space, launching and building rockets is hard. very hard.
especially if the CEO is smoking weed
The 4/20 launch date was purely coincidence.
SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas
151–160 of 1001 posts
Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas
#152One interesting observation here is how long it took the ship to get off the pad from the T-0 mark. This is undoubtedly because some of the raptors on it apparently failed to ignite. I thought they were about to make a mess on the launch pad! I'm also curious about what technically finally got it off the ground - was there a sufficient, but low, level of acceleration, was it a matter of reducing the rocket's mass (by…
It is extremely heavy and the engines do not all light at once, they sequentially start over 6-8 seconds.
Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
> something getting inside the interstage What does this mean?
Based on the feed there was either some gas or debris flying around in the section between the two stages. At that altitude I don't think it could've been air.
The answer almost always seems to be ice, or a stiffener.
Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas
#154Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas
#155Earlier 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.
That might have been the flight plan. When drawing these up you don’t typically mark down "experiences an unexpected rapid disassembly a few minutes after launch.”
I thought they were very clear on how they defined "success".
This is progress, and admirable, but not a success according to their previous statements.
Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas
#156Congrats on hitting the test goal. The double speak is funny though: > SpaceX call this a rapid unscheduled disassembly What would a regularly-paced scheduled disassembly look like?
Not double speak. Just terms you are not familiar with.
Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas
#157Anyone reading the headline could easily be misled: this was a massive success. Some context:
- This was the first "integrated test" of the Starship space craft with its booster
- The whole thing together was 120 meters tall
- It will be one order of magnitude larger than the current largest rocket in terms of carrying capacity (~150 tonnes if it needs to return the booster, 250 if it doesn't)
- There's 5 more of these being built right now so the next tests can be done soon
Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas
#158My 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.
Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas
#159One interesting observation here is how long it took the ship to get off the pad from the T-0 mark. This is undoubtedly because some of the raptors on it apparently failed to ignite. I thought they were about to make a mess on the launch pad! I'm also curious about what technically finally got it off the ground - was there a sufficient, but low, level of acceleration, was it a matter of reducing the rocket's mass (by…
they said it would take ~6 seconds from engine ignition to takeoff in one of the streams. everything was working as planned at that point afaik
Re: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas
#160This was pretty much expected. This flight was to gather data and not much else.