Woo hoo! Starlink 25 is due to launch today, 3PM EST. Starlink 27 is tentative for May 9 (5 days later!) on B1051 core, on its 10th flight! What happened to Starlink 26? Dunno. But woo hoo regardless.

Wow, that's kind of crazy...

I wonder if Starlink 26 is meant to fly out of Vandenberg? We will know for sure, once ASOG is spotted on the West coast.

OMG SN15 will likely fly today!

Do you think that once you will be able to travel to the space?

Very possible! And Starlink 24 at 3PM EST.

I would love to fly to space, but I doubt I will ever be either allowed (health/age by the time it is allowed) and cost. Even at $2 million a flight, the ridiculous price Musk quotes (Would that he succeeds!!!) with 100 people, that is still $20K a person.

(Starlink 25, 24 flew last week. So many flights, so confusing)

I think, I personally have only a small chance for that, but the chance of my son is considerable. I would say that my personal probability is 2%. The probability of my Son is maybe 40%.

Testing the flaps!

twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1389589361759596546

I agree, my son is likely to be able to, if he can afford it.

And the integration tower (450m tall when done) has the first set of columns mounted on the concrete base. Next 6-7 levels, seem to be assembled at the old gas site (Where they built a LOX condenser, why buy LOX, when you can make it from air + energy). They built hefty frames, and are attaching the four columns, cross beams, the SPMT will pick it up, drive it to the tower, super big crane will lift it up.

Gonna be epic to watch them lift those super-lifts.

forum.nasaspaceflight.com/…

@geoffc Right. But I remember as a plane ticket priced more than a monthly salary of my parents. Today I earn the price of a ticket with a half day of work.

@peterh True. But the numbers do not work so well. Fuel is the main driver, and LOX/Ch4 are cheap, but it uses a lot. I can hope and dream.

@geoffc Somewhere I read that the fuel price is 3% of the total launch cost. This makes a $600 theoretical minimum.

For $20k, I do not go to space, rather I buy a home. For $600, I would make the next birthday party of my Son in the space.

I was surprised SpaceX won the entire Artemis contract. Which was awesome in my mind. I guess it was obvious that if they did Dear Moon in 2023 as plnned, and they were NOT the HLS choice, then SpaceX landing on their own, before NASA would have been intolerably embarassing.

I'm not confident Dear Moon will happen in 2023, not at all...

I think Dear Moon is an awesome win for SpaceX. Gives them a funding source. Gives them targets in the near term. Even if delayed.

I kind of think that will happen after Artemis.

You could well be very correct.

The thing is, I can't imagine landing humans on Earth using Starship anytime soon...

Artemis gets them funding to develop manned long term life support with NASA's help, which is a huge win for them.

The only way I think Dear Moon happens in 2023 is if they fly up and return using Dragon Capsules.

@PearsonArtPhoto If they can fly and land the next following Starships, and get Sn20 orbital this year, I would expect them to fly a fair number of times even if only to dump 300 Starlinks per flight.

(Per your convo yesterday, that implies a ramp up of satellite production rates, which at reported rate of 120 month was already astounding.)

@PearsonArtPhoto What is nice, is that they have that option if they need it. Not like that part is hard. (Hardest part there is a docking port on Starship). 4

I ireally hope they have resolved the landing issues! Big day, regardless. And SN16 is itching to get onto the pad to fly soon enough as well.

I can't see putting humans on a landing Starship until they have demonstrated they can do it at least 100 times.

Honestly though, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they did Dear Moon by launching three Dragons, docked with a lunar Starship, flew around the Moon and returned back via Dragon. It's basically the HLS architecture, minus the dock at Gateway

@PearsonArtPhoto based on what? What other vehicle ever did that kind of testing? S-V? Soyuz? (actually, Soyuz might be closest) Apollo? Gemini? Shenzou? Dragon (maybe, with Cargo as demo flights at 20 or so).

Parachutes are a lot more reliable than rockets to land...

Also, where they have blown up 4 Starships in a row, well...

No abort system. More like the Shuttle than anything really, but...

I expect once they fly orbital, they will start launching Starlink on it. Basically get some flight history, with their own payloads. Problem is, at 300-400 a launch, they do not need that many more flights. Then push commercial customers to Starlink. Such that they end up flying 20-30 times before the consider manned flights.

Scrubbed! :-(

Anybody knows, why the SN15 was today scrubbed?

Maybe because of the fog. If there is an explosion, it should look better than last time. :-)

That would be more of a delay than a scrub...

A scrub this early means either a missing approval, or a technical problem.

@PearsonArtPhoto As I understood that youtube channel message, the test flight for today was scrubbed, not the rocket itself. So it is a delay.

For me, delay is later on in the same day, scrub is waiting to a different day.

Sounds like a missing approval issue.

I want to allow this question, but the question is just a mess...

@PearsonArtPhoto It has false statements

But I still think it should be salvaged, but it is work. Like here: space.stackexchange.com/q/37496/1054

I mean, sure, it has false statements, but...

Honestly, the last comment to me was the start of a perfectly reasonable question.

And Starlink24 is in the books, booster landed time #9. And next flight might be as early as May 9, with a core on its 10th flight! Woo Hoo!

82nd landed boosters.

Argh, Starlink 25. So confusing, so many launches.