Tonight's Flight test 11, the last flight of the 2nd generation Starship, sure seemed to be the most flawless flight of a Starship and SuperHeavy they've ever flown. Things we got used to seeing, like pieces of the flaps melting off or explosions in various places were conspicuous in their absence.
Perhaps the biggest "Wow!" factor for us was seeing Starship 38 after stage separation and while it was burning its six engines to reach the desired altitude. After yesterday's post, actually during the day today, some of us talked in the comments about the chances of seeing Starship. I was lucky enough to see it, and it was brighter and easier to see than expected. I went out on the front porch when the guys doing the coverage we were watching (NASASpaceflight.com ) started talking about the ship being reported for doing the Space Jellyfish phenomenon. I didn't note how long after launch that was, but it was in the vicinity of 6 minutes after launch.
Early in the day, it occurred to me that the launch was going to be after nightfall here, while not at the Boca Chica launch site, and with their typical flight profile being east out of Boca Chica, and passing over the Florida Straits, well south of us near the Cape, I figured that with burning six Raptor engines (three ground engines and three Raptor Vacuum engines) there should be a moving bright spot in the sky. There was simply nothing to compare its brightness to; Starship was the brightest thing in the sky by far.
A calibration of a sort was a neighbor (and fellow engineer) was out walking his dogs, saw us watching and said some version of "what's going on" and we talked for a few seconds. Like us, he's used to seeing all the things that fly out of the KSC/CCSFS and is anxious to see Starships start flying from "up the road."
Getting back to the main subject, we watched the YouTube video from NASASpaceflight.com for the full mission. Without exception everything they tested that we've seen before went better than ever before. That goes from relatively straightforward things like deploying the Starlink satellite mock-ups to the entire heat shield protection we can see.
It's too soon after launch to have learned more details to add, so more details as they show up and the story settles down some more.
Starship38 splashes down in the Indian Ocean ending the mission. Image credit: SpaceX from a video screen capture at The Launch Pad on YouTube.
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