Marcus published a day early with a summary of Starship TF8.
Highlights:
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Review of the run-up to the test
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Booster performance was nearly flawless
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“Nearly” meaning two inner ring engines didn’t relight, and one didn’t relight for landing.
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Great shots of the hot staging ring drifting off. Still literally HOT.
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Catch was slightly off to one side, and the chopsticks corrected immediately after the catch.
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Second stage engine bay views previewed its demise. (Scott Manley has a better analysis. Will post below.)
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Engine failures left two vacuum engines running, spinning the ship lengthwise. (The vacuum engines cannot gimbal.)
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Floridians captured the RUD from the ground.
Meanwhile:
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Intuitive Machines “Odin” micro probe problem report.
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Asteroid YR4 2024 earth impact risk reduced.
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Starlink developments and manufacturing.
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Florida Starship developments, including future Pad at SLC 37 and manufacturing.
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Blue Ghost sticks its landing. Firefly shared more video later.
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Blue Ghost autonomously made landing point adjustments based on on-board camera views.
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Blue Ghost not expected to survive lunar night after its two weeks in the sun.
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Intuitive Machines Athena mission with Nova-C lunar lander also reached the moon this week after a fast transit.
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Nova-C lands intact and communicating, but tipped somehow, and mission is in doubt.
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SpaceX loses Booster 1086 after successful landing on the drone ship, due to a fire and subsequent leg failure.
