News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Starship is ready for its 2nd test flight. Parent comment

Re:Starship is ready for its 2nd test flight by cududa on Wednesday September 06, 2023 @02:58PM (#37409510)
Caveat: I realize that any Musk related conversations come across as combative and either vilifying him or blindly following him - that's not my intention here. That said, personally I can't stand the man, but I'm a huge fan of SpaceX.

After the last launch attempt, every article said the launchpad repairs would take a year or more, without any explanation, and it seemed like everyone just started repeating it as an "obvious fact".

That never made sense to me given the launch tower was mostly intact. So, asking in good-faith: Why did you think the pad repairs would take longer? Do you have an experience in the space, or is it just that you read the repeated "year or more" estimate and internalized it?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Starship is ready for its 2nd test flight by extraduder_ire on Thursday September 07, 2023 @04:12AM (#37416063)
I think most of those estimates were based on installing a flame diverter (not easily possible with the base being so close to the water table) and having the rocket-grade concrete cure over a number of months. The original pad they had did take many months to cure.

Now, they have a stainless steel block (with holes to squirt water up out of) over the replacement concrete. Hopefully that system can cope with the pressure from the rocket exhaust.

[ Parent | on HN ]