Posted on 11/21/2019 3:00:35 AM PST by BenLurkin
A test version of SpaceX’s next-generation rocket, Starship, partially burst apart during ground tests in Texas today, erupting plumes of gas and sending some pieces of hardware soaring into the sky. Live streams set up by local space enthusiasts captured the failure in real time this afternoon.
The explosive result occurred while SpaceX was seemingly conducting some pressure tests with the vehicle at the company’s test site in Boca Chica, Texas. The local live streams showed the vehicle venting gas periodically throughout the day, indicating that testing was underway.
Now, that timeline is almost certain to shift. After the explosion, Musk indicated on Twitter that SpaceX may no longer fly this particular prototype and will instead conduct flight tests with a newer, more up-to-date model that the company planned to build. “This had some value as a manufacturing pathfinder, but flight design is quite different,” Musk wrote, referring to the prototype that burst.
(Excerpt) Read more at theverge.com ...
Bite me, a$$hole. I have degrees in physics and computer systems engineering.
You can disagree without making smarmy-ass comments.
Why do I feel we have regressed back to the 1950s Russian space program? All the rocket designers from the golden age of NASA are dead. Didn’t they leave any technical knowledge on paper?
What is your expertise in lift-to-orbit rocket design?
In this case, you are WRONG.
*ping*
Do you realize that the Russian space program can still send people to the ISS? We lost that capability nearly a decade ago.
And, the rocket engines we fly from traditional vendors are ones we bought from Russia.
The Russians were first to orbit a satellite and first to put a man in space.
Time to take the lessons we should have learned to heart.
We could do that now, it's just a matter of more testing/improving of the Space X system. We can also send cargo up to the ISS and orbit for a fraction of the cost of NASA and the Russians. The Falcon 9, for example, averages out to $2,500/lb. It was about $10,000/lb for the Space Shuttle. That's not an insignificant achievement. The end goal is a cost in the $100s.
My favorite YT channel for rocket stuff is SpaceXcentric (formerly the oddly-named Cloudlicker) — he gets to the story and to the point, and doesn’t attempt to be a morning DJ or be pedantic. My other fave is Scott Manley, and I think the two have actually collaborated at least once, so, bonus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ee-xPdxfFc
Only made possible by the development of slomo technology.
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