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.

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.

  • MumboJumbo@lemmy.world
    585·
    1 year ago

    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@lemmy.world
      132·
      1 year ago

      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@lemmy.worldEnglish
        131·
        1 year ago

        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@lemmy.world
          13·
          1 year ago

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

          • Thrashy@lemmy.world
            6·
            1 year 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.

          • Peppycito
            32·
            1 year ago

            I’m guessing they wanted to show the FTS works really good now and terminates at the first sign of something wrong. Last time it was doing those flips for quite a while.