Starship V 3.0 First Flight

Keith’s note: The V 3.0 edition of the SpaceX Starship made its maiden flight tonight. The first stage with its sexy new Raptor 3 engines and total vehicle redesign did OK on the way uphill – but struggled with engine issues on the way back and made big splash (as planned) in the Gulf of Mexico. Ship 39 did much better. It lost a vacuum Raptor during ascent but otherwise did everything perfectly in space – except a Raptor re-light. A bunch of Starlink test satellites made elegant departures from the Ship’s ‘Pez dispenser’. They were followed by two “Dodger Dogs” – variants of the Starling 3 platform – equipped with cameras to look back at the spacecraft. And wow, they sure did. What a view. Re-entry was smooth and the vehicle looked rather clean as it did a soft water propulsive landing, fell over and did a nice rapid disassembly.