Starship - Test Flight ( 4:45pm CST)

[Neonmoon 38129]

 

Edited December 9, 2020 by Neonmoon

[Neonmoon 38129]

T minus 6:30 minutes

[Nice Guy Eddie 13509]

 

[Neonmoon 38129]

Let;s go

[Texas Jeff 1945]

https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/

[Neonmoon 38129]

Dammit. They stopped the countdown at 2:06 left

[bolverk 29656]

So...it's not happening?

[Neonmoon 38129]

 

[Guest Lobo]

Pack it up, back to California.  

[washparkhorn 9939]

Little bit less than two hour launch window remaining. 

Could have been a range violation that caused the hold. 

[Neonmoon 38129]

New launch time tentative for 4:40pm CST

[Texas Jeff 1945]

Gonna try again at 4:40 CST

[Neonmoon 38129]

T-Minus 8:30

[Neonmoon 38129]

Link for viewing

 

[washparkhorn 9939]

Let's do it. Light that candle!

[RomaVicta 29902]

Kinda cool. It looks like a comic space rocket. I haven't felt this way in a long time. Thanks for the heads up.

[0xdeadbeef 1645]

SpaceX Stream: GO

Everyday Astronaut Stream: GO

Redbull: GO

Big Screen: GO

 

We are go for launch...

 

[Neonmoon 38129]

We have liftoff!

[Neonmoon 38129]

Well it looks like we have a fire

edit; not really a fire. just flames up near the engines

Edited December 9, 2020 by Neonmoon

[Neonmoon 38129]

I don't think one of the engines stopping was on purpose. But it hasn't exploded yet

 

Edit: maybe that was on purpose. Coming down now

Edited December 9, 2020 by Neonmoon

[washparkhorn 9939]

hovering - wow.

[Neonmoon 38129]

Holy shit. This is pretty cool. On it's belly and heading down

[washparkhorn 9939]

love the belly flop

 

[Neonmoon 38129]

It tried to land but exploded 

Not enough anti-thrust

[washparkhorn 9939]

oopsie.

[Hate 20107]

That’s gonna leave a mark.

[Neonmoon 38129]

Now that I think about it. Did they plan that? It didn't look like they had any landing stabilizers or legs. So I guess it was supposed to explode?

[SuperSport 1333]

Boop.

[1978horn 892]

That was pretty awesome

[washparkhorn 9939]

Awesome flight. Landing just one element. Beautiful. 

 

[Willfully Horn 8002]

When the first burner blew out, I had a bad feeling.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13509]

Makes me want to plan a trip to SPI to see a future launch.

[Ghost of LL 15531]

[RomaVicta 29902]

Somebody liked it. Looks like the command module survived in some form or another. 

 

[Willfully Horn 8002]

“Awesome test.Congrats Starship Team.”

[Willfully Horn 8002]

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1336806274223271937

[Ghost of LL 15531]

So it looks like they lost one or two engines.  Would they have stuck the landing if the engines hadn't failed?  Or were the engines supposed to cut off when they did?

[RomaVicta 29902]

I have a neurosurgery conference to race to, but I'll indulge my other area of expertise, rocket design.

I feel like the size of the explosion indicates unused fuel was present which could be related to the nozzles shutting down prematurely. Earlier someone noted that there was a compression problem in the middle of the spacecraft. I noted condensation forming in that area during the ascent and wondered if it was worrisome.

It appeared a second nozzles shut down. I was impressed that the rocket could be controlled to return to the designated spot for landing and execute everything perfectly execept for the speed of descent. The rocket seemed to be correcting for the imbalance of thrust, as well.

I would have been proud to get blowed up on that test. 

 

Lastly, it was a fun watch. Nobody got hurt and something blew up after doing something I wasn't expecting. Now off to operate on brains!!

[XYZ 2154]

Oops.

[Gil Bang 25922]

 

[0xdeadbeef 1645]

Talking heads on nerd sites say they were expecting to land on 2 engines. ... Unfortunately one of the 2 engines used was one that cut out 1:56 into the flight. Nobody is sure if that was expected or not....

The belly flop landing approach actually looked more controlled than the high speed landing the Falcon 9 does. 

 

[HornsOverIthaca 2333]

That was the most graceful belly flop of all time.

[Gil Bang 25922]

As the NASCAR boys would say, "she blowed up"

[RamjetFDO 10575]

Elon:

 

[Dewey 3286]

 

[Pato del Muerto 52487]

Never heard of this vehicle or what it will be used for 

[Walte464 450]

Pretty damn awesome to be able to watch this from the front lawn. I’ll need to catch up with my neighbor to see how the reaction was at the site after everything took place and when their next launch is planned.

[Pato del Muerto 52487]

7 hours ago, Willfully Horn said:

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1336806274223271937

Is that a green flame?  What’s the fuel?

[washparkhorn 9939]

25 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Is that a green flame?  What’s the fuel?

fuel rich combustion. low pressure in the tank. 

________________________________________________

In some sense of the word perfect, this was a perfect mission. Because they lost it to a crash and explosion (early in the process = less expensive), they will make huge advances in safety technology to solve the problem. Musk was worried about the data from the crash and explosion, first. 

 I am interested to see how the place (where humans would have been) survived the crash plus explosion. Have to think the tanks were heavier than expected at landing with the rich fuel burn. But that's within the realm of possibilities for this craft. 

Time is speeding up. That was nice step forward.

Edited December 10, 2020 by washparkhorn

[Captainant 27639]

24 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Is that a green flame?  What’s the fuel?

The green flame is from their hypergolic igniter system for the engine, you see it with the falcon 9 landings as well. 

From the amateur footage, an engine cut out and the vehicle attempted to relight before its rapid unplanned disassembly