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Starship Flight 7

(www.spacex.com)
649 points chinathrow | 3 comments | 16 Jan 25 21:25 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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charles_f ◴[16 Jan 25 22:47 UTC] No.42731872[source]▶
That "landing" (is it still considered a landing if it's chopsticked a few meters before it touches the ground?) is so unnatural it almost looks fake. So big and unimaginable that it feels like watching fx on a movie!

The close-up camera right after was interesting, I thought it captured on the grid fins, but it looks like there are two small purpose-built knobs for that.

The times we live in!

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1. ortusdux ◴[16 Jan 25 22:57 UTC] No.42731983[source]▶
IIRC, the grid fins are not strong enough to support the rocket, and reinforcing them would add too much weight to the vehicle.

The plan is to catch the second stage the same way, and the starship in flight now is the first to have mockup pins to test the aerodynamics and see if they cause issues during reentry.

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2. charles_f ◴[16 Jan 25 23:30 UTC] No.42732286[source]▶
I was surprised they were landing them on those fins, makes more sense now.
3. sfblah ◴[17 Jan 25 02:30 UTC] No.42733462[source]▶
It seems like they'll need a lot of different vehicles to catch the second stage given the number of pieces I saw in the video.