Spacex Starship SN8's Belly Flop Maneuver

We have seen or heard much about the efforts of SPACEX technology burst of late and there is no sign that anything is slowing down... In fact, things seem to be moving faster! SpaceX in line with NASA are arranging to launch Starship SN9 up to about 60,000 feet, cut its engines and let it FREEFALL back to Earth and at a predetermined altitude it will reorient itself nose up and slowly bring itself back to its landing pad in a precision soft landing... Their Falcon 9 Rocket's have been doing this regularly, so it is not something brand new... This video is based on the SpaceX SN8 Starship Belly Flop Maneuver...

Here is more information:

The move of SN9 into the High Bay provided relief to the Mid Bay, which – once SN10 is fully stacked – will allow SN11 to begin stacking operations.

This production cadence emphasizes SpaceX’s ability to rapidly return from any potential test flight failure with a new vehicle ready to take a trip to the launch site within days of losing the previous vehicle. Or, in the event of successes, the ability to tag-team prototype vehicles on numerous test flights to gain additional data.

Refinements are already taking place, with “minor” – as Elon stated on Twitter – changes already implemented on SN9. It is known that SN9 will be the first prototype Starship to sport structure made entirely from 304L steel, whereas SN8 still has some parts made from the 301 alloy.

Although Super Heavy sections remain staged outside one of the Production Facility tents, the collection of vehicle-specific Starship sections is impressive.

I will watch this carefully and post updates as things progress... For now, watch this video to get a better idea just how this is all going to play out...

I hope you enjoy this Space/Technology evolution...
Kerry
___________________________________________________________________________________