Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

How do you know what kind of test it was supposed to be?


You follow the news and the public statements on the goals of the test? SpaceX isn't exactly tight lipped about their philosophy and what they hope to learn from each test.


Can you share an example of a pre-launch announcement so I know what they hope to learn? I haven't seen anything about any upcoming test's goals as they approach, but I also don't know where I would look.


Here's what SpaceX put on their website before their most recent (fourth) flight test of Starship.

http://web.archive.org/web/20240601140837/https://www.spacex...

and here's what they posted before the third flight test

http://web.archive.org/web/20240306183144/https://www.spacex...

Both have pretty clear language about them being test flights (especially the flight 3 post), and list what they hope to test.

edit: they have not yet made an official page on their website for the upcoming fifth test flight

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship_integrated_fli...

although they have teased about trying to return Booster to the tower for a catch attempt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2BdNDTlWbo&t=149s


Dunno about that exactly but Everyday Astronaut youtube has a lot of stuff. Here on the early starship strategy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM6WqjJCKQo


Usually on SpaceX's X or Musk's X, for example:

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1762237289231757406

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1798692089766805813

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1792629142141177890

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1783929534955589885

Or SpaceX's summaries for after the test:

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-...

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-...

There also tend to be good articles from dedicated space reporters like Eric Berger, Stephen Clark or Michael Shaetz:

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/06/we-know-starship-can-f...

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/06/spacex-starship-fourth-test-...

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/07/spacex-video-teases-po...

The "mainstream" reporting on these tends to be pretty awful and a glaring display of Gell-Mann Amnesia, but the more popular space journalists tend to be pretty good. I provided specific examples because there are also "journalists" known for intentionally distorting the facts to prop up their biases.

The goals for the next flight test seem to be to try to catch the booster (if they can get the necessary regulatory clearances) and to try to perform a controlled reentry of Starship again, this time with an upgraded heat shield to hopefully take less damage than the previous attempts. It'll end up being mainly a control systems and shield material test since future prototypes which are already being built have changes to the fin locations which also mitigate some of the heat shield issues seen in the previous test.

There's also talk of towing it to Australia after splashdown to study (also depends on if they can get the necessary regulatory clearances).

I wouldn't be surprised if the goals change though, I feel like they might decide to do another simulated catch over water for the booster (since while it was technically successful in IFT-4, one engine did blow up), and similarly I doubt they'll have the clearances to tow the ship to Australia as fast as they'd like.


SpaceX is pretty open about optimizing for many iterations, a bit like the philosophy in software of shipping an MVP to get user feedback sooner for future iterations. Boeing has an established culture that's more like traditional waterfall development. When you watch their launches, they have tiers of objectives that get less and less likely to succeed - they plan to push even if failure is likely tlso they can learn from both their successful objectives and the eventual failure.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: