Posted on 03/30/2021 6:53:55 AM PDT by Red Badger
A SpaceX Starship rocket flies high above South Texas on Tuesday, minutes before the test flight crashed and exploded in fog below. Photo courtesy of SpaceX
March 30 (UPI) -- A fourth Starship rocket prototype for Elon Musk's SpaceX launch company exploded after a test flight on Tuesday morning in South Texas.
As with previous test flights, SpaceX flew Starship -- model SN11 -- to over 6 miles high above the launch facility about 180 miles south of Corpus Christi. The rocket then glided on wing flaps back to the launch pad.
Heavy fog and problems with the video feed made it unclear exactly what happened, but SpaceX engineer John Insprucker confirmed the explosion.
"Well, looks like we've had another exciting test of Starship ... A reminder again, this is a test series to gather data," Insprucker said during SpaceX's live broadcast.
Previous test flights of the giant, stainless steel rocket ended in fireballs in December, February and March. The last attempt, on March 3, featured an upright landing but a fire on the rocket's base caused an explosion moments later.
The tests are part of SpaceX's rapid prototype development methods, which the company used to develop its highly successful Falcon rockets.
Landing and reusing the rocket is key to Starship's proposed interplanetary use, according to the company. The rocket is roughly the height of a 14-story building.
RELATED SpaceX aims to nail landing on flight of moonship that exploded on last 3 tries Starship is "designed to carry both crew and cargo on long-duration, interplanetary flights and help humanity return to the Moon, and travel to Mars and beyond," according to SpaceX.
Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with a stated goal of reducing spaceflight costs to enable human exploration of Mars.
Starship is one of three spacecraft NASA has chosen as possible means to send astronauts back to the moon this decade. The space agency intends to choose two proposals for those crewed lunar missions by mid-2021.
LOL. Sorry, couldnt help it.
Not a hard landing this time. It blew up shortly after the relight. Whether that was the result of a failure of some sort or activation of the flight termination system remains to be seen, but chunks of debris flew a long distance from the pad.
These are throwaway test Rockets
Sure. Thats what they are telling the investors right now...
Actually, I wonder what stainless steel scrap is going for these days. Seems like SpaceX is generating an awful lot of it. They're probably depressing market value in the area due to the glut.
All aboard! ;^)
Yeah NASA is all about climate science now...
You first!......................
I would guess that if there was an issue getting the other two lit for the flip then the flip was slow/late and they didn't get the thrust vector "down" in time to arrest the descent - hard to very hard landing...
They said that it could not be done,
He said, “Just let me try.”
They said, ‘Other men have tried and failed’,
He answered, ‘But not I.’
They said, “It is impossible,”
He said, “There’s no such word.”
He closed his mind, he closed his heart...
To everything he heard.
He said, “Within the heart of man,
There is a tiny seed.
It grows until it blossoms,
It’s called the “Will to Succeed”.
Its roots are strength, its stem is hope,
Its petals inspiration,
Its thorns protect its strong green leaves,
With grim determination.
“It’s stamens are its skills
Which help to shape each plan,
For there’s nothing in the universe
Beyond the scope of man.”
They thought that it could not be done,
Some even said they knew it,
But he faced up to what could not be done...
AND HE COULDN’T BLOODY DO IT!
-Benny Hill
He has often mentioned the difference between SpaceX and NASA, and how NASA is nearly hidebound with caution and indecision, to the point it has difficulty doing nearly anything in a reasonable time frame due to its aversion to "failure".
He contrasts that with SpaceX, an entity that seems to view failure and success as two inextricably intertwined concepts, specifically that failure has positive aspects to it, and if you are going to fail (and you will) you might as well do what you can to make the best of it and get something constructive out of it.
As a case in point, he points to this video put out by SpaceX showing all of its failures leading up to the first successful landing...set to John Philip Sousa's "Liberty Bell March":
How not to land an Orbital Rocket Booster
The point he makes accurately (In my opinion) is that NASA could NEVER make a film like this. He has two great videos about SpaceX worth watching:
A Tale of Two Rocket Men (Musk vs. Bezos)
This Elon Musk Quote Will Take Us to Mars (And Utterly Change Your Life)
Yes, Tim Dodd of ‘Everyday Astronaut’ apparently lost $20K of equipment when pieces of SN11 fell on them.
No wonder he’s bummed.
Think Elon will reimburse him? It’d be the right thing to do. But I’m not holding my breath.
What is 5,000 tons at launch is not 5,000 tons at re-entry.
The Space Shuttle SRBs weighed 1.3 million lbs at launch, and 200,000 lbs at recovery.
I don't know the empty weight of SpaceX's booster, but in any case if a parachute were used to slow its descent until it is within 1/2 mile of the surface, then less fuel would be required for landing, saving weight that could be turned into payload.
I’d assume (total guess) that Tim would have to sign a damage waiver in order to get cams onsite. Anything’s possible though, he and Elon seem to have some ongoing relationship.
Weight != mass
dV calculations are done with mass for a reason.
NASA also spent 50 years throwing away rockets after every use.
Since the FAA decide to stick it’s nose into this it will seriously slow things down.
Time index 31:12
Starship SN11 Test Flight | LIVE
7,011 views•Streamed live 2 hours ago
spaceXcentric
165K subscribers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lweUU3qnWzQ
I am watching the SpaceX replay feed , lost video at t+5:49 relight raptor and boom, didn’t land just boom, looking at Labpadre cam views debris everywhere
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