Launch News SpaceX SN10

[Notebook]

Aborted.

 

[Marijn]

T-00:00.1 Crazy

 

[N_Molson]

T-00:00.1 Crazy

That's what modern computers are for

 

[MarkWatney2015]

 

[N_Molson]

The Pisa Tower of spacecrafts ?

 

[Paraso]

Boom!

 

[Quick_Nick]

Boom timestamp: 8hr 26m (guess the embed dropped the time)

 

[MarkWatney2015]

That was anticlimactic

 

[Thunder Chicken]

It's amazing what they are doing with these engines. Launch, shutting off in sequence, rapid restart of all three, followed by rapid shutdown of two.

 

[4throck]

Good progress. The new 3 engine relight seems to work.
The engine seems to cut off just before landing. Might have been deliberate (fast hard landing), since it was hovering off the pad.
Not bad at all, looking forward for SN11!

 

[cannon_gray]

We'll see many more test flights in the weeks and months ahead, for SpaceX is already building multiple SN10 successors, as well as the first Super Heavy prototype. Musk has said that the company aims to get a Starship prototype to orbit this year, and he expects the final spaceflight system to be flying people regularly by 2023.

 

[RisingFury]

Starship go boom hur hur

 

[4throck]

"get a Starship prototype to orbit this year"

I have no doubts that it could reach orbit. The 3 engines seemed very stable all the way up.
The trouble is with relight, after the rocket flips. Perhaps something to do with fuel moving inside the tanks. Id' say 2 more tests to get it right.

 

[MarkWatney2015]

SpaceX gotta fix the landing legs first, might be the cause why SN10 blew up 7-8 minutes later:

Nevertheless, what a great flight!
Hail Starship!

 

[Urwumpe]

Yeah, looks like the legs didn't arrest in place, possible they just relied too much on gravity there.

 

[ChrisRowland]

Landing on one engine seems deliberate according to the SpaceX commentary. I guess they can't be throttled down enough to land using two.
Strange about the legs, it looks as if they weren't powered down or had any locks. Personally I'd be looking for a design where the legs could be fixed. Simplicate and add more lightness.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Landing on one engine seems deliberate according to the SpaceX commentary. I guess they can't be throttled down enough to land using two.
Strange about the legs, it looks as if they weren't powered down or had any locks. Personally I'd be looking for a design where the legs could be fixed. Simplicate and add more lightness.

The problem is that Starship is meant to be the second stage stacked on Super Heavy, so they need some stowable/deployable landing leg solution.

 

[RisingFury]

I love how it just blew its ass up and went flying back up. That and the announcer saying "Third time's the charm". I suppose he was right, the explosion was charming

 

[N_Molson]

I say they should invest in a massive fire-suppression facility spitting tons of nitrogen or CO2 in a few seconds, because the smallest little LO2 leak means that things will spiral out of control. You can't fight a fire fueled by evaporating LOX, it sustains itself, unless you really purge the area of its air. Which is difficult in an open-sky environnement. And a hard landing starting a LOX leak and starting fires on the ground (engines) will always be a possibility.

 

[Urwumpe]

I say they should invest in a massive fire-suppression facility spitting tons of nitrogen or CO2 in a few seconds, because the smallest little LO2 leak means that things will spiral out of control. You can't fight a fire fueled by evaporating LOX, it sustains itself, unless you really purge the area of its air. Which is difficult in an open-sky environnement. And a hard landing starting a LOX leak and starting fires on the ground (engines) will always be a possibility.

You can also defeat the fire polyhedron by cooling things down. But its hard to bring water into the engine skirt from outside...unless you invest into a airport fire engine like robot.