Will Starship exceed 28000 km/h (=LEO orbital speed) at an altitude of 200km or higher during the "orbital" flight test?
6
130Ṁ793
resolved Apr 20
Resolved
N/A

The upcoming Starship–Superheavy test flight is planned to be slightly suborbital.

There are two ways to achieve a suborbital trajectory, you can either be going too slow, or you can be pointed in the wrong direction.

Which one will apply to Starship's trajectory?

Orbital speed for a circular orbit at an altitude of 200 km is approximately 28000 km/h. If Starship exceeds this speed at this altitude or higher, then it will have been travelling at orbital speed.

This market resolves YES on credible reports of Starship's trajectory being one that exceeded a speed of 28000 km/h at an altitude of at least 200km. Ideally this data will come from the live stream, but I'll get it from any credible source if needed. If the exact data isn't available, but can be calculated from other available data to within reasonable uncertainty, then I will resolve the market on that basis. If actual data isn't available but credible reports strongly imply "orbital speeds" were or were not reached, I'll resolve on that basis. If it's not possible to figure out with reasonable confidence, I'll resolve N/A.

Scrubbed launches result in the market remaining open.

A launch with Starship reaching an apogee lower than 200km resolves NO.

Destruction of the vehicle on the pad or before Starship reaches an altitude of 200km resolves N/A

If it turns out that these specific criteria were foolishly chosen, I reserve the right to resolve based on the spirit of the question, which is supposed to be about whether the suborbital trajectory was achieved by keeping speed below orbital speed (resolves NO), or by high eccentricity so as to intersect the atmosphere (resolves YES). In this case I will close the market and people can discuss - if there are strong objections to how I think it should resolve and reasonable consensus can't be reached, I'll resolve N/A.

Get
Ṁ1,000
to start trading!
© Manifold Markets, Inc.TermsPrivacy