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Elon Musk's Starship goes up in smoke on 4/20: World's most powerful rocket fails to separate and EXPLODES in $3BN fireball before crashing back down to earth
Daily Mail UK ^ | April 20, 2023 | Stacy Liberatore

Posted on 04/20/2023 8:39:48 AM PDT by Morgana

Elon Musk's SpaceX's Starship exploded into a ball of fire on 4/20 during its second failed orbital launch in a week.

The world's largest and most powerful rocket – which was unmanned - lifted off in South Texas and successfully cleared the launchpad, its first milestone.

But the craft was sent into a tailspin when the booster - called Super Heavy - failed to separate from the rocket in mid-air.

The mission ended at around four minutes when the failure sent both stages crashing toward Earth, imploding mid-descent over the Gulf of Mexico.

Despite the failed launch, the team at SpaceX reportedly cracked out champagne bottles and chanted 'go Starship' after the rocket's explosion. The entire Starship program cost around $3billion.

The companies leadership - including Musk - has repeatedly stressed the experimental nature of the launch and said any result that involved Starship getting off the launchpad would be a success.

Musk himself claimed last month that there was a 50 percent chance his spacecraft could explode during the launch.

The billionaire congratulated the SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship' about 20 minutes after the explosion.

'As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation,' SpaceX tweeted.

The company shared on Twitter that its team will review data and work toward another flight for the rocket.

'With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's test will help us improve Starship's reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary,' SpaceX tweeted.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 20230420; blownuprealgood; elonmusk; hitlersbirthday; musk; spacex; spacexstarship; starship; superheavy; test; texas
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To: BobL

Exactly, anything past the tower was icing


41 posted on 04/20/2023 9:18:14 AM PDT by swingdoc
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To: dynoman

my bet is that some of the testing was to make things go wrong on purpose so there can be work arounds when things go wrong when launching real space missions where the goal isnot learning the tech but real maned missions


42 posted on 04/20/2023 9:20:14 AM PDT by PCPOET7 (`)
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To: BobL

>4 minutes of flight isn’t bad for a first attempt.

Especially for what’s essentially a generic rocket that can be mass produced and refilled with methane quickly, allowing for a quick turn-around and can be marketed to smaller countries.


43 posted on 04/20/2023 9:22:07 AM PDT by struggle
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To: KobraKai

We’re not going to live on Mars. Mars is completely exposed to solar radiation due to the absence of a magnetic field significant enough to protect life.


We will live on Mars—if only to use those lessons learned to live off planet elsewhere. We as a species must learn to live off planet if we are to survive...


44 posted on 04/20/2023 9:24:10 AM PDT by abigkahuna (Honk Honk. It’s Clown World Out There. )
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To: Bayard

It’s being speculated that some of the concrete from below the pad might have impacted the initial 3-4 engines


45 posted on 04/20/2023 9:27:11 AM PDT by Robe (A nation can survive its fools and even n the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.)
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To: Morgana

Planned failure. Unlike NASA, SpaceX does not have to contend with public opinion about every little aspect of their process. NASA had such spectacular failures very early in their testing (pre-Mercury/Redstone/Atlas) but they weren’t televised or at least not to the extent things are today.

The difference is SpaceX can do a test every month or so. NASA is currently on track to complete it’s second test in 15 years sometime in the next 24 months and the 3rd test will be a year or two after that. I expect by that time SpaceX will have sent several Starship flights around the moon and possibly ever landed on their own (can the US Government prevent them from doing that?). They might even have an unmanned Starship on the way to Mars by then to assess the rockets viability for manned missions. Once they get it flying reliably, I don’t see any reason not to stress it as much as possible.


46 posted on 04/20/2023 9:29:23 AM PDT by CarmichaelPatriot (Recovering Kalifornian... Loving Alabama!)
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To: PIF

Exactly right.


47 posted on 04/20/2023 9:32:34 AM PDT by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up..)
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To: jz638
It was a successful launch

Cleared the pad == successful launch.

It failed to reach orbit and their engineers have a ton of telemetry data to learn why and how to fix it.

This launch was a good illustration of why "rocket science" is a generic metaphor for things that are intellectually very difficult.

48 posted on 04/20/2023 9:34:43 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: PIF
A C++ launch

Was it object-oriented?

49 posted on 04/20/2023 9:35:28 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: Zhang Fei

Musk always delivers. It may take a bit longer than his insane time lines, but he delivers.

He’s a force of nature. Once he sets his mind on a goal he’s unstoppable.

I would not be at all surprised that he’ll be the first to land a man on Mars.


50 posted on 04/20/2023 9:39:33 AM PDT by aquila48 (Do not let them make you "care" ! Guilting you is how thery control you. )
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To: Morgana

ABSURD headline. Yes, the rocket exploded. But it had already passed its test. There was no unexpected loss; once the rocket cleared the launchpad, there was no more use for it.


51 posted on 04/20/2023 9:40:14 AM PDT by dangus ( )
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To: Morgana

“As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation,’ SpaceX tweeted.

These guys definitely enjoy their work. Great sense of humor. Not like stuffy NASA bureaucrats.


52 posted on 04/20/2023 9:44:19 AM PDT by aquila48 (Do not let them make you "care" ! Guilting you is how thery control you. )
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To: Morgana
A reminder of how far we've come:

How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster, by SpaceX.

How Not to Land a Flying Grain Silo by RoBossBomb.

53 posted on 04/20/2023 9:46:19 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: NorthMountain

Yes as opposed to:
Failure on the pad=F,
Failure at altitude= F— (as it would kill many),
Failure before Max Q=C,
Failure after Max Q=C++,
Failure after separation=B,
Failure after achieving orbit=B++
Successful booster landing A
Successful StarShip landing A++ and everything about space ventures changes instantly.


54 posted on 04/20/2023 9:49:41 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Morgana

Both the payload and the booster were going to do “hard landings” in water after separation (splashdowns). So they really achieved about 80% of their goals with this flight which was mainly to test launch and flight capabilities as a whole.

Remember that SpaceX’ self landing rockets (which were Pooh-Pooh’s by nasa as impossible at one time) took close to a dozen attempts before he got a success and now it’s an everyday occurrence with his launches.


55 posted on 04/20/2023 9:50:31 AM PDT by Skywise
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To: CarmichaelPatriot

“Unlike NASA, SpaceX does not have to contend with public opinion about every little aspect of their process. NASA had such spectacular failures very early in their testing (pre-Mercury/Redstone/Atlas) but they weren’t televised or at least not to the extent things are today.”

Also, the legacy media did not hate NASA with all it’s heart. They hate Musk.


56 posted on 04/20/2023 9:53:27 AM PDT by ModelBreaker
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To: PIF

I agree with your grade, with the caveat that apparently clearing the pad was the requirement for success.

I think you may have missed the joke, though. Oh well ...


57 posted on 04/20/2023 9:53:35 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: ModelBreaker

This happens. The Nazis lost lots of V-2s too. Rocket science is hard. Just build another one—trial and error works. Glad there were no humans on board.


58 posted on 04/20/2023 9:55:50 AM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade ( Ride to the sound of the Guns!)
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To: Morgana

This was a test flight. Just like learning how to land.

Odds are, it was detonated by mission control as it go out of control.

And they keep pushing forward...


59 posted on 04/20/2023 9:55:56 AM PDT by sten (fighting tyranny never goes out of style)
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To: NorthMountain

No i didn’t miss it. I knew some one was going to bring that up.

Clearing the pad was not the mark - it was not exploding at altitude as that would have killed many like N-1 did, destroyed the town of Boca Chica and the entire site.


60 posted on 04/20/2023 10:02:07 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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