** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

[WorTortle]

Just read that a Chinese Long March first stage is slowly making its way back down in an uncontrolled manner with no early indication of where it will eventually hit.

I thought these things had to be planned and controlled now rather than leaving it to chance.

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

Just read that a Chinese Long March first stage is slowly making its way back down in an uncontrolled manner with no early indication of where it will eventually hit.

I thought these things had to be planned and controlled now rather than leaving it to chance.

I don't think the Chinese give a ****. They used to have their launch site inland and the first stage of pervious generation of Long March would often crash down in China, if it killed people who cared.

 

[Hodders]

I don't think the Chinese give a ****. They used to have their launch site inland and the first stage of pervious generation of Long March would often crash down in China, if it killed people who cared.

Plus it's the second time it's happened - last time bits of debris fell in the Ivory Coast. I notice that Beijing is *just* on the edge of the risk zone - that would be funny.....

 

[Malevolence]

I'll just quote myself from up there ^^^^

Just what is it about the Chinese that makes them not give a single **** about anything when it comes to safety concerns? They're an absolute ******* menace.

 

[bliss]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1390569345361883136

I'm genuinely surprised by this, especially if does go ahead. I fully expected SN15 to be pulled apart to check for changes in its structural integrity.

 

[PlacidCasual]

They may well change the raptor engines to strip those down for testing but the vessels themselves may not have seen enough stress to get any worthwhile information. I bet the first one to reenter and land is chopped up for metaullurgical analysis though.

 

[Malevolence]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1391156038188023815

 

[WorTortle]

The Long March came down what looks not far from the Maldives, a bit close to land for anyone to be content with but definitely an improvement on last time.

I think SN-15 having a soft landing and the rest of them going pop/pancake may have accelerated their decision for inspection

 

[Malevolence]

Following Starship SN15’s success, SpaceX evaluating next steps toward orbital goals

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2021/05/sn15s-success-spacex-next-steps-orbital-goals/

 

[Malevolence]

Who says that rockets need to be painted boring white all the time? Looks rather tasty.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1392139254055190529

 

[bliss]

Cosmic perspective yet again manages to elevate an already incredible feat into something more. Starting to look forward more to their videos than the official SpaceX launch highlights.

 

[bliss]

Official recap now available.

 

[JRS]

Electron launch hopefully shortly, they're going to try and safely return the first stage back to Earth.

 

[Malevolence]

Damn, that was a loud one.

 

[Malevolence]

Oooh, second stage failed to light.

 

[andy_mk3]

That ain't good.

 

[wildest_jjk]

What was the conclusion of it? Missed most of it unfortunately

 

[bliss]

First daytime starlink launch in quite a while.

 

[Pigeon_Killer]

Watching the stage 1 landing from that perspective was amazing

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

Yeah they seem to have solved the loss of signal issue that used to happen with stage 1. Watching it all the way to landing is amazing and it pretty much hit the bullseye again.