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ORBITER-FORUM will be temporarily closed at 2026-07-23 18:00 UTC while we complete some OF maintenance tasks. The amount of downtime is expected to take up to one hour, but probably less.
Assuming the thing can actually get to the moon's surface, I also can't help but think about being out on an EVA in a pressurized moon suit and the elevator back up to the flight deck malfunctions. The height of Starship would also allow one to accidentally fall to their death on the moon. From...
It's interesting how they are down to three grid fins on the booster. The booster does have an angle of attack on return, 'flying' after a fashion (with a terrible glideslope) and the one grid fin on the lee side of the booster probably wasn't doing much for control forces.
Blue Moon is closer to "right sized" for the moon landing mission. Even if boil-off wasn't an issue, Starship needs so much fuel simply to haul its overly large inert stage mass from the Earth to the moon and then up and down to the moon surface. Add in the boil-off (TBD but definitely not zero)...
They also need to determine what the actual boil-off rate of propellants would be for a fully fueled Starship. They can't determine their fuel margins for ANY mission profile until they understand this fully. This isn't a minor detail - this is currently unknown and the number of tanks of fuel...
Interesting photo of Integrity's heat shield underwater just after splashdown:
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/nasa-on-track-for-future-missions-with-initial-artemis-ii-assessments/
I know why they do it, but man do I hate the NASA PR talking heads just incessantly talking. Makes my brain scream. I just watch the pad view cameras. Not sure if there is audio though.
I hope the electrical tape is temporary.
Not since the very early shuttle program IIRC. The white tiles were replaced with thermal blanket as it was lighter and less prone to damage. It seems they are still trying to shave some mass off of Starship (or protect some parts that they thought the...
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