Norman

BTW I'm sorry for your loss chaps. I had only just seen the posts about B4 on your main thread. 
Wish my best to you all and his family. 

Bob forgot his anniversary. 
Bob's wife wasn't very happy.
After much waiving of arms and shouting she went to bed demanding something that goes from 0-200 in under 5 seconds on the drive outside the house in the morning when she gets up.
The next morning Bob gets up early and leaves for work. 
Bob's wife gets up a while later opens the curtains and sees a box on the drive. She gets dressed, goes downstairs and brings the package into the house.  Inside she finds a set of scales.
Bob hasn't been seen since last Friday...

So where do you fit in, then?
Someone who hates Musk because of his political views primarily, and therefore wants SpaceX not to achieve what many thought unimaginable only a decade a go.
 
Is that normal or rational? 

Sorry Maxjam but that one is taken in Kidsgrove. Its Stoke-on-Trent.....its probably a reflection from the burning cars.

If you've got relatively clear skies tonight it might be worth nipping outside quick, fantastic view of a Moon Halo - looks like full rainbow around the moon up in North Yorkshire atm.
My phone camera is pretty crap, but there are plenty of decent images like this one on t'internet
 

We've only played 4 away league matches since the beginning of October and the record is W1 D1 L2.
The one win was the first of that sequence at Blackpool on 3rd October.
High time for a statement away performance.

Erm, no - Warne doesn't care about the academy so until that changes I'll keep saying it. I'm sorry. 

If I were you, I'd go for rubberised, washable matting instead. 
In my experience, cleaning hitchhikers blood from carpet is a nightmare.

🎵 Come on avocado if you think your'e hard enough. 🎵

Okay I'll bite, but I'm sticking to the space bit, I've got no time for the continued red pill rubbish. 
What copious amounts of evidence do you have to suggest that SpaceX aren't going to land on Mars?  Without repeating the rocket exploding argument - they went through the exact same process designing the previous rockets and reusable boosters that now haul virtually everything up into space.
Furthermore, if you are so adamant SpaceX aren't going to land on Mars do you think they should just simply stop now?  Or do you think they should continue to push the boundaries of what may or may not be achievable?  If its the latter, do you think those of us that have a genuine interest in the subject would like to discuss it without the thread being continually hijacked by an anti-Musk, anti-[insert forum user] agenda?
Ignoring your gut for a moment do you think that NASA, funded by the US Govt - currently one of Musks major fanboys (yes that was irony) would congratulate SpaceX on a successful launch the other day, if it was just a rocket blowing up?  And do you think they would have awarded SpaceX the $3bn contract for the moon lander if they were just going to continually blow up the money without gaining data and making progress?  It is also worth noting that NASA are not only planning on using the lander designed by SpaceX to land on the Moon, but also the rocket they are currently designing to get them there. 
And finally, how many people have SpaceX killed so far in testing?  How many did NASA kill during testing and live missions?  And what leads you think SpaceX will sacrifice anyone?  I don't know whether this is up-to-date, but as of the end of August SpaceX has launched 11 crewed missions (42 people) into space - and they have all come back alive.
https://spaceexplored.com/2023/08/26/spacex-crewed-flights/
Sure Musk has joked that people might not come back from Mars - the following for example, but Musk says a lot of stupid stuff;
"It's dangerous, it's uncomfortable, it's a long journey. You might not come back alive. But it's a glorious adventure, and it'll be an amazing experience," he said. "You might die ... and you probably won't have good food and all these things. It's an arduous and dangerous journey where you may not come back alive, but it's a glorious adventure," Musk said.
"Sounds appealing," Musk laughed.
https://www.space.com/elon-musk-mars-spacex-risks-astronauts-die
But if it gets to the stage that people are strapped in, counting down to take off it will be no different than the astronauts that went to the Moon.  President Nixon even had a speech prepared for if the worst happened;
'Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.
They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.
In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.
For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.'
Even the later astronauts during the Shuttle era new the risks were 1 in 75;
https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1191013/moon-landing-nasa-odds-total-destruction-mike-massimino-apollo-11-mission-control-spt
Later, this was revised down to about 1 in 9;
https://www.npr.org/2011/03/04/134265291/early-space-shuttle-flights-riskier-than-estimated
Space travel is dangerous, its right on the edge of what is possible and being the first to do anything always carries risk - but the first astronauts won't simply be sacrificial lambs.  I'd imagine the rocket will be the most technologically advanced rocket humans will have ever made, tested to the best of our abilities and knowledge and as seen above, the Astronauts will know full well the odds of making it back safely.  And if the worst does happen, to paraphrase the above;
'They will be mourned  [but] others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied.'

Actually no - I don't hate him at all. And certainly not for his political views. He can have whatever political views he wants.
I do however find it deeply weird how he inspires this cult-like quasi-religious devotion from certain people (and that's no exaggeration when our resident Chief Scientist of the Red Pills literally called him the saviour of the human race the other day). Especially when the same people are very quick to tell you how much they dislike religion and the hold it has over people. Go figure.
I'm also raising a strong eyebrow at those on here who have spent the past few years regurgitating talking points from US Youtube videos about how they think Big Tech is run by super rich people with terrifying agendas to suppress our freedom, yet are cheering and whooping for Elon as if the Billionaire Musk doesn't have his own agenda to impose his will on the entire bloody world (X as a super-app anyone? "Let no man buy or sell lest has the number of the beast" etc). Like I say - pop another red pill and tell me when the mist clears
Please point me to the place where I said I don't want SpaceX to achieve it's aims? I've actually said multiple times that I would love nothing more than to see a man on Mars, just that my gut (and copious amounts of evidence) lead me to think it's not very likely. Bear in mind that we're still in the "trying to not have the rocket explode shortly after take-off" phase - which should be the easy bit. Then we have the how do we now get it to carry people safely and then the how do we get it all the way to Mars, and then the how do we land it, then what do we do when we get there. In the current trial and error mode that Musk seems to favour I think the best bet is to not have so many people die in the process that we run out of volunteers
 

Ahhh, you can't be amazed at the achievements of SpaceX without being an Elon fanboi?
Sounds dumb.

Ahhh, you can't be amazed at the achievements of SpaceX without being an Elon fanboi?
Sounds dumb.

Ahhh, you can't be amazed at the achievements of SpaceX without being an Elon fanboi?
Sounds dumb.

Because of the damage to the launchpad after the first test flight, and the snail's pace of the regulators unable to keep up with SpaceX's improvements, it took 7 months between flight 1 and 2. Elon confirms that the flight hardware (basically another Starship mated with another SuperHeavy booster) can be ready in 3-4 weeks, for the third test flight.
However, they obviously want to know what caused the issue with the booster return (likely too much fuel sloshing due to the deceleration caused by Starship igniting its engines above it) and what caused the triggering of the self-destruct of Starship very near the end of its engine burn - and to implement changes to stop either happening again. So I'm thinking late January/early February for flight 3. 
 

Do I still have to ask myself the question if I've no idea what Truth Social and Parler are?......

Thanks for your input Brains 😘

Exactly. As it happens I've just signed up an author who is undoubtedly the world's leading expert on Martian colonies, for a book to publish next year. I might trust his expertise a little more than the sad haters on here. What SpaceX has achieved is extraordinary - it would be, even without Starship, but to have the entire ethos of your company built around colonizing Mars rather than on making money (hence it remains the world's most valuable private company rather than risk shareholders derail the vision) has allowed them to turn marshland in Texas into the world's most advanced spaceship-yard in the course of only a few years. And to be on course for lowering the cost of flying a person to Mars from around $50 billion per astronaut, to about $500,000 per astronaut. That's reducing it by a factor of 100,000. And once Humanity has one bridgehead elsewhere in the solar system, the move elsewhere becomes much easier.
For instance, because of Earth's much deeper gravitational well, asteroid mining will be driven from Mars, so in time there will be a virtuous economic triangle between Earth, Mars and the asteroid belt. It's wonderful to see this future begin to unfold before our eyes. I loved this image from the SpaceX tracking cameras that already shows how far we've come:

An oxymoron followed by a a childish comment followed by a claim of anyone following the amazing achievements of Space X is some sort of Elon fan boi/cult member/doesn't understand science/gullible.
Completely laughable and embarrassing. Let's stick to posting in other threads so you don't ruin this one?

An oxymoron followed by a a childish comment followed by a claim of anyone following the amazing achievements of Space X is some sort of Elon fan boi/cult member/doesn't understand science/gullible.
Completely laughable and embarrassing. Let's stick to posting in other threads so you don't ruin this one?

An oxymoron followed by a a childish comment followed by a claim of anyone following the amazing achievements of Space X is some sort of Elon fan boi/cult member/doesn't understand science/gullible.
Completely laughable and embarrassing. Let's stick to posting in other threads so you don't ruin this one?

An oxymoron followed by a a childish comment followed by a claim of anyone following the amazing achievements of Space X is some sort of Elon fan boi/cult member/doesn't understand science/gullible.
Completely laughable and embarrassing. Let's stick to posting in other threads so you don't ruin this one?

An oxymoron followed by a a childish comment followed by a claim of anyone following the amazing achievements of Space X is some sort of Elon fan boi/cult member/doesn't understand science/gullible.
Completely laughable and embarrassing. Let's stick to posting in other threads so you don't ruin this one?