map the lunar surface for concentrations of water ice “that are large enough and with a high enough confidence to justify the expense and energy required to retrieve it,”

Wow, sounds like they’re pretty serious about this.

https://youtu.be/2YbvNdcmG1M

That thing really leaps off the pad!

Drone footage released by Isar Aerospace

Video of the fall-back to earth

Oh my idk how I made that mistake. Fixed!

I believe that’s from the ship’s recent really long static fire which lasted almost a minute!

I think you’re right. It’s definitely new rhetoric for them.

When fixed to Stage 1 during ascent, Andromeda’s thrusters are positioned outboard of the Stage 1 outer diameter. This allows Andromeda to ignite while still attached to the first stage without causing damage to the base of Stage 2, and without the need for a heavy one-time-use interstage shield to protect Stage 1.

Would you look at that, another hot-stage design!

Doubt it happens this spring, but I like their talk about potential future Mars missions. Exciting!

Very doomer. Does lemmy have a “remind me in 7 years” bot? 😅

Wow this is the most depressing comment section I’ve ever seen.

The second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket remained in orbit following a launch Saturday from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The rocket successfully deployed a new batch of Starlink Internet satellites but was supposed to reignite its engine for a braking maneuver to head for a destructive reentry over the Pacific Ocean. While airspace warning notices from the FAA showed a reentry zone over the eastern Pacific Ocean, publicly available US military tracking continued to show the upper stage in orbit this week. Sources also told Ars that SpaceX delayed two Falcon 9 launches this week by a day to allow time for engineers to evaluate the problem.

3 in 6 months … This is the third time since last July that the Falcon 9’s upper stage has encountered a problem in flight. On one occasion, the upper stage failed to reach its targeted orbit, leading to the destruction of 20 Starlink satellites. Then, an upper stage misfired during a deorbit burn after an otherwise successful launch in September, causing debris to fall outside of the pre-approved danger area. After both events, the FAA briefly grounded the Falcon 9 rocket while SpaceX conducted an investigation. This time, an FAA spokesperson said the agency won’t require an investigation. “All flight events occurred within the scope of SpaceX’s licensed activities,” the spokesperson told Ars.

Again? Damn that’s concerning.

Bro is this really about to happen? Don’t get me wrong, the circumstances are suspicious at best, but it’s been a long time coming! Does anyone else think this public notice could be political posturing?

I wish them best of luck! I think it’s a cool idea to develop a space station quickly.

This would be so funny if it weren’t a serious issue

What a strange story this has turned out to be. I really hope the rover makes it to the moon.

Glad there is artificial gravity in action! Maybe this will help bring large-scale orbital artificial gravity for humans closer to reality.

Sorry I haven’t been able to watch the video you linked yet, but I thought the Wikipedia article was fascinating.

I’m curious what you mean by starship “working”. They’re seemingly close to booster reuse, upper stage recovery, going orbital, payload deployment, and propellant transfer. There’s no fundamental reason the technology wouldn’t work, right? Landing on the moon or Mars does seem like a challenge, but it’s sort-of on the horizon. Return from Mars, however, now that really would be pretty crazy. Even so, doesn’t this open-up new capabilities?

Are you referring to me or to the author?

That was truly unexpected. Good on them for having some fun with it!