From Elon Musk’s twitter he said that the header tank pressure was too low on landing and this caused the engines to have too low of thrust.
But he says they got the data they need to correct the problem in a future iteration.
they achieved many major goals
they also know why the landing ultimately failed
wasnt the engines
not enough pressure in the fuel tank feeding one of the engines
watched it live
very impressive
Blowed up real good.
See what you get for moving to Texas?đ
The video makes a funny jump just before explosion - almost like cameras changed.
95% success. The stable drift-down was just too cool. Trying to get a nephew interested in space travel.
wow. that was awful.
Looked like the engines failed on the way up but the way it flipped and then leveled up , amazing
I wonder if any windows were shattered in Boca Chica?
Looks like a LOT of data points available. đ
Must has to be very pleased with this test.
Amazing take off, powered to vertical for free fall to Earth.
Engine firing and gimbal back to vertical for landing.
Landing pad target was perfect.
Not enough thrust for soft landing.
Musk is happy. Bezos is not.
Interesting take Elon has on developing space travel.
NASA’s approach was to front load all engineering. Failures were very costly and set programs back immensely.
Elon has a learn as you go philosophy. Everything is being worked in a massively parallel way. If you look at development of the Starship, it’s strewn with wreckage of test attempts. He even switched material for the rocket from composite plastic to stainless steel mid way through.
The important thing is that it works when it needs to. Time will tell.
He has gotten to this point using a lot less money than the traditional method. And he has the advantage of developed computer technology to work all the systems, and record in detail all the failures, for instant learning.
It was a success. They expected to lose it. the SN 9 is complete and ready for the next launch. Amazing footage. Watch the whole flight
That did do pretty well. But you can see at altitude around T +01.40 where the one engine flamed out, and apparently the unlit gas filled the lower chamber enough to catch things on fire when gas buildup reached the lit remaining two engines several seconds later. They were kind of lucky if there wasn’t any control wiring for the engine directional actuators that didn’t burn through that high up, otherwise that could have landed nearly anywhere if the engines locked in hard turn position.
It was heading to landing pad too fast. Looked like the braking rocket didnât fire soon enough.
But amazing technology, they will get it fixed
That they got the spacecraft positioned for a vertical landing was a incredible achievement. A fix of the fuel pressure problem will give us a flawless landing in later tests. Later models will have more robust engines with more than enough power for a soft landing.
Itâll buff right out.
They made the announcement before hand that this launch for for learning.
Expensive lesson but that’s the way it goes.
Did all the martians die?