SpaceX's Starship deploys first mock Starlink satellites on 10th test flight

The Manila Times

SpaceX's Starship deploys first mock Starlink satellites on 10th test flight  Elon Musk's SpaceX on Tuesday, August 26, launched its giant Starship rocket for a tenth test flight aiming to overcome development setbacks and clinch long-sought technical milestones key to the Mars rocket's reusable design.  The towering 403-foot-tall (123 m) Starship system lifted off around 7:30 p.m. EST (2330 GMT) from SpaceX's Starbase facilities in south Texas on a mission to test the ship's new heat shield tiles and satellite deployment abilities, among hundreds of other upgrades from past iterations.  The rocket's upper half separated as planned from its Super Heavy booster, the 232-foot-tall first stage that normally returns to land in its launch tower's giant catch-arms but on Tuesday targeted the Gulf of Mexico waters to demonstrate an alternate landing engine configuration.  SPACEX / REUTERS  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe  Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net    Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital  Sign up to our newsletters: https://tmt.ph/newsletters   Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein   #TheManilaTimes #WorldNews #SpaceX

Transcript

00:00It's 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

00:16We lift.

00:22Vehicle pitching downrange.

00:30Booster chamber pressure nominal.

00:50At the same time, the three engines still firing on super heavy will flip the booster around.

00:58Ship ignition.

01:00All right, here we go.

01:13Landing burn start up.

01:18Looks like we got 12.

01:21Nice little hover.

01:24And landing burn shut down.

01:25And into the gulf.

01:30Here we come.

01:32Nominal orbit insertion.

01:35All right, we just heard the call-up for nominal orbital insertion.

01:42Ship continues on.

01:43Yeah, ship able to complete its ascent burn all the way in.

01:47You can see some of the shadows start to creep as it's going to be eventually flying into an orbital nighttime.

01:53So we'll see some daylight start to go away.

01:57The last one has been deployed.

02:02Starlink simulator payload complete.

02:05Heck yeah, everybody.

02:06Relight demo start up.

02:12And shut down.

02:13But if we do make it all the way down to the water, who knows?

02:22But the goal of this part of the flight is to learn as much as we can about the ship's heat shield.

02:29If it's through is the fact that we're using Starlink, we're operating at just a much higher frequency.

02:35That's not what we want to see.

02:36So we started, we just saw some of the aft skirt.

02:4150 minutes since launch.

02:43We're going to see those colors start to build up a little bit.

02:46It's about 74 kilometers in altitude.

02:52As not just the heat shield, but these flaps, how they're able to control the vehicle, withstand sections of the ship itself.

03:00And so we're really trying to see what are our limits.

03:03If we're able to get any live views of the ship, that'll essentially tell you that we nailed our target.

03:14It's about 30 seconds.

03:16Seeing three engines.

03:21There's our flip.

03:27There's a buoy.

03:31There's a splashdown.

03:46There's a buoy.

04:02There's a buoy.

04:05You

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