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SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

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Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#351

Post by 93po »

mempko wrote: post #298
nomilk wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The height difference is not huge, but Starship is twice the weight and 1/10th the cost ($50b vs $5bn in 2022 USD)!

Starship at this point is mostly a shell. Internal human grade components aren't there yet. We have no idea what the final cost will be. But doesn't matter since NASA is the one paying.

What? This makes zero sense. The cost to create a crew capsule is extremely well understood because they've been made countless times before. Also to imply the cost of that would put any dent whatsoever into the 5b vs 50b comparison is ridiculous. The cost of adding a crew capsule is a rounding error on total cost.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#352

Post by Dig1t »

a4isms wrote: post #91
eisvogel wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking this as well... It spiraled seemingly forever without failing, while they hoovered telemetry off of it, until pressing the big red button. Massive fault tolerance at play. SpaceX is awesome in so many ways. Thanks Elon.

Perhaps you mean, "Thanks Gwynne Shotwell." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwynne_Shotwell I think HN understands the difference between a charismatic leader who is good at laying out a vision and generating a tremendous amount of hype around it (like Steve Jobs) and someone who is an expert at actually realizing a vision (Steve Wozniak, Tim Cook). They may both be necessary for success, but if you are praising the ro…

Elon also plays a big role in engineering. He has stated many times that most engineering decisions go directly through him.

His title at the company is Founder and _Chief Engineer_

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#353

Post by jaywalk »

Uptrenda wrote: post #186

It looked like a bunch of parts had fallen off during take-off. Not to bring up a tragedy so casually: but I'm reminded of when a piece of foam damaged an insulation tile on Challenger. It does speak to the robustness of their design that it was able to make it to separation without issues. I do kind of agree with simondotau, too. Saying that the rocket just 'failed' doesn't take into account what they did get right.…

Columbia was the shuttle that was doomed by a piece of foam. Challenger exploded due to a failed O-ring on one of the SRBs.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#354

Post by Kapura »

mabbo wrote: post #61

People want to see 100% success in all things. But that isn't very economical. Compare the SLS to Starship. SLS has had a 100% success rate. One launch, one success. But it costs $2B per launch (and climbing) and has taken 12 years to get here. Plus, it's stealing pieces of the Space Shuttle, which was developed in the 70s over a long period of time. Starship will launch a half a dozen "failures" before they achieve…

[flagged]

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#355

Post by jjoonathan »

ShamelessC wrote: post #267
jjoonathan wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It invites unreasonable expectations. That's not a theoretical problem, you can see examples all over this thread.

The problem in that case is that HN users commonly don’t read the article to get the full story. From TFA: > SpaceX staff still cheered as Starship went down in flames. Successfully lifting the 400-foot-tall rocket off the launch pad is still a big step forward to its ultimate goal of one day ferrying humans to the moon and Mars, the company said. > "With a test like this, success comes from what we learn," the compa…

I suspect HN users read the article more often than most. I sure did. I stand by my assessment that the headline invites unreasonable expectations, and that it matters. A little, not a lot. Shrug.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#356

Post by dingosity »

pmontra wrote: post #310
the_third_wave wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect SpaceX will have to add something resembling an escape system before the thing gets "man-rated". That system could also be used to protect the passengers in case of a failed landing. It will add weight and thus lower the carrying capacity but they seem to have enough margin to allow for such an addition. They already have the header tanks in the top of Starship, adding a number of escape engines and some ex…

They want to carry 100 people. An escape system for those many people is the same scale of a commercial airliner escape system, which is designed to be operated on a stationary plane, on land or water. Astronauts will be well trained to use it but I think that there must be a lot of openings to let 100 people get out quickly in mid air. Maybe they'll agree that Starship is its own escape system. There is a section ab…

"Abort Once Around" was the name my band used in college for a few weeks before people realized who we were.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#357

Post by smrtinsert »

cryptoz wrote: post #17

People always joke that a success like this will be blasted by the media as a failure, but it's the most predictable thing ever. Massive success today for SpaceX but the story is massive failure. So silly. I'm as anti-Musk as the next, but it's also weird to see so many people gleeful that Musk must be so embarrassed at this 'massive failure'. Like, how uninformed do you have to be to think that Elon would be humilia…

Musk is humiliated when his tweets don't show up in everyones feeds, so its easy to see why that expectation exists.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#358

Post by kfrzcode »

I'm astounded to see the coverage on this bury the lede; today was historic in that Starship has 2x the thrust of Saturn V, i.e. this was the biggest rocket ever. And they did it, extremely successfully. Their goal was to get the thing off the pad without ruining Stage 0 (launch/pad). Now the newer, shinier revisions get to go up and we'll see orbit attained this year probably. We'll have private Starship missions to the moon in the next president's term of office.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#359

Post by samstave »

mabbo wrote: post #61

People want to see 100% success in all things. But that isn't very economical. Compare the SLS to Starship. SLS has had a 100% success rate. One launch, one success. But it costs $2B per launch (and climbing) and has taken 12 years to get here. Plus, it's stealing pieces of the Space Shuttle, which was developed in the 70s over a long period of time. Starship will launch a half a dozen "failures" before they achieve…

I loved the fact that in the video, the staff clapped when the thing exploded...

Where in the past, people would be like "OH NO!!" -- but the crew knew how much data they got out of that launch.

I wonder how stripped down the starship was though in an effort to save costs in the event such as this RUD.

I would love a piece of the shrapnel from the exploded device though...

Hopefully they get those pieces and auction them off.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#360

Post by bell-cot »

Hamuko wrote: post #250
abledon wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'm seeing a lot of people salty about "Starship explodes". Isn't that also an accurate description of what happened?

"Failure at Stage Separation" would be far more specific and informative. But also get far few clicks.
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