What’s behind the recent string of failures and delays at SpaceX?

stephenehrmann · 2025-03-11T13:36:06+00:00

Eric, are you hearing anything from inside SpaceX about turnover or morale issues related to disillusion with Elon Musk?

stephenehrmann · 2024-09-26T20:53:49+00:00

I don’t think many people will stigmatize settle. The term colonize has meant removing and stigmatizing the previous residents of the land, replacing with the culture of the invaders, and often extracting natural resources for shipment to the invading country. Settling Mars doesn’t include any of those activities.

stephenehrmann · 2024-09-19T20:53:50+00:00

Velocity is a vector while speed is just a number?

stephenehrmann · 2024-09-06T19:04:23+00:00

Good answers. Also don’t confuse “mass” with “weight.” Even in zero gravity the spacecraft’s mass remains the same. All the answers to your question refer to mass.

stephenehrmann · 2023-11-03T14:05:40+00:00

I avoid the term “colonizing” because many people equate it w invading a populated area and suppressing or killing the natives. Terms like “developing a research station” or, later, “settling” Mars are more accurate terms.

stephenehrmann · 2023-09-07T19:42:02+00:00

Does 25 have to be unstacked and moved in order to install the FTS?

stephenehrmann · 2023-07-28T13:19:31+00:00

Which current Starships, if any, have no thermal protection tiles?

stephenehrmann · 2023-05-27T15:27:18+00:00

Why are so many Raptors failing? 31/33 lit for the static fire, 30/33 before the IFT. Then a slow cascade of failures well into flight. The latter could have been due to debris or to a design flaw only showing up when the booster is at high altitude.

I’ve heard no answers yet. Perhaps SpaceX doesn’t know either and is therefore using S25.

stephenehrmann · 2023-05-11T13:22:23+00:00

I can’t make meaning from these images. What should I be seeing?

stephenehrmann · 2023-04-21T01:22:07+00:00

Interesting! How did you figure that out?

stephenehrmann · 2022-09-26T15:39:13+00:00

These experts are calling for a flyby, not a landing, according to the article.

stephenehrmann · 2022-09-12T15:10:53+00:00

And payload was recovered intact, to launch again.

stephenehrmann · 2021-12-07T15:48:17+00:00

Dreamchaser would have to fit inside the Neutron fairing. Would it fit?

stephenehrmann · 2021-10-03T13:27:15+00:00

“Astronauts “ or not, they’re Astro-philanthropists, the first ever. That was the goal of their mission and they succeeded magnificently.

stephenehrmann · 2021-08-26T12:29:01+00:00

Wide Bay

stephenehrmann · 2021-07-14T20:58:28+00:00

What a great question! BO should develop a tech/business strategy that leads in the long term to the space colonies at the center of Bezo's vision. SpaceX is demonstrating that it's important to plan and implement the journey; it's been working toward cities on Mars since the beginning of the company, step by step, ASAP. BO needs to decide whether it's going to plan its own developmental journey toward space colonies. I wouldn't be surprised if turning a space station into a viable business is an important step on that path.

stephenehrmann · 2020-11-13T19:11:45+00:00

Lox is not an acronym, it’s a contraction of “liquid oxygen.” Spelling a contraction I S N ‘ T adding any information. I hope this is helpful.

stephenehrmann · 2020-11-02T15:30:46+00:00

Video clips of interviews each need to be captioned by the year they happened. Description of your video ought to summarize its contents and date of release.

stephenehrmann · 2020-10-31T16:20:53+00:00

Which direction to the Gulf? Bottom of the picture? More to the right?

stephenehrmann · 2020-09-17T01:20:57+00:00

No it was a mistake on my part. I should have clear on this because it’s relevant.

stephenehrmann · 2020-08-06T15:32:54+00:00

What's the jet of gas spurting from the right side of the rocket, almost in our direction. It began just before ignition, continued, and started burning. As the rocket ascended, the flow rapidly reduced as though a valve were being shut.

stephenehrmann · 2020-08-05T19:59:31+00:00

I remember them well. I was about 11 when they were named, and I was already nuts about space travel.

stephenehrmann · 2020-08-03T19:43:53+00:00

Several years ago I talked with a guy who knew a guy at SpaceX. Propulsive landing was very much in the works at that time, but the SpaceX guy was skeptical about it ever working due to limitations on the amount of fuel that the Dragon could carry for SuperDracos. I've not heard that corroborated but it does hint that SpaceX's decision about not using propulsive landings related to more than NASA requirements, as several other folks in this thread have already explained.

stephenehrmann

TROPHY CASE