Some notes on @elonmusk’s talk at #IAC2023 about Starship, a thread: Thrust on booster is trending towards 50% more thrust than it currently is. This would be thanks to further improvements from Raptor. Wild!

This is not a render. This is not a simulation. This is @SpaceX’s first integrated test flight of #Starship with the Super Heavy booster, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket to ever fly. This #slomo is from our 8k tracker shot by @considercosmos. It’s massive, 120 m [394 feet] tall and 9 m [30 feet] wide and has over twice as much thrust as the Saturn V that took humans to the moon. The booster has 33 "Raptor 2" engines, which utilize the ultimate in power cycles, the full flow staged combustion cycle.

NEW SONG OUT NOW! Find “Cryo” by Everyday Astronaut on all streaming services now! Perfect for a little prelaunch hype! 🚀 Spotify link: spotify.link/a18ujHUy8yb

I’m not making fun of someone for being wrong about something because we all make mistakes & hopefully are learning more every day… BUT HOW did someone get almost every fact wrong in this paragraph?!? Like I’m genuinely curious where this all came from 🤦‍♂️ almost impressive 😂 "The Russian N1 engine was the biggest and most reliable of all rocket engines."

FALSE. The Saturn V's F-1 is the largest / most reliable single combustion chambered engine ever made, but the Soviet RD-170/171 is larger and more powerful, however it was not on the N1

@drskyskull I know you won’t care to listen to this and write me off as an Elon fanboy, but I have hours of conversation of him talking deep rocket science. He knows exactly why you can’t power a rocket with electricity beyond a Rutherford class engine because of power density @drskyskull The question was “can you have an electric rocket”, not can you have an electrical thruster. Factually, Elon knows the difference. A rocket, although it can imply an engine, generally implies the launch vehicle (and I believe does in this case)

A few quick reminders...

1: The FAA takes forever, for everything. Everyone from Rocket Lab, to Astra, Virgin Orbit or Firefly's Alpha has experienced FAA related delays. It's (unfortunately) quite normal for this stuff to get approved much slower than any of us wish... let alone approving the world's largest rocket ever launching just 5 miles from populated areas. The FAA has a lot of work to do and I'm not at all surprised it's taking longer than initially anticipated, especially if they truly reviewed all public comments.

Return to launch site landings (RTLS) are just simply the coolest!!! And that sound 😍 While the rocket is in the coast phase, find out why the rocket engines don’t melt. Fun fact, the Merlin vacuum engine employs almost every technique! @SpaceX @elonmusk For people wondering why it sometimes lands on land & sometimes on the droneship, take the mass of the payload & the destination it’s going to, find out how much work can the second stage do (how much can it accelerate the payload)…

It's the start of a new year and that means we get to try our hand at guessing what spaceflight events we'll see in the next 365 days!!! Then we'll check back in next year and see how we did!!!👇POLLS BELOW!!!👇 Which rocket will launch first this year?

I finally spent a little time with Tesla’s FSD. A few thoughts… In general, it’s likely the right approach to do real world testing of a fleet like this, but I’m so glad this is a closed beta. The car still drives like a teenager and makes wrong decisions quite often [a thread] My first thought actually doesn’t have to do with the car, the software or hardware, but with what I should be doing to maximize labeling for the neural net to work. For instance, the car tries to drive down the dead center of a busy street, not at all where I would drive…

WE HAVE SOME DETAILS OF STARSHIP'S FIRST ORBITAL FLIGHT TEST!!!! 🤯 Here's some key take aways!!! [THREAD] [Source] - apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.htm… The booster will return to South Texas, but not land back at the launch site, it'll be 20 miles (32 km) off the coast of South Padre... so that'll be the place to be for this first orbital attempt!!! 🤯 It does say "touchdown", so not sure if it'll land on a oil platform or what.

I’ve officially decided on my @KerbalSpaceP challenge for my upcoming 1 million subscriber fundraiser stream. I’m going to try and get to Eve and back with a fully reusable vehicle. This will include getting back into Eve orbit, landing and refueling a reusable vehicle. This is something I’ve never ever accomplished (and I sure have tried), but I think I’m very close and it’ll be a major challenge to actually do it all in one true mission. So I hope you join me for a marathon stream and help me fundraise for @ChallengerCtr 🙌

Uhhhh SN9.... that’s.... not how you’re supposed to be standing!! Loud bang and I’m afraid SN9’s roll out and flight is now delayed. The stand it was on appears to have shifted. Hope everyone is ok. Remember: DONT PANIC. This will be a small speed bump in the grand scheme of Starship. They’ll get it worked out and everything back on track like they always do. Just hoping everyone is safe. That’s a large vehicle.

There are some emails that I just can’t handle. If an aerospace engineer is upset about a light hearted “pointy end up, flamey end down” or me streaming from a Tesla instead of a $100k mobile studio/diesel truck, there’s nothing I can do for you 🤦‍♂️ I’ll keep growing & doing me 💪 I’ll use this type of nay saying as fodder to do better and continually up my game, as I always do. I’m extremely proud of what I’ve accomplished in the last three years since this started. I think I’m doing just fine, Steve.

STARLINK @SpaceX Conference call Live-Tweet thread will be here 👇@elonmusk will be updating us before this awesome awesome launch!!! (PS. YES, I'm live-streaming it tonight!) 🙌 #Starlink 60 sats are production design, with no KA antenna. Some of them might not work, small possibility none will work. Crazy technology and they're very hard.

The @blueorigin event is officially starting with some cool Tycho-ish music and Apollo comms over it. I like. Should I do one thread here on twitter or individual tweets? What would you prefer?