News Changes to the SpaceX BFR rocket.

[garyw]

Could it be a hotspot by the heat of the center engines, that weakened the structure of the regenerative nozzle?

top right went first then one of the small ones opposite so could be feed lines or could just be a terrible design.

 

[Urwumpe]

Yes, and I just noticed that both vacuum nozzles showed a spot with a red glow, but the upper starboard engine was glowing stronger. It can't be a reflection from the exhaust.

 

[garyw]

The chaos being caused on the ground because of the debris.......

https://twitter.com/x/status/1897806783197884836

 

[Urwumpe]

top right went first then one of the small ones opposite so could be feed lines or could just be a terrible design.

If it was a engine explosion without enough ballistic cloth between the chambers, everything is broken.

 

[GLS]

 

[Urwumpe]

Just for the fun of it: A Raptor 3 vacuum engine produces the energy equivalent of 2.6 tons of TNT every second.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Launching over Florida doesn't seem like such a safe thing anymore.

 

[jedidia]

At what point does this failure of a programme get pulled? 8 flights and the best they've done is one banana to the indian ocean and that was on fire.

With how the current administration is set up? When Musk looses interest, I guess... It's probably not long now until he figures out a way to make Nasa pay for it.
It was kind of fun to watch while they were being suborbital, but now that they're going orbital and every breakup produces hundreds of tons of debris that's going to come down somewhere in the world, it's getting less funny. At this stage, it might be better to take a step back and take the time to really figure things out, rather than "oh, let's try this, that might work..."

 

[GLS]

Wow!

 

[RisingFury]

Starship: Brought to you by the same genius currently attempting to... "fix" the US government. I'm sure it'll go fine!

 

[Frilock]

With how the current administration is set up? When Musk looses interest, I guess... It's probably not long now until he figures out a way to make Nasa pay for it.
It was kind of fun to watch while they were being suborbital, but now that they're going orbital and every breakup produces hundreds of tons of debris that's going to come down somewhere in the world, it's getting less funny. At this stage, it might be better to take a step back and take the time to really figure things out, rather than "oh, let's try this, that might work..."

I was just thinking something similar. Its all fun and games doing the whole 'lets just test and if it blows up it blows up' when you're doing suborbital hops, or launching somewhere you've got plenty of ocean should something go awry. But these last two failures have resulted not in things going directly kablooey but instead the ship tumbling completely out of control with, as far as I can tell, engines still running. This last one I heard the termination system being 'safed' just as they lost control as well. At this point to me it seems completely careless, and frankly reckless (ask a cop what the difference is) to be doing tests like this.

 

[statisticsnerd]

Won't Starship (the 2nd stage) have to overfly Mexico to make it back to Starbase? I'd imagine the Mexicans won't be thrilled about the possibility of chunks of metal raining down on their homes if it experiences a "RUD."

 

[Urwumpe]

Won't Starship (the 2nd stage) have to overfly Mexico to make it back to Starbase? I'd imagine the Mexicans won't be thrilled about the possibility of chunks of metal raining down on their homes if it experiences a "RUD."

Unless they perform a dog-leg maneuver to further increase inclination, yes.

But why should Musk do that? Only Mexicans live there.

 

[GLS]

Breaking news: Starship operations will now be handled by DOGE...























... the Department Of Giant Explosions

 

[Urwumpe]

That one is so good, I must steal it.

 

[GLS]

Propellant leaks? Don't fix them, just increase cavity inerting.

Well, well, well...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1898253161032208393

 

[GLS]

Bah, the tweet is too big to show. Here it is:
Now, I don’t know the validity of this message, it’s sent by the same guy who leaked the s34 aft section after the explosion picture, take it as you will.

First-hand: Starship S34 crash details.

Yesterday's post in the channel about the preliminary causes of the Flight 8 crash is confirmed for now. What else we managed to find out:

• Data indicates that the problem like on S33 during Flight 7 has repeated.
• Again, harmonic oscillations in the distribution of vacuum-insulated fuel lines for RVac (one of the innovations of V2 and the distribution for S34).
• This crash was more destructive than during Flight 7, the corrections to the distribution for S34 did not work or turned out to be almost worse.
• Another source leaked a frame from the engine bay after the TPA and RVac nozzle rupture, and one central Raptor engine.
• Problems with the rupture of methane lines in the oxygen tank only appear as the tank empties.
• When filled, liquid oxygen dampens the oscillations of the distributed lines, when the tank is empty, they increase.
• Harmonics cause a break in the lines in the lower part, where the main wiring for the RVac is located.
• Leaks also caused the engines and regenerative cooling to malfunction, which led to the explosion during the fire in the compartment.
• The updated nitrogen suppression and compartment purge system would not have been able to cope with such a volume of leakage.

The information below may change, but for now:

• Hot separation also aggravates the situation in the compartment.
• Not related to the flames from the Super Heavy during the booster turn.
• This is a fundamental miscalculation in the design of the Starship V2 and the engine section.
• The fuel lines, wiring for the engines and the power unit will be urgently redone.
• The fate of S35 and S36 is still unclear. Either revision or scrap.
• For the next ships, some processes may be paused in production until a decision on the design is made.
• The team was rushed with fixes for S34, hence the nervous start. There was no need to rush.
• The fixes will take much longer than 4-6 weeks.
• Comprehensive ground testing with long-term fire tests is needed.

IF this is true then I think all the haters were right all along, looks like SpaceX has gotten a bit careless, or was pressured by Elon to rush. Clearly they slapped on some quick potential fixes instead of fixing the core of the problem. I think SpaceX knew it would take too long so they decided this would be good enough.
The proper fixes to the aft section could take 2-5 months but it maybe 9-12 months to get a new ship IF this is true.
If SpaceX had waited and just revamped the aft section before launch then the timeline would look better but I think this is another flight 1 to flight 2 timeline scenario.
Once again, this message isn’t confirmed yet, may be a full lie posted by this guy to instill fear. But I’m just considering possibilities if this is true.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Well, well, well...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1898253161032208393

"Well well well" what? An aerospace engineering sophomore who thinks they know more than they actually do is spouting unsubstantiated rumors on the internet.

 

[GLS]

"Well well well" what? An aerospace engineering sophomore who thinks they know more than they actually do is spouting unsubstantiated rumors on the internet.

"Well, well, well", they really didn't fix the prop leaks (and vibrations) and pretty much just improved engine cavity purging... which is like getting a bigger bucket to put under a leaking pipe, instead of fixing the pipe.


As for the "unsubstantiated rumors", I just found this image from flight 7:

I don't know the person, and maybe it was SpaceX that released that engine image, or maybe somebody invented this and added the leaked image for credibility... or maybe it really is somebody on the inside.


As for my engineering degree, you can open a new thread, and I'll talk about it all you want.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

As for the "unsubstantiated rumors", I just found this image from flight 7:

Your links are coming across corrupted in some way:

I don't know the person, and maybe it was SpaceX that released that engine image, or maybe somebody invented this and added the leaked image for credibility... or maybe it really is somebody on the inside.

So it's noise, not signal.