Two weeks ago on 6 June, the world changed and hardly anyone noticed. On that day Spacex’s Starship flew its fourth test mission and achieved remarkable success. The booster, called Super Heavy, lifted the space capsule, simply called Ship, into orbit. Then Super Heavy, returned to earth, fired its rockets and performed a vertical controlled ‘landing’ in the ocean.

The capsule, likewise, after achieving orbit, returned to earth, similarly fired its rockets to slow descent and achieved a vertical controlled splash down in the Indian Ocean.

All of Spacex’s goals for the test flight were achieved. Next, Spacex plan to perform a fifth test flight where the Super Heavy booster will land back on its base, and be ready for its next flight within hours. Later they aim to catch the Ship on its return for it to be also reused.

Ultimately the aim is to build Super Heavy boosters at the rate of one a week and launch daily. As with the current Falcon 9 reuseable boosters, Spacex will be launching more rockets than the rest of the world combined.

So, why the hype? The new rockets will be able to launch up to 150 tons of cargo each time at costs that make putting things in space highly affordable. For example, the old Space Shuttle could launch 25 tons at a cost of $1.5 billion per launch. The new Starship can launch 4 times that at 1/30th the cost. Even as compared to the Falcon 9 rockets, costs will come down by over 75%.

Getting into space is all about cost. These new rockets will make it affordable. NASA will use the system to get it to the moon around 2027. Elon Musk plans on using it to send up to 100 astronauts to Mars within the decade.

At these prices space based solar, asteroid mining, moon bases, massive space stations and even partial Dyson Spheres become achievable. Starlink will be completed by 2030.

Mankind is on the brink of becoming a multi-planet species. Bickering over the Donbass, Gaza etc will seem superfluous.

http://newspaceeconomy.ca/2023/05/13/the-dawn-of-a-new-space-era-the-impact-of-spacexs-starship/

No qualms about pollution & carbon foot print on these toys !

mhaze, thanks for that, very enlightening.

Space exploration has been one of the great achievements of mankind in my lifetime. Much of the success has been down to US with their NASA missions, I commend them for that. Now private enterprise has entered the field I hope to see more achieved, and not just joy flights for billionaires.

BTW, Do you know if the Space Family Robinson ever did make it to Alpha Centauri aboard the Jupiter II.....and when will "Beam me up Scotty!" become a reality?

The world didn't change, and hardly anybody noticed because they are not interested. There is enough for them to worry about here on Earth.

. Cost of living
. Poor, incompetent government
. Mass immigration
. Indoctrination of 5 year olds (child abuse)
. Perversion, transgenderism and other abnormal practices
. The threat from China
. The lack of interest by governments in our security and values
. The threat of Islamism and the continued threat of it being imported by governments

A “multi-planet species”. What garbage. The species can't get along together now. Australia can't deal with its share of the closest thing to space, the Antarctic, where they have allowed the Chinese to establish 3 of their 5 bases in Australian territory. And they are looking to expand.

Space should be left to Hollywood.

mhaze,

Thank you for this discussion.

In the words of Oscar Wilde, - "some of us are looking
at the stars."

Those who look at the stars know that there
is a world outside this one and wish to make efforts to reach
it. It's by picking ourselves up, as well as lending our
telescopes to others who can't stargaze well enough that
will encourage us to achieve the impossible.

ttbn,

Why are YOU such a negative person, with your list of awful's? YOU say you are a "conservative" and you're in your 80's, having lived a long life, if that's what conservatism does to a person, I thank my luck stars I am, if a tag is necessary, a progressive socialist, trying to improve my world in my very,very small way through positive action. My advice, for once in your life go out and smell the flowers.

Just a question, what good if any, do you see in the world?