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 ...
Kind of an odd headline...
“rapid unscheduled disassembly” was cute the first time I heard it from Musk, but now it’s worn-out and trite.
The old classic -— “Patient dies, but operation a success”
I missed the live launch, but am wondering if debris from the booster blowing up may have caused the upper stage explosion ?
Elon reminds me of teenagers playing with firecrackers.
The bigger the explosion the greater the “success”.
;-)
“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.”
Dead astronauts are in NASA’s future—with claims of “success”.
Mostly successful?
Mostly peaceful?
Mostly safe and somewhat effective?
You see the trend?
Now give me the participation trophy!!/LOL
Well it is a Prototype but it flew much better
This is incredible progress to see. The system has extended and will eventually become successful. Brings back so many great work memories.
The Starship top part was well away before the bottom exploded.
The top went almost to the scheduled engine cutoff before the safeties exploded it.
All the other people making snarky comments have no clue about test flights and how the entire history of aviation was made possible by people not afraid to try and not afraid to fail.
The Man in the Arena speech by Teddy Roosevelt comes to mind here.
1) That was certainly the largest set of mach diamonds ever.
2) All 33 engines performed properly through boost. Success.
3) Clean stage separation. Success.
4) All six engines started properly. Success.
6) Second stage exited atmosphere. Success.
Snarky jackasses need to choke on their own dirty socks.
You don’t know rocket history, do you. Actually NASA blew up lots of rockets before they trusted them with payload
We won't know until the telemetry and video is analyzed but it appears that the booster stage did not get the expected engine burn pattern after staging. This would cause the trajectory to go outside the flight safety envelope which would initiate flight termination.
The second stage data requires more analysis. The only thing I could see was premature thrust termination.
Compared to the Atlas program that I worked on, these flights have been very successful considering the learning curve is usually based on failure analysis. The Atlas had so many initial failures that when one finally worked the launch crew renamed the missile the "AT LAST".
Let the man of learning, the man of lettered leisure, beware of that queer and cheap temptation to pose to himself and to others as a cynic, as the man who has outgrown emotions and beliefs, the man to whom good and evil are as one. The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer. There are many men who feel a kind of twisted pride in cynicism; there are many who confine themselves to criticism of the way others do what they themselves dare not even attempt. There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes second to achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticize work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities—all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority, but of weakness. They mark the men unfit to bear their part painfully in the stern strife of living, who seek, in the affectation of contempt for the achievement of others, to hide from others and from themselves their own weakness. The role is easy; there is none easier, save only the role of the man who sneers alike at both criticism and performance.
I fully understand how a launch that could look like a disaster could be the experience needed to prove that certain aspects are working, and others need to continue being fixed. My only complaint is how giddily happy the announcers were throughout the flight, rather than presenting honestly, “These worked, these didn’t, no one died thank God, now back to the drawing board to fix what’s still wrong.”
Thanks for that - just found a launch vid on YT.
I see the massive separation you mentioned.
I’d imagine there must’ve been a lot of fuel remaining in the booster for that catastrophic explosion.
Looks like they got all the booster engines firing this time.
Will be really interesting to find out what made Starship go BOOM, but it got 7 minutes downrange prior!
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to develop into fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of a workaday world. Among the free peoples who govern themselves there is but a small field of usefulness open for the men of cloistered life who shrink from contact with their fellows. Still less room is there for those who deride or slight what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are. The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of the great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder. Well for these men if they succeed; well also, though not so well, if they fail, given only that they have nobly ventured, and have put forth all their heart and strength. It is war-worn Hotspur, spent with hard fighting, he of the many errors and the valiant end, over whose memory we love to linger, not over the memory of the young lord who “but for the vile guns would have been a valiant soldier.”
LOL! And thanks for that anecdote :-)
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