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of Starship is targeted to launch as early as Monday, November 18.

The next Starship flight test aims to expand the envelope on ship and booster capabilities and get closer to bringing reuse of the entire system online. Objectives include the booster once again returning to the launch site for catch, reigniting a ship Raptor engine while in space, and testing a suite of heatshield experiments and maneuvering changes for ship reentry and descent over the Indian Ocean.

The Aussies are attempting an orbital launch.

That rocket uses hybrid propulsion with 87-91% HTP (hydrogen peroxide) as the oxidizer and polyethylene fuel.
The Isp is kind of on the low side. Even lower than that of some solids.

Some European space news:

Reaction Engines went bankrupt:


ESA is at a crossroads:


Next Ariane-6 launch slips to 2025:


Will PLD Space be another power point ranger?

anzha said:

ESA is at a crossroads:

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Next Ariane-6 launch slips to 2025:

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The Europeans did several mistakes. Using Soyuz as a medium launcher instead of making their own solution. They cancelled Ariane 5 ESC-B which would have enabled the launch of Galileo satellites at a reasonable price. They stopped development of more modern rockets. They could have preceded SpaceX to the reusable launcher market. There was a proposal for a LOX/Methane rocket with reusable first stage as part of FLPP in the early 2000s but they never funded it. And then they stopped Ariane 5 production before the Ariane 6 was ready. Which means they have no large launcher and need to use SpaceX.

Ariane 6 will also be obsolete on arrival. It being a modernized rocket with similar technology to that in Ariane 5. It is basically a 1990s rocket using 1970s rocket technologies.

All issues are due to lack of funding. All the penny pinching which led to the cancellation of ESC-B was particularly ridiculous.

Kinda petty but I wonder if Americans are still gonna say shit like “SpaceX is a completely independent private company no ties to the government” and “there are no private space flight companies in China because they are all controlled by the CCP” when Elon Musk is basically Trump’s right hand man and VP at this point and with SpaceX getting deeper and deeper into bed with the DoD and space force.

antwerpery said:

Kinda petty but I wonder if Americans are still gonna say shit like “SpaceX is a completely independent private company no ties to the government” and “there are no private space flight companies in China because they are all controlled by the CCP” when Elon Musk is basically Trump’s right hand man and VP at this point and with SpaceX getting deeper and deeper into bed with the DoD and space force.

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I mean, no space agency is truly independent of the MIC. Many of the technologies, components and under-the-hood stuff are developed by the gov and/or military research labs. They launch from spaceports operated by the military. Range tracking, retrieval, military comms and weather systems etc just to name a few.
NASA gave SpaceX not just contracts but also the small engine (FASTRAC) for Merlin. NASA and Air Force Research Lab continues to help them with Raptor and critical simulations work. Even the technologies for direct insertion to GEO was co-developed with AFRL.

gpt said:

I mean, no space agency is truly independent of the MIC. Many of the technologies, components and under-the-hood stuff are developed by the gov and/or military research labs. They launch from spaceports operated by the military. Range tracking, retrieval, military comms and weather systems etc just to name a few.
NASA gave SpaceX not just contracts but also the small engine (FASTRAC) for Merlin. NASA and Air Force Research Lab continues to help them with Raptor and critical simulations work. Even the technologies for direct insertion to GEO was co-developed with AFRL.

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Well yes. But people still keep saying that bullshit. Much much harder to do so when Musk has national level security clearance, is sitting in on Trump's meeting with other Presidents and prime minsters and is in charge of various government agencies.

London to New York in 30 MINUTES: SpaceX's Starship could soon transport passengers on long-distance trips at dizzying speeds of up to 16,700mph - as Elon Musk claims 'this is now possible' following Trump's re-election​

First touted by SpaceX almost a decade ago, up to 1,000 passengers would file into Starship – the most powerful rocket on Earth – and blast into orbit.

But instead of zooming into the dark abyss of space, Starship would fly 'parallel' with Earth as it traverses the planet's surface, bound for another city.

Elon Musk claims it would dramatically cut the duration of air travel, saving time for businessmen and holidaymakers alike – although it's likely they'd pay thousands of dollars per trip.

Starship could take people from

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to New York in 30 minutes, New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes and Zurich to

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in 50 minutes, SpaceX says.

At a maximum speed of 16,700 mph (27,000 km/h), Starship zooms around the planet to Shanghai in China in just 39 minutes.

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SpaceX getting ready for test launch six of Starship.