this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
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SpaceX’s Starship rocket system reached several milestones in its second test flight before the rocket booster and spacecraft exploded over the Gulf of Mexico.

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[–] Buffaloaf 207 points 11 months ago (17 children)

I really wish they'd stop putting Musk's name on things like this. He didn't design the engines, he didn't plan the flight path, he did nothing but throw a bunch of money at a company because he's obsessed with Mars.

[–] SkybreakerEngineer 117 points 11 months ago (1 children)

He does force them to cut corners for the sake of more headlines though

[–] Buffaloaf 13 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Which is why I'm nervous for when they decide to start doing manned flights.

[–] pennomi 34 points 11 months ago (11 children)

Falcon 9 is the most reliable rocket in the world and it used to explode like this too. It’ll be 5-10 years of successful unmanned flights before anyone rides on this rocket.

[–] Buffaloaf 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

And what of worker safety at Space X?

Reuters documented at least 600 previously unreported workplace injuries at Musk’s rocket company: crushed limbs, amputations, electrocutions, head and eye wounds and one death.

It's not the rocket or the engineering I'm concerned about, it's the push to meet deadlines at the expense of safety.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You literally said you were concerned for manned flight in your last comment. So originally it was the rocket and engineering you were concerned about.

[–] Buffaloaf 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I said I was concerned because of the corner cutting, which isn't an engineering problem

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[–] FlowVoid 42 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

Blame the poster. The CNN article itself doesn't have Musk in the headline and barely mentions him at all (there is one quote near the end).

EDIT

Or maybe don't blame the poster. From the URL and web archives, it appears CNN may have changed the title.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/18/world/elon-musk-spacex-starship-launch-scn/index.html

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[–] dustyData 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

… throw a bunch of money at a company because he ~~’s obsessed with Mars.~~ wanted to justify sending money to some Russian arm dealers friends.

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[–] Agent641 6 points 11 months ago

He did insist they slap an X on it tho. Thats gotta be worth something, right.

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[–] peopleproblems 65 points 11 months ago (9 children)

Alright, let me clear something up.

This is literally rocket science. The process to put humans into space is literally done this way, for this exact reason. They had two key primary objectives for this launch:

  1. Successful ignition and control of 33 raptor engines in first stage.
  2. Successful hot separation into second stage.

The first stage separated entirely and gained plenty of distance before it did explode.

The second stage flew for several minutes before the automated emergency flight termination kicked in and destroyed it.

All of the data that they were recording will pinpoint the failures in the return of the first stage, and the destruction in the second stage. They would not have that data if they did not do this test and nothing went wrong.

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[–] WidowsFavoriteSon 48 points 11 months ago (3 children)

So, actually kinda successful.

[–] MumboJumbo 53 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Actually kinda really successful 👍 All 33 engines were firing, the hot staging was successful. On both the first and second stages, it looks like the automatic FTS (flight termination system) was triggered. That would happen if it veered too far off of it's approved flight path (don't need it coming down over a populated region.) The only thing that didn't happen that I was hopeful for was atmospheric re-entry - we really need to see how that heat shield works in practice.

[–] urandom 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If the stage exploded due to the hot staging change, perhaps it won't count as a success. But it's too early to tell either way

[–] pennomi 12 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Looked to me like the hot staging plus flip maneuver sent the 1st stage into a slow spin it couldn’t recover from using the ullage gas thrusters.

[–] MumboJumbo 13 points 11 months ago (3 children)

A user in another thread pointed out that during relight, not all engines lit, and the ones that did started going back out.

[–] Thrashy 6 points 11 months ago

Scott Manley suggested the hot-stage combined with the fast flip maneuver may have caused fuel to slosh away from the intakes in the tank, leading to ingestion of gas bubbles in the fuel lines. Those would have damaged or destroyed engines as they worked their way into the turbo pumps, leading to the progressive engine-outs seen on the stream before the eventual catastrophic failure of the booster.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

What a shitty title. The launch was an absolute success.

[–] themeatbridge 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The launch achieved most of its objectives, but it was supposed to fly farther and splash down near Hawaii. It was a success in that the 32 engines fired together, and the ship achieved separation, and there will be plenty of data about what went wrong.

But some things did go wrong, so you can't say it was an "absolute" success. Both the superheavy and the starship were lost. Rocket science is slow and expensive progress. It's only a failure if we abandon the project. But it is disingenuous to say that everything worked out as intended.

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[–] FlyingSquid 36 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Did he blame the Jews for it blowing up?

[–] iamzeN123 13 points 11 months ago

Well that tweet is being composed with the aid of kilos of ketamine as we speak

[–] WhyYesZoidberg 9 points 11 months ago

The space lasers took it out probably

[–] Illogicalbit 24 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

lol: “experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly”. That’s one way to describe it!

[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

There's no shame in highlighting what went right and still acknowledging what went terribly wrong.

Censoring the latter prevents improvements. No need for fanboyism.

[–] ashok36 6 points 11 months ago

On test flights, having something go terribly wrong is expected. This is the second test flight of a brand new vehicle system which also happens to be the largest and most complicated vehicle ever made. They also have half a dozen more vehicles already made and waiting to fly, each with improvements learned in manufacturing the previous one. They are behind their original schedule, for sure, but this mission was a huge success for SpaceX considering all of the things that did work.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (3 children)

It weirds me out how many people want to get a brain implant done by a company of this guy

[–] vanontom 8 points 11 months ago

It would be very weird, if we could verify they weren't shills or bots. Insane and desperate people. It was only "interesting" years ago, before he exposed himself as a fraud (and tortured animals during failed testing).

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

eh... it looks like hot-staging still has some bugs to work out, but the 2nd stage worked just fine (and since that's the part that matters, the end fate of the first stage is irrelevant)

good test all in all

[–] neveraskedforthis 5 points 11 months ago

What bugs? At this point we don't have an explanation for the first-stage RUD, looking at the overlay it seems there were issues re-lighting the Raptors which could be for any reason.

From what I saw, the hot-staging went perfectly with the RUD happening when the ship was already in space.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (14 children)

I wonder what the simulation showed was going to happen compared to the actual flight. Would give you a real metric of progress.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Here's the everyday astronaut livestream of the launch: https://www.youtube.com/live/6na40SqzYnU?t=27150

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