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I'm excited at the prospect of Starship landing on the moon. 100T payloads are maybe not required to make it happen, but probably are. For those of us who care about Artemis IV happening on schedule, being disappointed in a 52t payload capacity is very straightforward.

I'm not excited about more Starlink satellites.

by tristanj2 hours ago|

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Starlink payloads are the literally the path to making Starship human spaceflight ready. Starship has to launch dozens to hundreds of times to identify and fix low probability failures. Without frequent Starlink flights testing and debugging the vehicle, it would take far longer to build a safe and reliable Starship.

They're also highly profitable, and fund/subsidize future missions. Recall, Starship development was funded by Starlink.

by MarsZebra1 hours ago|

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The company is built around Golden Dome, not Moon/Mars

Ask your favorite AI about Michael D. Griffin and Pete Worden and their connection to SpaceX

by testing2232142 minutes ago|

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100T payloads are not even remotely required.

The other moon lander NASA is going forward with has a tiny fraction of that, and there are plenty of people who think it’s better.

by tristanj5 hours ago|

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Launching at only half payload capacity is disappointing. Starlink is severely capacity constrained, SpaceX needs to get as many v3 sats as they can into orbit, instead of flying partial loads.

by testing223215 hours ago|

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They are testing, learning and evolving the program, and they’re doing it in public so we’re lucky enough to get some inside tech details.

It continues to improve. Be patient.

by tristanj2 hours ago|

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I'm completely aware. But this is the third flight in a row with a half payload. If this trend continues, it's not a good sign for Starship block 3's performance capabilities.

by testing2232139 minutes ago|

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“If this trend continues” about Falcon 1. About Falcon 9 landings, about Falcon 9 reuse, about starlink capacity, about starship launching at all, about the heat shield, about the catch, about the towers, about drone ship landings…….

That has been the narrative about every single step spacex has ever taken.

And you know what the trend is?

They are kicking fucking ass. Annihilating old space and the writing the game one incremental win at a time.

Yes, the trend is incredibly good.

by tristanj48 seconds ago|

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Past wins are great, and I expect Starship to succeed.

Now the actual question: why is block 3 flying half loaded? You got a technical reason, or just vibes?

by randallsquared2 hours ago|

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If Starship succeeds, that will be about half an hour's worth of launch capacity in the early 30s.

by tristanj2 hours ago|

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I'm fully aware. But Starlink is blocked by today's Starship launch cadence and payload capacity. Pointing out Starship could handle this payload 5 years in the future isn't helpful.

All of Starlink's future ambitions are blocked by today's Starship.