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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

#621

Post by enslavedrobot »

dingosity wrote: post #503
cryptoegorophy wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much did starship cost?

Elon says Starship launches will get down to $10M per launch within 2-3 years. But he also said we would have our CyberTrucks by now, so... ymmv. https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-starship-ro... By comparison, Falcon Heavy costs about $62M per launch, but Gwynne Shotwell predicted they can shave 40% off that price tag when they start re-using heavies. https://spacedotbiz.substack.com/p/is-starship-real…

They literally have another booster/starship ready to go. The project cost may be 2-10B but the individual launch vehicles will cost less than 200M$ each.

The design targets 10$/kg to orbit.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#622

Post by manuelmoreale »

nerpderp82 wrote: post #587
ceejayoz wrote: post #558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Raptor issues may well be just a symptom of the concrete issue; large chunks flying up into complicated plumbing isn't ideal.

This will be more of an issue on landing (the moon, mars, mercury, the bricks in red square).

they’re not going to land with all the 30+ engines turned on and they won’t need the same amount of thrust since the first stage is gonna be mostly empty. Plus they won’t land the first stage on the moon or on mars.

And the plan is to grab the first stage before it touches ground anyway. So this is mostly an issue on liftoff.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#623

Post by soperj »

svnt wrote: post #583
soperj wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The road to the coast likely did more damage than blowing up a hundred vehicles.

Yes good point — we’ve previously done a ton of environmental damage so as long as we are doing less than that it is silly to mention it.

we do a magnitude more environmental damage every day, and it's not brought up, it's not about past environmental damage. People get up in arms about littering, and they liter the air out their tailpipe for hours every week.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#624

Post by wkat4242 »

rmu09 wrote: post #589
samwillis wrote: post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> After that, they still have a fair way to go on Raptor reliability I suspect the debris from blowing a whole in the ground was the biggest contributing factor for the engines out. It looked like at lease 4 we're gone before it left the pad.

Isn't it pretty unlikely that this debris, flying against the exhaust, can reach the engines with significant energy?

Considering the energy they have comes from precisely that exhaust, I don't think so. I'm pretty sure some pieces would make it through.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#625

Post by malfist »

rmu09 wrote: post #589
samwillis wrote: post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> After that, they still have a fair way to go on Raptor reliability I suspect the debris from blowing a whole in the ground was the biggest contributing factor for the engines out. It looked like at lease 4 we're gone before it left the pad.

Isn't it pretty unlikely that this debris, flying against the exhaust, can reach the engines with significant energy?

Rocket "engines" aren't like engines in your car. The bell and the plumbing for it is the engine. There's not too many moving parts besides a pump. Any sort of damage to the bell can cause a failure.

The bells are cooled by pumping super cold fuel over them, a rock hitting those thin lines of fuel could rupture a line, or divert on causing a failure in the bell which eventually (seconds) ends in an engine rich fuel mixture.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#626

Post by acomjean »

sandworm101 wrote: post #522
spuz wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an interesting point about the flight plan - if the intention of the flight was to test the vehicle at max Q, then the rest of the plan is almost a contingency. SpaceX: We expect the vehicle to reach 40km at which point it will probably blow up. FAA: Ok but what if it doesn't blow up? SpaceX: Well I suppose we could separate the stages. FAA: And then what happens? SpaceX: Well I suppose we could try to land th…

>> the intention of the flight was to test the vehicle at max Q, then the rest of the plan is almost a contingency. We don't know what the intention or internal expectation was. What we have are public statements, which are generally more conservative in order that every success be an amazing surprise, every failure an expected event. What SpaceX was internally hoping for, what they were aiming for, and the details o…

I don't think they wanted it to blow up.

I was told for something I was working on "if it works perfectly the first time, you may have spent to much time on it. "

But they designed it to fly and it did for a while. I'm fairly certain they didn't design it to tumble and explode. If it had flown better and not exploded one would have to say it was more successful.

It was a partial success and partial failure.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#627

Post by enslavedrobot »

dingosity wrote: post #399
samstave wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I suspect they were told "if we get off the ground, it's a success." Elon's been saying similar things over the last week.

I suspect they knew that since they built the thing.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#628

Post by physicles »

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 the rocket had exploded on the pad, that would’ve been an unsuccessful test. The launch pad and tower are way more expensive than the rockets and take much more time to replace. They call it “stage 0.”

Btw this isn’t moving the goalposts. Clearing the launch tower was always the success criterion; the rest is gravy.

Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas

#629

Post by Aperocky »

MaxikCZ wrote: post #512
panki27 wrote: post #11

It looked just like a regular launch in Kerbal Space Program at the end.

I was so surprised it held for so long! Every time something similar happened in KSP I got a little angry at the game for obviously wrong simulation: no way the rocket would hold together under such stresses. And then I see real-life rocket of biggest proportions do just that. I owe KSP an apology I guess

KSP is so realistic unless you run into the kraken.

I made rockets that would do the same thing (flipping) when the fins where on the top due to aerodynamics... going to be interesting to see how SpaceX is going to solve that.

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