Episode 406: SpaceXcavator

Spaceflight News— Starship, destroyer of concrete (youtube.com) (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/landru79) (HT Iain from MaxQ: twitter.com/unrocket) (twitter.com/elonmusk) — Launch tower footage (HT Astro: reddit.com/r/space) — Liftoff footage (note debris impacting water) (twitter.com/SpaceX) — High speed footage from Tim Dodd x Consider Cosmos (twitter.com/Erdayastronaut) — Aborted launch attempt at the beginning of the week (spacenews.com) — Listener Sam spotted eight engines out, not six (discord.com) — Leaked (?) final frame before termination (discord.com) — NWS spotted the launch (twitter.com/NWSBrownsville) — “Aspiring” to have no diverter as of 2020 (twitter.com/elonmusk) — NSF forums user speaks about the loss of pad experts (HT Sam: forum.nasaspaceflight.com) — Canaveral Starship infrastructure also lacks flame diverter (twitter.com/Cosmic_Andrew1)Short & Sweet— Swedish astronaut may fly on Axiom mission to ISS (spacenews.com)— Rocket Lab to reuse flown engine (satellitetoday.com) (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Unc’ Willy: A skydiver encounters a rock, and Apollo 12 helps out (planetary.org)— Andrew Z: Lifting body footage — M2-F1 (youtube.com) — M2-F2 (youtube.com) — M2-F2, M2-F3, HL-10 (youtube.com) — X-24A (youtube.com) — X-24B (youtube.com) — Bonus: Soviet mini spaceplane Spiral MiG-105 (youtube.com) (youtube.com) (youtube.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— Apr 28, 1985. The day before the launch of STS-51-B (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: spacepresskit.files.wordpress.com) (wikiarchives.space) — An experiment transport bag was on auction (historical.ha.com)— Next week (5/2 - 5/8) in 1965: 2 score and 18 years and still going