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 ...
Boeing and lockeed-martin have been subsidized by nasa for more years the spacex has been around.
Space X is the rebranding and they are doing a good job at fooling the sheeple.
Agree. This test flight was a huge achievement. A success by any reasonable measure.
Because ULA and others can't get the job done, and have been more heavily subsidized for years beyond what SpaceX gets. The others have ripped off taxpayers for years. At least SpaceX is getting our astronauts and supplies to space, not to mention heavy lift projects for the military and science.
Like I said, rebranding. In addition, it is not Space, it is Low Earth Orbit(as around a table)...no one has traveled into the void of darkness. Space is a fantasy.
When you contract to provide a needed product the money you receive is not a subsidy.
Semantics...NASA is subsidized and hires Space X.
Space has always been a Grift. You cannot justify this old footage from Voyager. The Grift is old and deep.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C8EjY3V-ioc
Well, yes. Low Earth orbit is simply less air in the environment. There is still atmosphere, although thin. You have to get far away from Earth to experience near vacuum conditions. Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and others are fooling space tourists into believing they're going to space, not even into low orbit but collecting millions of dollars from fools.
Engine relight is one of the hardest part of what they do with those Merlins. It’s one of the most incredible things that have come out of rocketry in the last few decades. Deep cycling rocket engines is a miraculous feat of engineering considering is the focused application of an explosion in one direction.
That said, note the engines that didn’t relight were on one side. It was asymmetrical which lends credibility to the unequal pressure theory. At those speeds and in low gravity the fuel was sloshing around and likely didn’t make it where it should’ve been for the relight. Time will tell.
My ignorant guess is that the booster self destructed because the engines started failing and that the engines started failing because the flip and boost back maneuver starved some engines of fuel. It sloshed around and the engines failed.
“I would rather they under promised and over delivered.”
Accusing SpaceX of under delivering seems a stretch.
Accusing any Musk enterprise of over promising... well that’s a different animal.
I expect the Super-Heavy booster to get close to the landing structure next time. That will be nervous for sure ... the first several Falcon-9 landing attempts were spectacular.
Starship re-entry will also be interesting. They’re trying all kinds of new things.
“Space has always been a Grift.”
Most of what government does is a Grift.
I would rather see the money go towards developing space technology, than wasted on supporting worthless people on welfare.
Standing up in Earth gravity, the fuel goes where we want it. While thrusting, acceleration keeps things flowing in the right direction.
Things get much more complicated when you try to relight things in zero G.
I think the first few booster landings, they might try a deserted island or a spot in the ocean, until they are confident it will go exactly where they want.
Starship test ship and booster explode.
Feds charge Elon Musk with littering.
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