I’m old enough to remember the Apollo program. Not one Saturn V blew up on launch. I guess we had a different notion of “success” back then.
I love spending 1% of the GDP to make sure my big pile of metal doesn’t explode.
SpaceX Loses Starship Spaceraft During Test Flight
61–70 of 193 posts
Re: SpaceX Loses Starship Spaceraft During Test Flight
#62I’m old enough to remember the Apollo program. Not one Saturn V blew up on launch. I guess we had a different notion of “success” back then.
Apollo was a one off government program, which was unrivaled for 50 years. And never even tried since then.
You have to understand this is a private business doing it on a budget and fast. Yes, NASA is involved...
Re: SpaceX Loses Starship Spaceraft During Test Flight
#63I’m old enough to remember the Apollo program. Not one Saturn V blew up on launch. I guess we had a different notion of “success” back then.
Yes, but the approach is very different. This more of a '(star)ship and iterate' way of working. There's also the cost factor - each Saturn launch was around $1.5 billion in today's dollars. Whereas the projected budget for Starship for the entirety of 2023 was around $2 billion. Once they start launching commercially then Musk expects a launch to come down to around $10 million - even if he's wildly out then it's still going to cost at least an order of magnitude less to launch than a Saturn. Then there's the capacity; Saturn could take ~120 tonnes to LEO whereas Starship will carry ~150 tonnes.
I'm no fan of Musk by any means, but you only have to look at the Falcon program to see how successful Spacex has been. I have no doubt that Starship will work out.
Re: SpaceX Loses Starship Spaceraft During Test Flight
#64Altogether, it was a terrific flight and a big step forward for the Starship program. The biggest success was the survival of stage zero, which bodes well for a quick turnaround for the next flight. Hot staging was the second big success, and Starship got to space. The flight termination was disappointing, but the actual functioning of the FTS system seems to be fixed. That was a problem with the first flight and sho…
Isn't reentry supposed to be the hard part? How was this a success?
There are multiple goals, up to an including full mission success, and this checked several boxes that hadn't been checked before.
Re: SpaceX Loses Starship Spaceraft During Test Flight
#65Re: SpaceX Loses Starship Spaceraft During Test Flight
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sad we didn't get any shot from the Starship onboard camera during reentry.
Starship didn't do re-entry though right? They lost signal, and what happened after that was not explained. It was at the target height and >24,000km/h when it lost signal. Some coverage suggested SECO happened, they they lost signal.
At the conclusion of the SpaceX stream they confirmed the automated launch abort system triggered with vehicle lost. But so much data gained!
Re: SpaceX Loses Starship Spaceraft During Test Flight
#67Worth noting, the first stage flight probably constitutes the most powerful machine ever successfully operated by humankind, no? (A fusion bomb generates more power for a minuscule period of time, but that sort of competes in a different class.)
Yes in terms of thrust, it’s almost double the nearest competitor, the SLS. SLS generates 8.8M pounds while the Starship generates 16.7M pounds.
Wouldn't its nearest competitor be the N1 rocket? That thing did have some liftoffs.
Re: SpaceX Loses Starship Spaceraft During Test Flight
#68"Loses" is kind of an incorrect way to talk about the launch. The flight made great progress and was just shy of orbital velocity (it was over 24,000 km/hr and orbital velocity is around 24,500 km/hr for a low orbit). Keep in mind that the goal of this launch wasn't to carry any payload. It was to get data and further iterative development. People here, especially, should understand how iterative development works.
Fair point - they didn't even plan a landing for the Spaceship, just a splashdown in the Pacific, so the plan was always to "lose" it. And it was well on track for that, it reached target height and already fired about 90% of its fuel. The only thing it didn't get to test was the heat shield, but there'll be plenty of other chances. I'm sorry about the booster tho. But overall it's hard to consider this anything othe…
any footage of the splashdown ?
Re: SpaceX Loses Starship Spaceraft During Test Flight
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
The largest rocket ever built just got to space for the first time. Even without re-entry this is a milestone. They have a production line to build these things. They’ll roll out the next one and try again. It’s not like SLS where everything is expected to work perfectly.
I guess that’s one way to define success or a milestone. The Saturn V used for the Apollo program had different criteria, like not blowing up and having all engines ignite. Now that we have the person who knows more about manufacturing than anyone else alive in charge I’m sure these glitches will get sorted out.
It’s nice when you have the backing of a super power nation and their blank check to do it vs having shareholders.
Re: SpaceX Loses Starship Spaceraft During Test Flight
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the only one who was surprised by that outcome was Elon.
It was very shocking to see that they didn't have one. It's not like this was one of those secret things that NASA has done that prevents others from having success. As recently as during SLS ramp up, I remember articles covering the testing of the deluge system for SLS. They talked about how many gallons per second, and the total amount of water necessary, and all of the other blah blah blah details that a non-rocke…
If I recall, they really hoped it would work without it because the idea is to launch off the surface of other planets that won't have a deluge system. Not sure if that additional context makes it seem any less crazy to think it isn't needed though.