SpaceX’s giant new rocket exploded minutes after blasting off on its first test flight Thursday and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.
Elon Musk’s company was aiming to send the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built on a round-the-world trip from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. The nearly 400-foot (120-meter) Starship carried no people or satellites.
Images showed several of the 33 main engines were not firing as Starship climbed from the launch pad, reaching as high as 24 miles (39 kilometers). There was no immediate word from SpaceX on how many engines failed to ignite or shut down prematurely.
The booster was supposed to peel away from the spacecraft three minutes after liftoff, but that didn’t happen. Rather, the rocket with the spacecraft still attached began to tumble and then exploded, plummeting into the gulf.
You can see, in this screenshot, that several engines aren't working. I don't know how launching at about 85% power will matter down the road, but it would seem to cut into possible payloads.
SpaceX is operating on a Silicon Valley mindest: Get it to "meh, close enough" and then see what happens when they turn the key.[1] They blew up a lot of the upper-stage vehicle before they got to this point.
That's opposed to NASA, which tries to ground-test everything as far as they can so they don't get slammed for wasting taxpayer money by blowing shit up.[2]
Well, as long as Musk can afford to keep cutting nine- and ten-figure checks to SpaceX, I imagine that they'll keep at it.
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[1] This is why I think anyone who buys a Tesla should have their head examined. Before it goes through the windshield.
[2] One may recall the flak NASA took for not testing the Saturn-V by stages.
9 comments:
You should look at the before and after pictures of the launch pad. Seems they weren’t using any water dampening for the launch…seems that was probably a mistake. I anticipate another problem will be the likely impact on wildlife in a 2-4 miles radius from a 200+ db launch without any buffering…so Elon’s likely to get some lawsuits on environmental impact.
If I remember correctly, NASA began using flame trenches and water suppression after Mercury/Redstone. I’m pretty sure it would not have entered their mind to not use those things with a rocket this powerful.
Sounds about correct, Comrade. The SPL of that launch would be lethal to humans within a few miles of the pad, depending upon a number of factors. For a fun comparison, most auto stereo contests require remote controls and all persons outside the vehicle at the highest level. The loudest woofer (18”) is recorded at 170 db…so the launch is at least 1,000 times louder than that., probably closer to 5,000+.
For fun, here’s the FAA assessment (https://www.faa.gov/space/stakeholder_engagement/spacex_starship/media/Appendix_B_Noise_Assessment.pdf), which suggests that probably, based upon my knowledge of the area, somewhere between 20 tp 50 buildings probably suffered some structural damage in Port Isabel and South Padre Island due to 110db plus launch noise levels.
Something I never heard before: RUD.
Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly
At least they still have a sense of humor. No rocket though.
Dale
So *that's* what that pattern indicates -- the blank spots are engines that aren't firing. I saw that while watching the video of the flight, but was totally puzzled about what I was seeing. Thank you!
RAD has been used before by NASA
The pattern puzzled me too until I noticed the engine diagram at the bottom showing operating vs not engines.
The Saturn V booster had it's teething problems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V
Saw a headline somewhere yesterday that Tesla is going full-autonomous driving sometime this year ...
Those of an age (really old people) remember the spectacular early attempts with the Navy's Vanguard rockets. Fortunately, lessons were learned and changed the world. That said, "Kaputnik" was pretty funny.
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