Posted on 11/18/2023 7:38:57 AM PST by FarCenter
The second test launch of SpaceX's Starship got off to a successful start Saturday, with the booster separating from the spaceship, but both then exploded shortly after over the ocean.
"Such an incredibly successful day," a SpaceX announcer said. "Even though we did have a… rapid unscheduled disassembly of both the Super Heavy Booster and the ship."
The largest rocket ever built -- Elon Musk hopes it will one day be used to colonize Mars -- blasted off from the company's Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas shortly after 7:00 am local.
Unlike the previous such attempt in April, the booster rocket separated successfully from the mega ship, but then blew up, followed shortly by the spaceship itself.
Bill Nelson, head of the NASA space agency, which is awaiting a modified version of Starship to land humans on the Moon, said Saturday's attempt showed progress.
"Congrats to the teams who made progress on today's flight test," he said on X, formerly Twitter. "Spaceflight is a bold adventure demanding a can-do spirit and daring innovation. Today's test is an opportunity to learn -- then fly again."
"It was a fantastic partial success," space scientist Laura Forczyk told AFP. "It surpassed my expectations."
Compared to the first attempt to fly the spaceship in its fully stacked configuration back in April, Spaceship made it further into flight Saturday, with the booster breaking away from the ship before disintegrating.
"As you could see, the Super Heavy Booster has just experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly; however, our ship is still underway," an announcer said.
As the booster fell off, the upper stage started what was meant to be a partial trip around the Earth -- it was scheduled to fall into the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii after 90 minutes -- but it too blew up.
(Excerpt) Read more at france24.com ...
The cheer-leading irritates me.
I would rather they under promised and over delivered.
I am ready to cheer and congratulate them when the time is right—when they put men on the moon and on Mars.
Until then—it is all premature press releases and cheerleading.
Absolutely agree !
I'm no rocket surgeon, but I sure do enjoy these SpaceX threads for all the expertise they attract from y'all !
Just for your awareness, that individual insists that NASA never landed men on the Moon. Teddy Roosevelt had him nailed.
Well I know for sure Elon Musk never landed on the moon.
This thread reminds me of twelve year old boys talking about their latest “adventures”.
“I walked up to the girl and she actually said hello to me and smiled. Then I tripped on the chair and fell on my face. Success!”
lol.
I think SpaceX is delivering astronauts to iss regularly but NASA big contractors can’t even test yet. You are a know nothing complainer.
Yep ... POTUS26 had your kind nailed.
Yep, space is hard, braying couch commandos should look up years of NASA failures in late 50s, early 60s, nothing came easy
12 Crew Dragon launches since 2020.
Yes. I know but a certain poster was talking about dead astronauts due to SpaceX. Wow. Really, should we discount the test to fail of the falcon or the billion dollar starlink, iss missions, lowest cost to orbit by a giant proportion….
Starship will be doing amazing things in my lifetime and I don’t plan on being around that long.
I would rather they under promised and over delivered.
—
They did exactly that; you do not understand Raid Prototyping to Failure. Its not the old school NASA testing regimen.
Video of stage separation. Separation was successful. Booster appeared to not have all engines re-ignite for descent.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1725863437887242515
Perhaps I misunderstood ... You seemed uncertain about Crew Dragon; I provided certainty. Apologies for the confusion.
Yes ... SpaceX is performing remarkably well. They have a ewetewb video titled “How NOT To Land an Orbital Rocket Booster” or similar. It’s a potent reminder that engineering success is built upon learning the hard way. Rules of engineering are often written in blood.
To go back more than a century ... Orville and Wilbur didn’t invent powered heavier-than-air flight from nothing, in a societal vacuum. They built upon the learning of others ... some of whom they corresponded with, some of whom were unavailable for correspondence.
As for Starship ... apparently, they lost comms and detonated it with the range safety package. That’s unfortunate ... it appeared to have reached the intended suborbital trajectory.
“Literally they are approaching 1000 times less costly than NASA.”
And when Starship finally works, it will GREATLY reduce cost per ton to orbit.
Interesting. The outer ring of engines was probably NOT INTENDED to fire. The inner engines ... that’s a strange pattern. I’d like to see which engines were supposed to fire.
Yes ... if you have enough "stuff" to fill the thing. There will continue to be a market for medium and small launch vehicles. Rocket Lab, for example, is doing quite well in the small launch market.
All those criticizing this test launch of Starship are indeed those timid souls, criticizing from the safety of their couches and recliners while real men do the work that must be done to move our society forward.
Those who criticize this test launch are representative of our weakest men. Fortunately for them, there are men stronger than they who continue to push progress and mankind forward.
A successful failure. Only the government can do this.
SpaceX is aiming to launch 100 rockets this year, another big increase from what the company did in 2022. That will mean they will have to launch on average every three to four days. Will SpaceX be able to pull it off? Keep track below of all of SpaceX’s 2023 launches.
How many rockets has SpaceX launched in 2023?
So far, SpaceX has launched 86 rockets in 2023, 80 Falcon 9s, four Falcon Heavies, and two Starships.
https://spaceexplored.com/2023/11/18/spacex-launches-2023/
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