FWIW, I believe the "first" being claimed is, first significantly
throttleable staged-combustion engine to fly.
Given Raptor first fire was just last February - with green
vaporized-copper streaks and concussively rough shutdown at that - this
is amazingly fast progress. Engine plume looked rock-steady in the
vids. Overall a major vindication for SpaceX's approach of take a first
stab FAST, see what breaks and fix it and try again FAST, repeat as needed.
Not that that's a new approach. But in the spacecraft development
world, it's a radical break from the "simulate and study for years
before ever doing anything real-world lest it visibly break and end up
on the evening news" approach NASA has drifted into since Apollo.
Because, what's been missed by this sim-and-study-for-years-first model
is that by far the quickest and most accurate sim for something as
complex as a high-performance rocket is 1 to 1 scale analog...
Henry
On 7/26/2019 10:52 AM, James Fackert wrote:
Spaces starhopper lifted off and landed. Second baby step., And the kid will be running high in a month or so.
Incredible achievement in record time.
First full cycle engine (?) to fly. Ever.
It amazes me that they do this liftoff without a flame trench...
???
jim fackert
