From: nospam@127.0.0.1   
      
   It goeth, it cometh, it go bloeyth.   
      
   Well put it this way, we saw a lot of mist, some fire behind this mist,   
   some short video feeds from SpaceX showing three, then two, then one   
   Raptor firing. Then none. Some belly flop video, Then perhaps a relight   
   but then video froze. Shortly thereafter NasaSpaceFlight ground   
   equipment picked up a tremendous boom and some evidence of debris   
   flying. Because of the foggy conditions this will likely be the hardest   
   test flight to piece together what happened from video alone. Will have   
   to wait for SpaceX analysis of the telemetry.   
      
   Next up BN1? The next Starship is SN-15. So far the trials have shown   
   some progress but I can't help but feel SN-11 was a set back, since it   
   didn't appear to get even as far as SN-10. What I'm more concerned about   
   is what SpaceX plans are post SN-15? They are going to have to build   
   more Starship prototypes obviously until they can routinely stick the   
   landing post belly flop maneuver. That is the goal here. I haven't seen   
   any evidence that SpaceX plans to deviate from the plan of a fully   
   reusable Starship. If this was their *first* rocket prototypes, ala   
   Falcon 1, it might be a different story. In order to generate revenue it   
   might have been a two-track plan. One for expendable and one for   
   recoverable as we saw with Falcon 9. But with F9 generating revenue, an   
   expendable Starship isn't necessary.   
      
   But seems to me they need to keep cranking out the Starship hardware   
   until they stick at least two or three landings, preferably in sequence.   
      
   Also I remain somewhat concerned about the plumbing of a methalox   
   rocket. The SpaceX video upon ascent shows what appear to be some   
   evidence of small methane leaks around the firing Raptors. New fuel, new   
   headaches. I'm not convinced they have all the kinks dealing with   
   methane propellant worked out yet. Which is to be expected given the   
   novel fuel.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)