At the moment, SpaceX is involved in various massive bureaucratic struggles with the Federal Aviation Administration and environmental authorities. Musk wants to make 25 Starship launches next year: at the moment the regulators want to limit him to five.
Why is the FAA trying to launches?
We can imagine all sorts of lawfare etc. But what is even the excuse they’re using?
Carbon Footprint I bet.
The rockets use kerosene.
“ ELON MUSK ON RIDICULOUS REGULATIONS
“SpaceX had to do a study to see if Starship would hit a shark. I’m like “It’s a big ocean, there’s a lot of sharks. It’s not impossible, but it’s very unlikely.” OK fine, we’ll do it, but we need the data, can you give us the Shark data?
They said no.
They said they could give the data to their Western division but they don’t trust them.
We’re like, ‘Is this a comedy?’ Eventually we got the data, and the sharks were going to be fine.
We thought we were done.
But then they hit us with: ‘Well, what about whales?”
When you look at the Pacific, how many whales do you see? Honestly, if we did hit a whale, the whale had it coming, because the odds are so low. It’s like Final Destination: whale edition.
So then we had to do the WHALE analysis.
It goes on and on.
They said, what if the rocket goes underwater and explodes and the whales get hearing damage?
Umm, If we could make a rocket go underwater and become a submarine, that would be a feat of physics that we could not accomplish.
It’s just one crazy thing after another.
So yes, I really feel the pain of Government overregulation.” “
Certainly most of the most recent delays weren’t the FAA directly preventing launches, but the FAA to deferring to other agencies (mainly the Fish and Wildlife services) significant amounts of time to do contributory analyses.
For example, initially the Fish and Wildlife Service said they needed 180 days to conduct their study, but even this could be extended if they found problems or needed further investigation (this was between Integrated Test Flights 4 and 5).
At the time the were building boosters (1st stage) and ships (2nd stage) at a rate of about one every 6 to 8 weeks, so the comparison between delays for technical reasons and delays for bureaucratic reasons was ridiculous.
The FAA is used to working to NASA timescales where things take years-to-decades and SpaceX ain’t in that game.
Otto: Actually methane, but that’s even worse for the climate loons. From what I’ve read the main battle is with the eviro loons worried about that bit of the Gulf of Mexico, but his beef with the FAA is the time it takes for that bureaucracy as it is under-resourced for the task. I wonder what DOGE will do, and what lawfare boondoggle will proceed from that.
Drain the swamp!
It’s easy that one. Multiply average coronal (are shark planes same as human? Any fish vet here can confirm?) section by N sharks and divide by area of Pacific ocean.
Gizzajob Elon!
Actually methane
I can’t see that one. The motors burn their fuel pretty efficiently. That’s like saying auto-pollution is unburned gasoline vapour.
But I would suspect anything burning at those high temperatures in atmosphere is going to result in nitrogen compounds, so NO, HNO³ whatever.
I don’t know where the bright rocket flame you see on launches comes from. If you see film of the motors being testfired on stands what”s coming out of the nozzles is a clear shock pattern with very little light. Which is what you’d expect. If you’re using oxy-acet with the ox set right, it’s just a blue flame you can’t see in strong sunlight. As many people have found to their cost. So to get that bright white rocket tail there must be something else heating up. Particles in the air that are interfacing at the edges of the plume?
@BiS
Water/ice droplets. A condensation trail of the exhaust product, just like an aircraft.
NB the bright flame is carbon particles. Only get it with kerosene, etc. not with methane.
Candle flame, for the same reason.
So these are presumably the first set of bastards that Musk will want to sort out. Good-oh!
@BiS
A hydrogen rocket flame is blue and almost invisible. A solid rocket motor is normally burning something like aluminum so has a very luminous flame. Rockets that use kerosene or methane run the mixture richer than stochiometric to keep combustion chamber temperature down (it oddly also increases efficiency as the exhaust has more lighter molecules) so there is an excess of carbon in the output and a slightly sooty more yellow flame. This doesn’t show up as much on the test stands due to the viewing angle. They also run extra propellant down the inside of the engine bell to give a film cooling layer. This only partially combusted so is even more luminous.
Ah, thanks andf. But I would have imagined the proportions would be very low. Any unburned CH4 at those sort of temperatures would mostly combust when it hit atmospheric oxygen.
@BiS
According to Wikipedia for Musk’s Starhip the Raptor engines the ratio of oxygen to methane is only 3.6 : 1 and not the stoichiometric ratio of 4 : 1
Incomplete mixing will mean pockets of gas more than 3.6 and some even less than 3.6. Some methane definitely escapes unburnt but mostly the incomplete combustion means that carbon monoxide and soot (carbon) are also produced. There are other combustion products like oxides of nitrogen too but the yellow colour arises from incandescence of very fine soot particles that are produced.
The FAA is riddled with greenTards and Officious Officials who do not like Musk, and who do not like to be sidelined…
And like the Plod.. They can conjure up any reason, either directly or through other Agencies, to “Have Their Way”.
They’re so full of themselves I bet they think Musk won’t dare to touch them. It’ll be fun to watch…. 3:)
Regarding the landing of the Booster in the last test flight:
Most people missed this, as it was pretty subtle, but SpaceX showed extreme control of the landing sequence.
They aborted the tower landing, so had to do the sea splash.
Except it wasn’t a splash..
They had the damn thing hover right above the water for a couple of seconds, and then landed it so gently it actually stayed upright for a couple of seconds before slowly drifting to horizontal..
That is a pure show of control and capability…
You’ve finished up your Master’s Degree (Environmental Studies – Whales and Gender-Confusion in 18th Century Whaling Industry) and you’ve been hired to rule over – er, regulate – Evil Industry.
So you search for things that will impress your boss (who has a PhD in your same area.)
Rocket trash is falling on the oceans! Omigawd, the whales! You could build an entire career on this.
So you do.
So far in your career, anytime someone has questioned your work, you have successfully caused them to be cancelled as racist sexist pigs.
Things might be getting more difficult for you now.
Actually the crews of 18th century whaling vessels almost certainly made much gender-confused entertainment for themselves.
Several PhD theses worth no doubt.
If your exhaust turns green at any point, you are experiencing what is known in the industry as engine rich combustion. At that point you need to shut it down or experience rapid unscheduled disassembly.
I suspect it’s the same as why the number of takeoffs and landings at an airport are limited: noise and disturbance to the neighbours.