SpaceX may try a test flight of their Starship prototype vehicle #11 today from Boca Chica, Texas. They have already completed a static test firing of at least one engine this morning, and if everything checks out and the fog clears, they may launch the ship today. The flight plan is to launch to an altitude of about 6.5 miles, then bellyflop back down until flipping vertical again and landing.

Three previous such flights ended with crashes or hard landings and explosions, but they got closer to complete success every time.

If they do launch today, liftoff could be any time from now until 7:30 pm Central time, with no set T-0 time. Best place to watch is via a private YouTube channel HERE

Keeping my fingers crossed!!

They certainly have an aggressive schedule for modification and testing.

Scrubbed for today. The static fire earlier went well, I'm told. Weather was bad today with fog and clouds.

Have all the starship tests been in Texas?

Just curious about who picks up the pieces?
Gotta sort of a skunkworks thing I guess. I imagine they don't want anyone else getting their hands on the remnants..

Is it like an NTSB investigation? or purely a private corporate thing?

Elon is up to something, I really do encourage him on this, Exploring the universe is the next step to man's evolution.

Yes, all the Starship tests have been from Texas. It is advantageous to launch from as far south as possible due to the speed of the earth's rotation being highest at the equator. And, obviously, you need an unpopulated area due to the danger. SpaceX did not want to be hog-tied with trying to wedge another launch complex in at the Cape, so the extreme south end of Texas is the answer. They'll even launch to Mars from there - from converted oil rigs, believe it or not.

All three of the bad landings so far have been smack dab in the middle of the landing pad, so all the debris was right there to be bulldozed up. The FAA has been involved in the incident investigations, because they control flight rights. NASA has an interest, but no authority over what SpaceX is doing.

Thanks Rock.
There are a lot of complexes at the Cape.
Wikimaps is pretty cool for finding info on them..
I imagine the bugs and bunnies people would go ape over metal slivers of metal landing in the water or on the protected sand dunes...
Gotta figure some bits and pieces achieve some sort of velocity....

Old oil rigs...
I hope he is claiming a recycling credit for that...
I guess he cooks those rigs clean too!

Old man, if they only knew how many thousands of tons of rocket debris litter the bottom off of the Cape, the bugs and bunnies people would faint.

In the early days, they lost so many of the first intercontinental cruise missile (the Snark) that the reporters coined the region "Snark Infested Waters." It may have been my friend and reporter Milt Salamon who came up with it.

(Lord, the memories of the reporters I worked with back then...Media legends like Jules Bergman, Jay Barbree, Mary Bubb, Charley Reese, Wolf Blitzer and so many more like writers Martin Caidin and James Michener, all the astronauts and moon walkers, Chuck Yeager...)

I enjoyed "Space" by Michener.
In fact I have several linear feet of his material on a bookshelf...
Actually I have only encountered one of his that is a slow read. .it's about his travels in Spain...

Wow. You really have met a few notables...

I was Michener's official NASA escort for two weeks while he gathered research material for "Space." I spent all day every day with him for that entire time. He seldom spoke, but nodded a lot while I retold stories and anecdotes about the Cape and the early families who lived there before the government bought it in the early 50s. One or two lines of mine made it into the book more or less verbatim, but I frankly consider it to be his weakest work. (He didn't even send me a signed copy as thanks.)

Jules Bergman used to call me at home and interview me. He'd even call my wife to try to get info I would not reveal about classified launches. (She's smarter than to fall for tactics like that. And besides, I didn't tell her those things anyway.)

I will have to look through his sources (if they are included)
I had the opportunity to get to know one Shuttle Astronaut over a period of about ten years. A very civil gentleman. Very precise, measured perhaps is a better word, although not fussy.

What do you consider Michener's best?

Starlink is going to be huge for rural America.

I started with "Chesapeake" and have always considered it my favorite. The more you know about a subject, the more mistakes you see when that subject is made into a book or movie. That's why "Space" is my least favorite book of his - some parts of it are really fictional, if you know what I mean. I do understand why writers do it - I have used the trick myself - but it is nonetheless a negative to the knowing reader.

Until someone comes up with a sci-fi level propulsion method, it won't happen. It's an average 20 year round trip just to get to Pluto. The nearest star is a lifetime.

Correct, RC. Even colonizing Mars is pretty dubious.

Martin Caidin was an interesting guy. As a kid I read everything he wrote but always considered him an author of fiction. Sometimes that even included his serious efforts at history like Samura.

Pugs, I bumped elbows with him numerous times, shared the fact that "I'm a pilot, too" but could never manage to wangle a ride in his famous Iron Annie JU-52. Damn him for that! (But yeah, he could write...)

I believe that was my starting point as well, followed by Hawaii..
I still like th first half though these days the latter portion doesn't call out to me the same way..


The more you know the more you see the holes...but imagine the length of his books if had not made the occasional gloss over...

Clancy was another, perhaps the last of the high detail/ historical fiction writers...
I wish a could find another..

As a sorta half-ass writer myself, I admire those who have mastered the craft. My longtime "all time best" award goes to Patrick O'Brian whose 20 1/2 volume set of Master and Commander tales are (IMHO) the finest prose in the English language ever. (He died literally penning the first chapter of the 21st book.) Truly remarkable for an Irishman raised in France.


And back on topic, it now looks like SpaceX will try to launch the SN11 Starship on Monday. It will be the last of the low altitude test shots.