Speculative First Flight of SpaceX's Starship SN-5 (originally SN-4)

Speculation time! This is my simplified animation on how SpaceX Starship prototype SN-5 might look on its first flight, landing legs and all. With the single Raptor engine mounted in its place off center, it will need to balance its center of gravity with a bit of tilt. In reality it will land on an adjacent cement landing pad, but for animation reasons I had it land next to the test stand. Enjoy!

[@adrianternouth4404]

Really like the way you have the cold gas thrusters firing at the right times to help with the 'balancing act', particularly at landing and takeoff... really well done.

[@framryk8537]

Nailed it! Like the gimbal compensation for the off centre Raptor.

[@mvmmotovlogmusic2815]

That’s what we want!! Thank you for animating our hopes and dreams.

[@syc8150]

If it succeeds starhoppy will be proud. :)

[@alecgriffiths790]

Your animations are very impressive!

[@BillyNoMate]

Nice! At this early stage, I would expect the landing legs would have crush cores though.

[@smallstars]

Great animation! How hard you killed it checklist: ✔️Cold Gas Balancing Thrusters ✔️Shock Diamonds ✔️Emmisive Light From Hot Thrust Exhaust Reflecting on Metal ✔️Landing Legs

[@lostcarpark]

Fantastic animation! People have been saying the off centre engine would be a problem, but I think the gas thrusters and gimbling will be enough to keep it vertical. Looking forward to seeing the real one do it!

[@jkleylein]

They are probably doing this deliberately, because it will be an important safety concern. If one of the engines fails on Starship or the Superheavy, it must be able to compensate and still remain in control, even with asymmetrical thrust from the remaining engines.

[@billsbuck911]

You even got the offset raptor correct! Good attention to detail my guy!

[@danm6189]

I like the stable with a little bit of lean thing. And the smooth landing - hope ur right! Thanks :)

[@retokaderli9010]

Nice and clean 👍🏻! But I fear we will see a lot more plumes and dust ...

[@danielwhyatt3278]

karim rebai I most certainly hope so.

[@Nguaraguaro92]

Falta Poco! Falta Poco! 👍

[@bluenessaja]

Starhopper got tricked out with all sorts of cameras and sensors. Who knows what kind of footage we'll get from the old girl

[@imconsequetau5275]

In retrospect, now that we've seen the actual flights: The ship created a sideways velocity and backward tilt before landing so that the ship reached plumb vertical and zero velocity at the same time using only the leading engine. No use of cold gas thrusters except to set/maintain roll orientation.

[@Vatsyayana87]

Yes, beautiful extrapolation, i think thats the word im looking for lol. I cant tell you how happy it makes me that you even made the flame yellow near the ground..

[@michaelsearnest]

That was really cool! Great job. Now lets see more rocket blast!

[@davesn9065]

WOW.Great job

[@danielwhyatt3278]

O...M...G, you’re just totally gone and brought my imagination to life right here.😲😎👍🏼 Super cool. Can’t for the to happen for real.

[@ashcatchem6875]

Awesome Man, always wondered how would it fly with just one raptor, rcs thrusters were cool and bright flame at the end while landing similar to the hopper, awesome!!

[@eddardhawk3525]

Very nice sim. Let's hope it goes that well!

[@CeladonHairExtraordinaire]

Anxiety inducing!

[@shantanupant7724]

Dono know about how it will match the flight but on you have killed it man in animation and even the functioning of starship and its details

[@cboy-ou2hr]

Hopefully we get to see it in right

[@hawk7825]

Nailed it.

[@douginorlando6260]

I expect the trajectory near touchdown to include a lateral movement exactly the amount to counter the slight sideways acceleration during the final second. Unavoidable lateral acceleration is due to offset rocket engine and the requirement for rocket to be exactly vertical at touchdown. This means the nozzle will be tilted off vertical at the moment of touchdown and the sideways velocity will drop to zero as touchdown is inches away. There is no other way to land vertically with no sideways velocity at touchdown. The only variable in the final trajectory is how fast the rocket touches down (i.e. vertical deceleration) which dictates the angle of the engine tilt. Unless you can add a sideways thrust at the top of the rocket to compensate for the offset engine thrust

[@ericherbert8253]

dope

[@landroe78]

Nice :D

[@Santibag]

Nice leg suspensions :)

[@JalilyFurniture]

Add in the dust and that was almost exactly what sn5 looked like

[@DaT0nkee]

It will be sick. And totally Kerbal.

[@raikks]

Good work, Nick. Amazing work, although you've spoiled all the fun.

[@randal_gibbons]

I knew it would work.

[@SKYRockeTin]

Страшно, очень страшно)

[@FicarAmriza]

we see this video the next 10 years (On KZbin Recommendations)

[@RogerM88]

Not quite sold yet, to those landing legs from Starship. Mybe on the Moon it could work...the question is on Mars.

[@rogeriopenna9014]

Either that, or rapid unscheduled disassembly.

[@Tarlev]

Would be cool

[@kerbonautics5217]

What mods are you using?

[@AmitKumar-cp1oz]

Please make a tutorial if you used blender for this.

[@realtalk1310]

SN4 might have suffered some damage due to small fires in the thrust section from static fire test #3

[@luminus3d]

Starhopper had an even bigger fire right before its own hop ... also if that fire damaged the ship, reentry would be impossible

[@maartenbreunese258]

@@luminus3d reentry will be belly first tho, where the heatshield is. The underside of the rocket will only be pointing down soon before landing.

[@Singleraxis]

I think in a normal case it would be fine, but since SpaceX does prototyping rough and leave all the hardware outside, it's asking for problems..

[@magnamic5614]

@@Singleraxis , Space is unforgiving. Why not build a rocket in unforgiving conditions? If it can survive that build process then any repair in space or on any planet would be less of a worry. Get over this clean room, clean this, clean that, everything clean. When we get to mars where will your clean rooms and clean factories be for repairs? What about the mars rovers that proved everyone wrong and live through dust storms and freezing temps...for years past their due dates? We are in a new era of rocket building. Also, this is called rapid prototyping, the final product will be better, cleaner and safer. Give these workers, scientists and engineers the respect they deserve. They're working really hard to try something new and they're doing great so far.

[@Singleraxis]

@@magnamic5614 I'm simply saying that the fire may have damaged the exposed hardware like cables and the such, but yeah, thanks for informing me.

[@DaT0nkee]

Well, apparently, it's first fly was a bit different...

[@StarshipTrooper254]

Lets just hope the real hop is the same No RUD

[@harryferrett9420]

Why are they only going to be using 1 single raptor engine?

[@The-Real-Laepi]

Mr Duck Because in case of a RUD, they won’t be wasting 3 Raptors but only 1

[@danm6189]

And it's meant to / got to be able to land on one anyway for safety/redundancy and for when light on fuel.... 3 raptors have too much thrust and can't throttle low enough

[@b1n4ryb1rd7]

I've got a REALLY bad feeling about this hop

[@magnamic5614]

Elon said to expect RUD. We all should be expecting RUD then.

[@danm6189]

@@magnamic5614 i think he was referring to the first belly flop - SN6 maybe

[@lachezarkrastev7123]

The one engine thing will be a mistake.

[@ampeg187]

For first flight aka 150m hop you dont need more than 1 engine

[@lachezarkrastev7123]

@@ampeg187 except for the huge asymmetrical load which can make the things pretty BOOM interesting.

[@The-Real-Laepi]

Lachezar Krastev yes Lon sayed, he expects to see a rud, but we will see this hopefully in this week.

[@danm6189]

Not sure about your measure of what is huge asymmetric load but it can't use 3 raptors if light on fuel. At 100t dry weight, that's equivalent to lowest current stated throttled thrust on single raptor - 50% of 200t thrust

[@lachezarkrastev7123]

@@danm6189 then they should make a modification with the one engine located in the centre, not off axis like it is planed.

[@jasonmarkwell8593]

I see three dislikes yet this is not even political. Either these people are not American or must have a really good reason.

[@cirrusflyerh2843]

They probably stumbled upon the video through a KZbin auto feed and have no idea that what they are looking at actually exists in real life and that it’s about to make history. They’ve already moved along searching for entertainment but by disliking the video they have left their knuckle trails as evidence of their ignorance.

[@chinese-virus]

😂😂😂

[@tobybowling179]

Talk

[@EnzoFerenczyo]

Please Elon put a cone on that water tower before it flies, to change it into a rocket.