyday astronaut Tim Dodd

sebzim4500 54 minutes ago | parent

Yeah but it's just a white-labelled version of the X stream with all its warts.

joachimma 44 minutes ago | parent

That's the opposite of the criticism that was levelled at him, during earlier launches, when he was preferring his own cameras even though they only caught fog.

LunicLynx 32 minutes ago | parent

Which warts? I mean if you dislike Space X, what do you expect to get from it at all?

cubefox 42 minutes ago | parent

Here is the unofficial NASASpaceFlight stream: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9gDxG-pm1Zo

They are already live and have a lot of background discussion, unlike the official SpaceX stream.

philipallstar 5 minutes ago | parent

> Only on X, sadly.

And it's SpaceX, not ESA, sadly.

stefan_lec 19 minutes ago | parent

YouTube rebroadcast of official SpaceX feed (h/t NasaSpaceFlight forums):

https://youtube.com/watch?v=fmkHjDeECps

Also hosted directly on SpaceX website:

https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-14

chasd00 18 minutes ago | parent

I use to watch the nasaspaceflight and everyday astronaut streams but the official one is best for the actual launch. The other two are good for the commentary because if you ask a question in the chat they’ll sometimes answer it.

holt62 1 hour ago | parent

What an incredible feat of engineering, even if it doesn't make orbit. Just getting that much mass off the pad is mind-boggling.

benj111 50 minutes ago | parent

Well considering the point of it is the make orbit, it would be a bit useless if it didn't.

Would HN describe a huge program that didn't do the thing it was designed to do a "feat of engineering"?

s08148692 39 minutes ago | parent

Yes. The Starship program is pushing the limits of engineering, if it fails today it doesn't make it unimpressive

I'd also consider the attempts at fusion energy to be very impressive engineering projects even though none have them have yielded a stable source of fusion energy

prodigycorp 1 hour ago | parent

Distillation: Stream starts in about 1hr. Payload is 26 starlink v3 satellites.

Launch window is 8:15 AM to 9:30 AM eastern time.

Superheavy will land 7min after launch. Starship lands 9hrs post launch.

Edit: Both will be splashdowns (originally said they'll be caught)

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

https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-14

chedabob 44 minutes ago | parent

> Both expected to be caught by chopsticks. Will be a first for Starship.

SpaceX's flight profile says both are splashdowns?

prodigycorp 38 minutes ago | parent

Article must be wrong.

  > During operational flights, SpaceX plans to bring both Super Heavy and Ship back to the launch pad, where they'll be caught by the tower's "chopstick" arms. The company has already done this three times with Super Heavy but has not yet attempted it with Ship.

timroman 35 minutes ago | parent

That is operational flights, today’s is still a test. Splashdowns today.

prodigycorp 33 minutes ago | parent

Failed an eval lol. Corrected it, thanks.

motionlessveloc 1 hour ago | parent

Ship will also have to be outfitted with a life-support system ahead of crewed missions, which could be coming relatively soon. For example, NASA picked Ship to the be the first crewed lunar lander for its Artemis program, which aims to land people on the moon for the first time in 2028 on the Artemis IV mission.

Don't worry, there is absolutely no chance this will happen in 2028. There are many detailed takedowns of why the "Human Landing System" schedule is preposterous, but here's HN's idlewords:

https://mceglowski.substack.com/p/how-should-we-think-about-...

cubefox 47 minutes ago | parent

The official (completely unrealistic at this point) 2028 target is probably kept because Donald Trump's term ends in January 2029.

rokkamokka 11 minutes ago | parent

One can only hope

metalman 31 minutes ago | parent

planned 6 orbits, 10hr's in space the load of satelites will deploy 10x the banwidth of a single falcon launch making the economics of this venture rather startling for any 'competition'. if they nail the deploy, relights, and soft landings, it will time for everybody to rethink everything * * keep in mind they are already tinkering with on orbit fuel tranfer technology, which will lead to routine bunkering * other things, like doing visual condition inspections of every ship in orbit means there experience base grows at a rate that other companys litteraly cant imagine.

ksec 3 minutes ago | parent

I remember all the Twitter account that keep saying Starship isn't physically / scientifically possible.

I am so looking forward to a successfully launch today.