Posted on 04/20/2023 8:12:51 AM PDT by Red Badger
Story by mguenot@businessinsider.com (Marianne Guenot,Morgan McFall-Johnsen,Kate Duffy) • 13m ago
SpaceX launched its new Starship mega-rocket on Thursday after a frozen valve stopped the first attempt. The mega-rocket exploded about three minutes into its flight but managed to clear the pad. Musk previously said he estimated a 50% chance of success. SpaceX launched its new Starship mega-rocket toward space for the first time on Thursday, after canceling its first attempt due to a valve issue.
Stacked atop its Super Heavy booster at SpaceX's new launchpad in Boca Chica, Texas, the black-and-silver vehicle was poised to prove itself as the biggest, most powerful rocket ever built.
The rocket successfully roared off the launch pad at 8:33 a.m. Central Time, but blew up about three minutes into the flight, at the point when it was due to separate from its booster.
Starship is the rocket on which SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk is hinging his biggest aspirations — including building and populating a human settlement on Mars. NASA, meanwhile, is counting on Starship to land its next astronauts on the moon as soon as 2025.
The company live-streamed the flight attempt, in the broadcast embedded below.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Beta test.
Lift-off begins 55 minutes in.
Shake, rattle, and roll.
whats funny is they all cheered when it happened. Must be nice to have money to burn.
“unexpected spontaneous disassembly” Was something of the term used.
Where’s The Kaboom?
Exactly! That was ~4 minutes of flight time with the ships spewing TONS of data. They’ll be processing it for weeks.
And the next one will be better. Remember all the failures of Falcon 9? And NOW look at it.
Hmmmm! Reporters?! If it hadn’t “managed to clear the pad” by the 3 minute mark....... Just sayin’. 😱🚀💣
it was exciting nonetheless - this is why there are tests! the power and payload of this rocket when perfected will be a huge leap forward. it was neat to see the engineers/scientists so excited about their subject.
Were there Chinese weather balloons in the vicinity ?
If you are going to build rockets, “burning money” is almost exactly what you are doing.
I suspect the multiple engine failures is going to be the hardest problem to solve. The fact that the thing could cartwheel without collapsing means it’s built like a brick outhouse.
The explosion was only due to the automatic flight termination system when it got outside it’s flight corridor.
The Space X announcers
sounded giddy even after
the explosion.
Your tax dollars at work !
RUD - rapid unscheduled disassembly
These lazy reporters. There is no Boca Chica, Texas. There is, however, a Boca Chica state park and a beach in Texas.
Shot down? Trust bur verify.
Sub orbital
Critics should check out the “bloopers” reel from past NASA and Russian failed rocket attempts. A year or two from now, this thing will sit on the Moon.
When I saw that there were several engines that failed on liftoff and when it began to tumble out of control, I knew the launch was only partially successful.
“The Space X announcers
sounded giddy even after
the explosion.
Your tax dollars at work !”
Better use on SpaceX than tax dollars for “infrastructure” (but isn’t), electric cars, Pfizer, raises to congresscritters, DEI “eddikashun”, publik skoolz, and on and on.
I’d rather see folks with measurable IQs and genuine abilities get the bucks than leftist idiots who strain to understand the operation of a wedge.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.