SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas • Hacker News Board

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#221

Post by sschueller » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 2:40 PM UTC

ahoka wrote: post #158

LorenDB wrote: post #135

My mind is so blown. Definitely disappointing, but let's be honest: this is a win for SpaceX, given that this was the first fully integrated flight test of a very complex, very unproven vehicle. (Yes, the ship has flown before, but this was the booster's first flight.) Did anybody else notice the Apollo-style maneuver to avoid the launch tower?

How could this be a success? It was a catastrophic failure. Sorry but bullshitting releases only works in software.

I agree with you. "clearing the launchpad" we did back in the 60' with 60+ year old tech. Sure starship is bigger but not that mutch.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#222

Post by dzader » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 2:40 PM UTC

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #190

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The test was a massive success. So happy to see starship clear the towers. The largest rocket ever built, larger than the Saturn V. Are you kidding me?

If I'm tasked with recording test data for x, y, and z and I only record x, is that a success? Now I need to launch another to try for the y, and z. Edit: What would an unsuccessful test look like then?

yes, it is.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#223

Post by fnordpiglet » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 2:40 PM UTC

corobo wrote: post #141

fnordpiglet wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Failure doesn’t have to have a negative connotation, we just match it as so in our culture. The full mission plan wasn’t achieved and the rocket did in fact fail. That said, it achieved precisely what they hoped it would achieve as failure was an expected and acceptable outcome.

Absolutely! Applies to everything too, including the project you bought a domain for and didn't do anything with! You there, reading this comment, go and fail or go and turn autorenew off :P Failure > inaction. You can learn from failure.

Things are, they don’t fail or succeed in a qualitative sense. You can only fail against some objective measure. If you do nothing, you still haven’t failed. But you haven’t done anything either. If you try something and you establish an objective measure to achieve and it fails, you and your efforts _have not failed_. The positive action of doing still is, and the positive action of analyzing the failed objective still is, and it opens the way to another action as an evolution of the original action.

But things just are what they are. They aren’t good or bad. Good or bad is your interpretation of the way things are. If you consider doing nothing good, then you succeed by not trying. If you consider trying good, then you succeed by simply trying.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#224

Post by fwlr » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 2:40 PM UTC

intrasight wrote: post #170

When it started doing cartwheels and the announcer said "beginning the flip for stage separation" I was like "WTF does that mean? That can't be nominal!"

The plan for Starship’s separation from the Super Heavy booster stage does include a 180 degree flip!

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#225

Post by abledon » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 2:40 PM UTC

pruthvishetty wrote: post #205

Better headline: SpaceX successfully launches the biggest rocket in history.

LOL they are still salty about the 'publicly funded' tag

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#226

Post by kortex » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 2:41 PM UTC

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #190

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The test was a massive success. So happy to see starship clear the towers. The largest rocket ever built, larger than the Saturn V. Are you kidding me?

If I'm tasked with recording test data for x, y, and z and I only record x, is that a success? Now I need to launch another to try for the y, and z. Edit: What would an unsuccessful test look like then?

If you are planning on several y and z anyways, absolutely. On the most recent SmarterEveryDay video on encasing a Prince Rupert's drop in glass, sculptor Cal Breed talks about the moment when a process fails. He could stop there and restart, saving some time, but instead all the pressure is off, and he "makes as many mistakes as possible" for the rest of the build.

Quote is towards the end, but the whole vid is worth a watch.

https://youtu.be/C1KT8PS6Zs4

https://www.calbreed.com/

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#227

Post by moffkalast » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 2:41 PM UTC

fabian2k wrote: post #202

mcculley wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Success was defined as the rocket leaving the launchpad." I am confused. Everything I read before the launch said that it was intended to reach orbital altitude and make it around the Earth.

This is a bit of spin by SpaceX. Blowing up the pad would be a serious failure and would be a large and costly setback. But they obviously didn't achieve the goal of the test flight here. It is a test flight, so it's not a complete failure and not entirely unexpected. But it's not a full success either, significant parts that were planned to be tested could not be tested because the rocket failed early.

Well the flight plan was to throw both stages into the ocean, so they couldn't have been overly confident about getting that far.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#228

Post by sidibe » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 2:41 PM UTC

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #190

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The test was a massive success. So happy to see starship clear the towers. The largest rocket ever built, larger than the Saturn V. Are you kidding me?

If I'm tasked with recording test data for x, y, and z and I only record x, is that a success? Now I need to launch another to try for the y, and z. Edit: What would an unsuccessful test look like then?

You are very brave or didn't read the room :)

I think this could have been more successful

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#229

Post by jtchang » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 2:42 PM UTC

I can't believe I am alive to witness this.

I can imagine 100 years from now a SpaceX plaque will be in some museum timeline with this very event being one of many "failures". It's so hard to put that into perspective when you are actually living these events. I think partly because society has been conditioned to expect success out of all things when in reality true technological progress is rarely a straight line.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#230

Post by jjoonathan » Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 2:42 PM UTC

moffkalast wrote: post #213

intrasight wrote: post #170

When it started doing cartwheels and the announcer said "beginning the flip for stage separation" I was like "WTF does that mean? That can't be nominal!"

Nah it's the nominal KSP launch trajectory. You forget to add first stage fins, launch up to the gravity turn, do the cartwheel, separate and continue to orbit. Seems like they forgot to check their staging though.

Spacebar got stuck, couldn't stage.