Today was another successful flight test of Starship and Booster. I have always been a huge fan of anything space. I don’t know how many hours I’ve watched NASA TV as the International Space Station was being built by so many Space Shuttle missions. This was followed by the hours of SpaceX tests streamed live on NSF. Below, including today’s mission, are some of the tests I remember witnessing live via streaming.
SN 8 lifted off🚀 on 12/09/20, at 17:45:00 hours. It hovered in the bright blue sky for a long time and then went into the bellyflop🐋 maneuver. It was the first star ship to perform the bellyflop maneuver using it’s “Elonerons” for control. I watched the flight on my phone while I was ice fishing during a beautiful evening with a gorgeous sunset on the ice. Watching Starship hit the ground was exciting💥 to say the least but still a complete success. it hovered in the sky for a long time and then went into the bellyflop maneuver. I remember this test and day clearly. My favorite footage of this test is from SpaceX showing the view looking straight up as it bellyflopped straight down at the camera.
Starship and Booster flight test one, S24/B7, lifted off on 04/20/2023, at 08:33:09 hours. I was very excited that the ship cleared the tower as I didn't want to see stage zero badly damaged (turns out it made a crater under the launchpad). A few of the Raptors went out and it caused the tail to look like a smiley face. Both Booster and Ship RUD after tumbling. I was watching the flight test on Everyday Astronaut’s stream and he completely lost his shit on a deck. I don't remember where I watched it, assuming I was at home.
Starship and Booster flight test two, S25/B9, lifted off on 11/18/2023, at 08:02:50 hours. The Mach diamonds produced by the Raptors was beautiful to see. Hot staging was incredible; I could see the three starship raptors gimbal. Booster engine shut down produced an amazing pattern. All raptors worked on booster. Both booster and Ship separated and Starship flew for a while before ending in a RUD. Booster also ended in a RUD. I think I slept in and missed the live launch but woke up and saw the vapor cloud on launch pad. Tingelstad’s came later in the day and we watched it together.
Starship and Booster flight test three, S28/B10, lifted off on 03/14/2024, at 08:25:00 hours. Plasma! The starship door didn’t work very well and vehicle rolled until RUD. The Starlink system worked amazing. I must have watched it on tv after bus route but don’t remember.
Starship and Booster flight test four, S29/B11, lifted off on 06/06/2024, at 07:50:00. I watched in my truck in the bus garage parking lot after my morning route. There was one Raptor out on booster. The plasma was so exciting and the drama of the flap that held together, little flap that could, and the fact that it landed was amazing. I felt a definite adrenaline, dopamine, and euphoria hit. Both vehicles landed in water. I remember this launch clearly; I was only able to watch it because of a delay otherwise I would have still been driving my route.
Starship and Booster flight test five, S30/B12, lifted off on 10/13/2024 07:25:00. I watched on phone Sunday morning with tiff in our bathroom while getting ready for my shift at Miners. Andrew was still sleeping. It was a rainy/stormy morning with whitecaps on our lake. Also, lots of fall colors out and wet leaves on the ground. Barely got done shaving before liftoff. It was perfect weatherwise for a flight in Boca. A little bit of a fire at base of booster after Mechazilla landing but went out. Did not seem real. Starship had a beautiful plasma reentry. A little bit of burning in the Elonerons but nice landing, also could see it in the water from a target buoy. I remember the morning and launch clearly.
Starship and Booster flight test six (Last of the block 1 starships), S31/B13, lifted off on 11/19/2024. I watched the flight on my iPhone x (NSF stream), (used air Pods pro), and also watched simultaneously on SpaceX web page in my office at GR North (520). Beautiful launch, all 33 Raptors worked and produced beautiful Mach diamonds. It’s Bananas! 🍌 There was a banana as a zero G indicator within the payload bay. B13 diverted from Mechazilla and landed in the Gulf and RUD. Engine relight was successful (super important for future orbital flight test). Thermal tempering of flaps makes the rainbow colors in the stainless steel. There were 2000 less heatshield tiles to push the limits and higher angle of attack. What an incredible daylight entry! Seeing the Earth going by while also seeing the dynamic reentry was cool. Booster kept burning in the Gulf the whole time. Seeing everything in daylight was crazy. Block 2 is next. I remember the afternoon in my office clearly, the store was busy and it was raining outside.
End of blog. Thank you for reading!
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