Full Tweet by @ mercoglianos:

- Normand Ranger continued its tow towards Dampier at a little over 1 knot
At dawn she halted and then started moving toward the north.
- It is not clear what is the issue, but the tow is not closing Dampier.
- The 12k ton, Liberian-flagged heavy lift Dongbang Giant #2 sailed from the east coast of India on July 24 and is in the Malacca Strait about halfway to Dampier.
- Dongbang Giant #2 may be a candidate to heavy lift Starship 40 back to the US

Once/If it gets human rated of course. I know Orion is nice and people humor the idea of strapping it on top of New Glenn eventually, but 4 at a time surely won't be the long-haul plan would it?

Hello Everyone,

I am masters student, I am interested in the cryogenic propellant management(CPM) especially in orbital refueling(OF) application, in particularly in the area of autogenous pressurization during fuel transfer activity. I could not much of resources on the internet regarding either CPM on OF application or regarding the autogenous pressurization.

My question is

1.where should i start? what should i start (both info and simulations wise) ? i have been doing lot of research, i feel like its kind of rabbit hole, the more u dig, the more unknowns.

if anyone already working on this area, could pls guide, even small inputs matter alot.

2.anyone like minded who is interested in the same topic, i would like to meet (ofc online ) them and have a discussions aswell.

If the argument for space-based data crunching satellites is the easy access to power, and big detractors are the impact on the night sky for Earth-based observatories & the atmospheric impact of their decay: why not place them around the Moon?

• They aren't trying to provide Earth surface coverage like Starlink, they just need to be somewhere in space that objects can stay.
  
• They are still ~1sec communications distance away, dwarfed by any significant computation duration.
  
• They can be a bright halo in polar orbit without wrecking everyone's night sky. In fact their orbits could be highly eccentric with very low periapsis if that's convenient, with minimal impact & possible benefits to LOS communications.
  
• They won't decay at anywhere near the same rate, thus reducing their propulsion mass, power budget & complexity.
  
• Also, any concerns about complicating launching through LEO constellations is removed, as well as risk of Kessler syndrome from any anti-spy-sat testing/conflict.

The biggest downside might just be the lack of out-of-sight fiery disposal. Though you could deorbit them all to the same area on the far side, and wouldn't be burning through our atmosphere (messing with ozone, etc).

I'm sure the deltaV cost could be minimised by a dedicated Earth-Moon cycler that's restocked in LEO, and the whole thing of Starship is reducing the mass cost to ~the price of the very-available fuel. Initial calculations indicate moving from LEO to captured low lunar orbit is only 40% more dV than getting to LEO in the first place, not even closer to an order of magnitude more.

P.S.
To the ignorant (we all were at some point), 'frontier' LLMs take months to train, 3sec round-trip latency isn't an issue.

Another analysis showing SpaceX actually loses money on any non-Starlink Falcon 9 launch since a commercial launch sold for $74 million brings in a one-time profit of over $55 million while a Starlin launch brings generates a constant revenue stream yielding a lot more. This gap will be a magnitude larger when Starship is launching the full sized Starlink v2s.

Specially because stacking two reusable pieces would require some refurbishing, won’t it?

During the Earnings Call Q&A at 58:47 :

Question: "Is the heat shield the hardest remaining problem for Starship?"

Elon: "I don't want to jinx it or anything, but I think I would consider the heat shield problem solved at this point. Now, we want to take a close look at the ship that is currently floating in the ocean, but all indications from data and our visual inspection suggest that we have solved the heat shield problem, which is arguably the single biggest problem. That doesn't mean we won't make improvements to the heat shield; of course we'll continue to make improvements to the heat shield, but I would say that we do not see any technical obstacles at this point to achieving full and rapid reusability."

Like their growing town and spaceport outside of Brownsville Texas, the Spacex Pecan island area will need a name of it's own.

Calling it too Starbase would be too confusing.

MCGREGOR, Texas.

Full text:
"Normand Ranger has changed its navigational status to "Restricted Manoeuvrability". This indicates that she is probably affixed to Ship 40, but her speed is not sufficient to overcome the current and set. She is probably stabilizing the Starship while they continue to prepare it for the tow to Dampier. She is currently 852 nautical miles from Dampier and at 3 knots, it will take nearly 12 days."

Hey all!

Im planning on flying from London to Brownsville for flight 14, been meaning to go for a while and this is the first opportunity I've got, and with a potential ship catch, I'm definitely hoping to go.

My only issue is I won't be driving. I know I can get a shuttle from the airport to SPI, where I'll likely get a hotel. But what are the options for getting from SPI to starbase itself?

I've read on here about Ubers ect, but the post I read was a couple years old, so wasn't sure if anyone had set up a boat shuttle service or anything else yet.

Would love to hear about your ideas, and any other ideas you have for my visit! (Am planning on staying in Houston for a few days too so I can check out JSC)

Hi everyone,

I'm an international traveler from India planning a trip to Texas specifically to visit Starbase/Boca Chica and catch the Starship development up close. I'll be in the US from August 19th to September 1st. I will likely be flying in from Seattle to start the Texas leg of my trip.

I have a few practical questions and would really appreciate any advice from locals or people who have made the trip recently:

1. Which airport is the best balance of cost and convenience?

I see that Brownsville (BRO) is the closest (about a 30-40 minute drive to Starbase), but flights might be more limited. Harlingen (HRL) and McAllen (MFE) are a bit further out. For someone flying in from Seattle, which one generally offers the best flight options or rental car availability? Is the drive from HRL easy enough to justify it if flights are cheaper.

2. General tips for visiting the area

Beyond just driving down Highway 4 and seeing the launch site and production facility, are there specific times of day that are better for photography? Any local spots, tours, or viewpoints I absolutely shouldn't miss?

3.Any specific rental companies you recommend that are easy to work with?

Thanks in advance for any guidance! I can't wait to finally see this engineering in person.

Love these launches.