SpaceX Starship test launch

[bashMOH]

I'm pumped!!

 

[smokingman]

whoooo.

https://twitter.com/SpaceX

 

[Alamo]

Launched!

Pad survived.

All booster engines (33) worked thru stage separation.

Hot-stage separation worked.

Booster automated Flight Termination System triggered during boost.back phase.

Starship continued to suborbital flight with all six engines functioning.

At about point where Starship was to shut down engines telemetry lost. Assumed auto FTS destroyed Starship due to as yet unknown anomaly.

Not a grand slam, but it went much much better and farther than last time. As long as they got the telemetry that let them know what went wrong, successful test.

 

[Ark]

Man, look at the size of that blast. Good thing it was already cut loose.

I didn't previously know that the core 3 engines of the booster burned continuously through the staging process. Looked like it failed aft-to-fore.

 

[Alamo]

… core 3 engines of the booster burned continuously through the staging process. …

Yes, the purpose of the hot-staging is to keep pushing, not lose momentum while 2nd stage ignites.

p.s. And to keep the liquid fuels in the bottom of the booster’s tanks.

 

[jwamplerusa]

That was absolutely awesome!

SpaceX should be happy. Considering what the Super Heavy was put through with the hot staging, the fact it did the flip is probably a bonus.

I am a little surprised the Starship terminated when it did. It either reached MECO or was darn close. From the graphic is looked like a normal shutdown. It will be very interesting to read SpaceX analysis in the coming days.

 

[Alamo]

This clip ends shortly after the booster RUD’d. Starship continues as a bright dot for another 4 minutes or so climbing to about 149km altitude, then telemetry ends and it’s assumed it also RUD’d. But not to fear! Elon has two or three more starships and boosters already built and standing around at Boca Chica for future tests. I think the next one scheduled for February.

 

[Wanderer]

Might have been propellant slosh in the tanks that caused some engines to crap themselves during the attempted boostback burn, then the AFTS blew it up when the computer noticed it wasn't following the correct course. They had similar problems with testing the flip maneuver with the upper stage prototypes a couple years ago, but did fix it eventually for the SN15 flight. At any rate, seems like everything that went wrong with IFT-1 has been fixed, and what went wrong during this flight is stuff they weren't even able to test back in April. Iterative development in action, they'll almost certainly get there eventually.

 

[indyblue]

Live updates: SpaceX Starship rocket lost in second test flight

SpaceX will make its second attempt to successfully launch Starship, a gargantuan rocket designed to carry humans to the moon and Mars.

www.cnn.com

The rocket took off as intended, making it roughly 8 minutes into flight before SpaceX confirmed it had to intentionally explode the Starship spacecraft as it flew over the ocean.

After hot staging, the rocket booster exploded in a fireball over the Gulf of Mexico. Starship initially continued on just fine before SpaceX lost the spacecraft’s signal and triggered the system’s software to terminate the flight so it didn’t veer off course.

 

[Alamo]

The video below is an excellent explanation of the changes made to the booster between IFT1 and IFT2. It’s about 45 minutes long, lot of details, so if you’re not a detail person be warned. But if you are, this same guy, Zack with the channel CSI: Starbase, has several indepth videos about the Stage Zero improvements, how the rockets are built etc. Go hither and be enlightened.

 

[Alamo]

License for third Starship/Super Heavy launch issued, liftoff planned for 0700 Texas time tomorrow.

 

[Alamo]

SpaceX live streming begins 30 min prior to launch, which is currently scheduled for 0730 CT.

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.

www.spacex.com

 

[Alamo]

 

[Ark]

Sounds like they lost it on reentry.

Some really awesome footage, but I'm pretty sure I saw it shedding quite a few thermal tiles.

 

[edporch]

The launch doesn't happen til a lot further into this

 

[Alamo]

Watched it live. Great stuff.

The booster and the ship still have a ways to go developmentally, but pretty impressive flight.

Launch and hot stage separation appeared to go perfectly.

booster executed it’s turn around and headed back to earth as planned. Still needs to work on the slowing down before you hit the planet part.

Starship made it into space, largest flying object, ever launched, and executed its fuel transfer experiment, apparently successfully. They skipped the relighting a raptor in space experiment for some reason. The payload door was opened, but it wasn’t clear to me that it closed successfully. The Starship seem to be somewhat out of control before it started its reentry, and it just got worse from there, but there were some really cool pictures of plasma formation as it entered the atmosphere. That was awesome.

The onboard cameras seem to show a few tiles missing, but I’m not sure is all that white stuff flying around was tiles. Some commentators thought it was still forming and shedding ice from the apparent venting that was going on..

SpaceX could stop now and they would have the biggest single use payload to orbit rocket system in the world by a long way.

They would like to do 10 launches this year, can’t wait for the next one.

 

[Ark]

Watched it live. Great stuff.

The booster and the ship still have a ways to go developmentally, but pretty impressive flight.

Launch and hot stage separation appeared to go perfectly.

booster executed it’s turn around and headed back to earth as planned. Still needs to work on the slowing down before you hit the planet part.

Starship made it into space, largest flying object, ever launched, and executed its fuel transfer experiment, apparently successfully. They skipped the relighting a raptor in space experiment for some reason. The payload door was opened, but it wasn’t clear to me that it closed successfully. The Starship seem to be somewhat out of control before it started its reentry, and it just got worse from there, but there were some really cool pictures of plasma formation as it entered the atmosphere. That was awesome.

The onboard cameras seem to show a few tiles missing, but I’m not sure is all that white stuff flying around was tiles. Some commentators thought it was still forming and shedding ice from the apparent venting that was going on..

SpaceX could stop now and they would have the biggest single use payload to orbit rocket system in the world by a long way.

They would like to do 10 launches this year, can’t wait for the next one.

Booster looked like it was oscillating hard before impact and I'm not sure the engines ever relit for landing.

But 100% burn on 100% of engines all the way through staging to MECO is a huge improvement by itself. The launch itself was essentially perfect and threw more tonnage into orbit than anything since Saturn.

 

[bashMOH]

That re-entry footage was some of the coolest I have seen

 

[smokingman]

That re-entry footage was some of the coolest I have seen

SpaceX's Starship Achieves Space, Hits New Milestones, Despite Reentry Loss | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

 

[patience0830]

Watched it live. Great stuff.

The booster and the ship still have a ways to go developmentally, but pretty impressive flight.

Launch and hot stage separation appeared to go perfectly.

booster executed it’s turn around and headed back to earth as planned. Still needs to work on the slowing down before you hit the planet part.

Starship made it into space, largest flying object, ever launched, and executed its fuel transfer experiment, apparently successfully. They skipped the relighting a raptor in space experiment for some reason. The payload door was opened, but it wasn’t clear to me that it closed successfully. The Starship seem to be somewhat out of control before it started its reentry, and it just got worse from there, but there were some really cool pictures of plasma formation as it entered the atmosphere. That was awesome.

The onboard cameras seem to show a few tiles missing, but I’m not sure is all that white stuff flying around was tiles. Some commentators thought it was still forming and shedding ice from the apparent venting that was going on..

SpaceX could stop now and they would have the biggest single use payload to orbit rocket system in the world by a long way.

They would like to do 10 launches this year, can’t wait for the next one.

It's good to see you excited, my friend!