Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, May 2nd. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 17 minutes, setting at 8:48, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:30. The Moon, 3 days before full, will set at 5:37 tomorrow morning.

On April 20th SpaceX finally launched their Starship atop the Super Heavy, which is the booster for the Starship for an attempted orbital test flight, from Star Base at Boca Chica, Texas. As we all know, it did not reach orbit. It made it about 36 kilometers up or about 22 miles before it lost control and had to be destroyed, however what it did to the launchpad and its surroundings is rather disheartening Elon Musk thought he could get away with not having a flame diverter underneath the launch mount. The Super heavy, which is undoubtedly the most powerful rocket in the world, dug a hole underneath the launch mount and threw big chunks of concrete all over the place damaging their launch infrastructure, and raining debris on a neighboring town. SpaceX will have to make lots of changes before they can launch again.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT –4 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Super Heavy and Starship, beginning to climb amid clouds of dust and debris. Screen grab from Sky News video.