Hi, I discovered TWiS on YouTube just recently, as I was looking for discussion on Starship’s latest launch and the Blue Glenn… incident.
I’m curious about the language SpaceX uses in its official commentary, but I haven’t found any information that sufficiently clarifies it for me. Early in the Flight 12 livestream, there was this graphic referring to “orbit insertion”:
The commentator verbally said “suborbital trajectory” at the time that this graphic was shown.
Then, during the flight, the commentators said (approximate times given):
T+00:10:30: “awaiting the callout of nominal insertion”
T+00:15:45: “I wouldn’t call it a nominal orbital insertion but we’re on a trajectory that we’d analysed, and it’s within bounds”
T+00:16:05: “we should still be on for payload deploy, at least at this time, so, very dynamic moments right here with the ship, uhh but we do have it in space, it is on a trajectory now headed towards the other side of the planet”
Why I’m wondering about this
As I understand it, “orbital insertion” means something very specific - an insertion into orbit. And when you’re on a suborbital trajectory, you’re not really “inserting” into anything… right?
Am I mistaken? Does “orbital insertion” ever mean anything other than an insertion into orbit?
If so, I’d really like to know, because I incorrectly told someone that Flight 12 was going into orbit after I heard the commentator say “awaiting the callout of nominal insertion” (at the time, I was unaware that a launch for orbit is not likely to happen until SpaceX has tested a Raptor relight in space).
I’m a novice. I rely on expert commentary to understand what is happening. Consistent language helps me to compare different vehicles and missions.
So I’m wondering if there are examples, outside of SpaceX, where “orbital insertion” describes a planned suborbital trajectory - so I can avoid tripping over this language in future.
