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SpaceX launches starship Mega-Rocket and catches its booster in midair on first try.
(www.smithsonianmag.com)
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this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2024
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So what you're saying is that SpaceX deliberatly doesn't let Starship orbit, to keep reentry predictable. Which is what Lichtblitz@discuss.tchncs.de said; they don't actually orbit.
Also note that 100km is the minimum height to be "in space", not the minimum height for achieving orbit.
Finally, I disagree with the note that having "enough fuel" to reach orbit means they have demonstrated such capability; I believe they easily could achieve this, but they haven't actually demonstrated it yet.
Lictblitz is saying they aren't capable of orbit. Which is very different from simply choosing not to.
No, I said they hadn't demonstrated it. But 95% is close enough, I stand corrected.
That doesn't really mean anything. You could achieve an orbit at a lower altitude if you wanted to, it would decay faster, but you could do it. The 100km karman line is an arbitrary thing, there is no solid line where on one side you can orbit and on the other side you can't.
Well this seems like a bad semantic argument to me. I guess the question is, what does it mean to you to "demonstrate capability". Like, for you, what would be the difference between demonstrating a capability to do something and actually doing that thing? How would those two things look different? Or in this specific case, how could they have demonstrated that capability without putting their rocket into a stable orbit (because it would be negligent to do that with this prototype rocket)?
Given what they have done, is there any reason to doubt they could have gone a little bit further? And conversely, was there a good reason to stop where they were, or do you think they would have gone further if they could have?
I agree; the comment I was replying to seemed to imply that there was a minimum height requirement, or height by itself equaled orbit. But that's just my interpretation of it.
Maybe it is, but personally I prefer to see the result 100% finished. I am very impressed by the booster catch, and the non-stop camera feed on Starship was awesome, but I would like to see a full mission before saying that they reached orbit. And to me, demonstrating capability usually means doing it.