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SpaceX launches starship Mega-Rocket and catches its booster in midair on first try. (www.smithsonianmag.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/technology

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Also note that 100km is the minimum height to be "in space", not the minimum height for achieving orbit.

That doesn't really mean anything. You could achieve an orbit at a lower altitude if you wanted to, it would decay faster, but you could do it. The 100km karman line is an arbitrary thing, there is no solid line where on one side you can orbit and on the other side you can't.

I agree; the comment I was replying to seemed to imply that there was a minimum height requirement, or height by itself equaled orbit. But that's just my interpretation of it.

Well this seems like a bad semantic argument to me.

Maybe it is, but personally I prefer to see the result 100% finished. I am very impressed by the booster catch, and the non-stop camera feed on Starship was awesome, but I would like to see a full mission before saying that they reached orbit. And to me, demonstrating capability usually means doing it.