Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by bandyaboot 830 days ago
They won’t put starship into orbit until they can test relight. They won’t risk, nor would they be allowed to risk putting it up there without a demonstrated ability to bring it back down in a controlled manner.
1 comments

> They won’t put starship into orbit until they can test relight.

Why can't they test relight? Also, they are already filing paperwork for IFT-4:

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/els/reports/STA_Print.cfm?mode=cu...

"Application includes a sub-orbital first stage booster and an orbital second stage"

They can test relight, but my point was that they wouldn't do it with Starship in orbit, because if it doesn't work, then they have no idea where it's coming back down. But maybe that's not as much of a problem as I had assumed given what's stated in the FCC application.