will25u said:

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Another re-watch, and at least some engines on first stage never shut off, even until RUD. So definitely had quite a bit of issues.

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Seeing the fire or explosion or whatever it was at T+29ish, I wonder where things like the control computers, sensors, that control all that are.

it's possible some of the communications type stuff that controlled the engines was lost with all that going on.

Musk is going to need to crack the whip on his engineering staff. They have quite a few issues that need to be fixed in a hurry.

How far down range was it when RUD? It looked like it got to about 32km altitude and 2100km/h before RUD.

EA had sand rain down on them at their filming location 5 miles away about 10 minutes after liftoff.

That was super exciting. Great launch and test today.

EA says next flight, Starship won't have the flaps. So that could have been an issue. But would never know unless you send it.

You can learn a lot from a less than nominal launch. It utterly amazes me they actually sent men to the moon on Apollo 8 in December of '68 when so much went wrong with the unmanned Apollo 6 in April.

Looked like the mixture ratio was off too, based on the plume color changing, like it may have gone oxygen-rich. At T+1:55 it looked like an engine melted or exploded before the spin started around T+2:10.

WHAT THE ACTUAL F#CK!!!
Wow!!! #StarshipLaunch
THE SHEER POWER!!!!
🚀🚀💥👀 pic.twitter.com/OuHDNHzgeO

— Phil Randall (@philrandall) April 20, 2023

Look at all the debris landing.

I thought I saw green flash on at least one of the flame outs after liftoff too

Drone view. 400ft, 11 million pound rocket.

The tallest and most powerful rocket ever built launching. The liftoff of SpaceX Starship pic.twitter.com/meav59yVmn

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 20, 2023

Yeah we've seen the raptors burn themselves to death in the past on the starship landing tests. They shoot green and usually that's about 2 seconds before something awful happens.

Amazing how long that thing held together with engines failing and tumbling through air that wasn't very thin. This was a huge success!

NSF live stream vehicle 1100 feet* from launch hit with debris.



Sorry can't get the timestamp to work on the link. It's at something like -2:55 from the start.


* Corrected distance based on more info.

bthotugigem05 said:

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FireAg said:

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I hear you...I have different experiences...

It's all fun and games until they blow up humans onboard...and that is going to happen...nature of the biz...

Doesn't mean they should stop what they are doing, but there will be a real, human loss at some point, and that's gut-wrenching to me...

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To give you perspective, SpaceX's Dragon capsule, which has safely launched 30 astronauts to orbit since 2020, went through 20 operational flights without humans before putting humans in the seat and lighting the candle.

NASA's Orion capsule has gone through 1 test flight before NASA is putting astronauts on it for Artemis II.

Not saying there will never be another crew loss, because there will be, but I encourage you not to look at SpaceX's design philosophy and their acceptance of things blowing up and interpret it as not taking safety seriously.

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Orion has flown twice. EFT-1 was on December 5, 2014. It launched on a Delta IV Heavy for a 4 hour, 2 orbit test that evaluated separations, avionics, launch abort, heat shields, parachutes, and recovery.

Artemis I was the first launch of Orion integrated with SLS.

Edited to correct typo in date.

Ah dang, forgot about EFT-1, apologies, thanks for the correction.

If you watch the blow video, the vehicle starts having issues as soon as the engine flares out. Then another flares out and starts it to tumbling.

My Autotrack software captures the moment that Starship lost control. Excitement was very much guaranteed. Great first attempt by the SpaceX team!

Tune in to hear our live reaction! @NASASpaceflight https://t.co/uutBwWSABz pic.twitter.com/in201JaOiU

— Michael Baylor (@nextspaceflight) April 20, 2023

Easy to forget…it was a long wait! I didn't think my dad would make it to Artemis I (he was in the control room for EFT-1). He prob won't make it to Artemis II.

Any guesses?

VR Cam caught some spectacular footage as #SuperHeavy rocked #SpaceX #Starbase this morning. I am floored at the amount of debris that was ejected. Waiting on Rover 2 damage assessment. Congratulations @elonmusk on pulling this historical launch! pic.twitter.com/6WKEXFqCGN

— LabPadre (@LabPadre) April 20, 2023

Geddy Lee soul patch said:

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VR Cam caught some spectacular footage as #SuperHeavy rocked #SpaceX #Starbase this morning. I am floored at the amount of debris that was ejected. Waiting on Rover 2 damage assessment. Congratulations @elonmusk on pulling this historical launch! pic.twitter.com/6WKEXFqCGN

— LabPadre (@LabPadre) April 20, 2023

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So much debris

Geddy Lee soul patch said:

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VR Cam caught some spectacular footage as #SuperHeavy rocked #SpaceX #Starbase this morning. I am floored at the amount of debris that was ejected. Waiting on Rover 2 damage assessment. Congratulations @elonmusk on pulling this historical launch! pic.twitter.com/6WKEXFqCGN

— LabPadre (@LabPadre) April 20, 2023

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Damn that's unbelievable. They might not need to make a flame diverter, booster might have trenched it out for them

A happy ⁦@elonmusk⁩ watching out of the window and on screen as Starship clears the launch tower. pic.twitter.com/SA8l6IiFMa

— Walter Isaacson (@WalterIsaacson) April 20, 2023

Decay said:

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Geddy Lee soul patch said:

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VR Cam caught some spectacular footage as #SuperHeavy rocked #SpaceX #Starbase this morning. I am floored at the amount of debris that was ejected. Waiting on Rover 2 damage assessment. Congratulations @elonmusk on pulling this historical launch! pic.twitter.com/6WKEXFqCGN

— LabPadre (@LabPadre) April 20, 2023

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Damn that's unbelievable. They might not need to make a flame diverter, booster might have trenched it out for them

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Maybe that was Elon's plan all along.

AustinAg2K said:

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One thing I love about SpaceX is their ability to cheer on a failure. If this had happened at NASA, people would be freaking out, and it would shut down the program from the next six years. At SpaceX, everyone is pumped at having a massive explosion. They really have the right attitude to make amazing things happen. At NASA, they don't allow any sort of failure at all, even if it's unmanned.

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Agree. This is how you move the ball forward. Launch, learn, redesign, launch again, learn ... the iterative approach advances the technology and allows them to progress at a faster pace. It would be hard to take those kinds of risks and vehicle failures if he wasn't filthy rich. He is spending a ton on R&D plus the cost of the rockets and launch vehicles. No telling how much it will cost to repair the launch tower and tank farm.

We learn from our failures and mistakes. Musk fails fast, evaluates and learns quickly, and keeps plowing ahead. It is an admirable quality and incredibly exciting to watch.

Star Hopper 100 yards from the pad.

Wonder if there's anything left.

bthotugigem05 said:

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The concrete pad is just…gone. That's the foundation of the OLM.

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Wild.

Ag87H2O said:

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AustinAg2K said:

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One thing I love about SpaceX is their ability to cheer on a failure. If this had happened at NASA, people would be freaking out, and it would shut down the program from the next six years. At SpaceX, everyone is pumped at having a massive explosion. They really have the right attitude to make amazing things happen. At NASA, they don't allow any sort of failure at all, even if it's unmanned.

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Agree. This is how you move the ball forward. Launch, learn, redesign, launch again, learn ... the iterative approach advances the technology and allows them to progress at a faster pace. It would be hard to take those kinds of risks and vehicle failures if he wasn't filthy rich. He is spending a ton on R&D plus the cost of the rockets and launch vehicles. No telling how much it will cost to repair the launch tower and tank farm.

We learn from our failures and mistakes. Musk fails fast, evaluates and learns quickly, and keeps plowing ahead. It is an admirable quality and incredibly exciting to watch.

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A lot of people keep trying to introduce Agile methods like this in a lot industries.

Many of the old timers keep pushing back just calling it lazy engineering instead of even trying to understand the idea of failing fast to keep things moving faster.