Lars Blackmore
@larsblackmore
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Sr. Principal Mars Landing Engineer for SpaceX
Joined April 2012
This forward flap redesign consumed many months of my life. In theory they’re better on all metrics - excited to see whether that holds in reality!
The vehicle’s forward flaps have been reduced in size and shifted towards the vehicle tip and away from the heat shield, significantly reducing their exposure to reentry heating while simplifying the underlying mechanisms and protective tiling. The ship’s heat shield will also use the latest generation tiles and includes a backup layer to protect from missing or damaged tiles
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Looks quite a bit better in daytime!
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Excitement guaranteed in the coming months. Sleep, less so.
Successful ocean landing of Starship! We will do one more ocean landing of the ship. If that goes well, then SpaceX will attempt to catch the ship with the tower.
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RT @SpaceX: Propellant load of the Super Heavy booster is underway. Live coverage of Starship’s sixth flight test starts in ~5 minutes → ht…
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We hit the target! A huge amount of progress required to make this happen
Starship flip maneuver and landing burn on its fifth flight test. Vehicle improvements ensured flaps were protected from high heating, resulting in a controlled entry and high accuracy splashdown at the targeted area in the Indian Ocean
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RT @juicyMcJay: I know the booster landing was the main event But massive shout to the heatshield team! 🥹❤️ When they asked us to swap the…
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RT @SpaceX: The Starship team is go for prop load, and weather is looking ideal for today's flight test! The launch webcast will go liv…
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RT @SpaceX: Targeting Sunday, October 13 for Starship’s fifth flight test. A 30-minute launch window opens at 7:00 a.m. CT →
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Flight 4 showed that the gamble paid off, and it feels like only a matter of time until we iterate ourselves to a fully and rapidly reusable rocket (3/3)
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Somewhat belated on account of my appendix getting deleted…but landing Starship on the ocean feels as significant as Falcon 9’s first landing (1/3)
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RT @SpaceX: Targeting Thursday, June 6 for Starship’s fourth flight test. A 120-minute launch window opens at 7:00 a.m. CT → https://t.co…
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RT @SpaceX: The fourth flight test of Starship could launch as soon as June 5, pending regulatory approval https:/…
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RT @elonmusk: @SciGuySpace Full & rapid reusability of booster & ship and orbital refilling of ship are the 2 fundamental technologies we a…
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RT @elonmusk: Getting ready for Flight 4 of Starship! Goal of this mission is for Starship to get through max reentry heating with all sys…
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