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Starship Flight Test (Launch in 1 hour)
- BenoitP 4y agoVideo analysis: * Parts of launch platform going up in the air. * Rocket drifting laterally wrt to the launch tower. * Part of hydraulic system blowing up with an engine at T+30 * T+50: fire on the left of the rocket engines * T+1m05: something blowing up on the right * T+1m27: weird color between engines. recirculation? fire? * T+2m0: trajectory just wrong, but still not destroying it to get more data out of nominal parameters * T+3m: green flames means oxygen-rich mix burn-corroding the engine from the inside * T+4m: booster exploding, then a few seconds later starship. Was it voluntary? * launch tower relatively intact, all things considered * rocket stayed attached to launchpad for a long time up to 7 seconds (time to light up all engines?) Launch: Lost up to 6 engines, Max-Q passed, separation failure, going a bit KSP-style, vehicle destruction T 0: launch T-40s: Countdown hold, no scrubbing yet. Can hold for 15mn. Problem with bleed purge. Would restart at T-40s T-1: Gimbals working ok T-3: Fully loaded T-7: Only first stage to finish loading (scheduled at T-3) T-11: Still go for launch T-18: SpaceX "Starship’s Raptor engines are chilling down in preparation for liftoff" T-37: EM "Starship on track to launch in ~37 mins" T-80: SpaceX "Fueling of Starship’s upper stage is now underway" T-86: SpaceX "Fueling of the Super Heavy booster is underway" T-117: SpaceX "The Starship team is go for prop load; team is keeping an eye on the weather" T-8h: EM "All systems currently green for launch" ---- Note: Can't edit or delete my previous comment anymore, please disregard it. New info will be on this one ---- Launch in about 1 hours (13:28 UTC), which would be: - 6:28 Pacific - 7:28 Mountain - 8:28 Central - 9:28 Eastern - 15:28 European - Other: https://time.is/1328_20_Apr_2023_in_UTC https://time.is/1328_20_Apr_2023_in_UTC Official video stream starts ~45mn beforehand ---- - Resources/info: https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/12n02uf/rspacex_integrated_flight_test_official_launch/ https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/12n02uf/rspacex_int... https://twitter.com/SpaceX https://twitter.com/SpaceX https://twitter.com/elonmusk https://twitter.com/elonmusk https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-test https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-... - Resources/watch: Twitter stream (official, slightly ahead): https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1649033533846097927?s=20 https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1649033533846097927?s=20 Mission control audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBKCePn1E5A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBKCePn1E5A Multistream: https://multistream.co/p/RB8Ao4GidTy/Starship%5C_Flight%5C_Test%5C_420 https://multistream.co/p/RB8Ao4GidTy/Starship%5C_Flight%5C_T... Everyday Astronaut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAl3gVvMNNM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAl3gVvMNNM LabPadre Multi Plex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2BQKCnPkIc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2BQKCnPkIc NASASpaceflight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uouujjgkR3A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uouujjgkR3A
- chinathrow 4y agoAnd the stream from Everyday Astronaut, Tim Dodd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAl3gVvMNNM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAl3gVvMNNM
- pixl97 4y ago>rocket stayed attached to launchpad for a long time up to 7 seconds (time to light up all engines?) This is the expected behavior. Engine lighting occurs in 3 stages and takes 6-8 seconds to complete.
- BenoitP 4y agoDamn, poor launchpad ^^
- Kye 4y agoNASASpaceflight stream if you like informed commentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uouujjgkR3A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uouujjgkR3A SpaceX's streams start after a lot of interesting stuff happens, and can be a little sparse.
- shafyy 4y agoCrazy that YouTube recommended me this fake Space X channel on YouTube. It's a mix of the actual stream but with deep fake Elon Musk voice trying to get you to send him cryptocurrencies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOBZqwS0ELQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOBZqwS0ELQ
- macintux 4y agoSounds like the scammers who hijacked Linus Tech Tips’ YouTube channel a few weeks ago.
- chrisjc 4y agoIt never stops! All the crypto-scam videos that show up during all the live streams for SpaceX launches, Telsa events, etc... is just unbelievable. With all of Google's AI/ML resources, you would think they could do something about it.
- jansan 4y agoI totally bought into it (before the launch) until I actually scanned the QR code.
- woudsma 4y agoWhat's up with the presenters' audio? Either they all have a lisp, or something is not configured right. It sounds like they're saying 'Starschlip' instead of 'Starship'.
- xeromal 4y agoThey have a lisp. The guy who presented the fuel a few seconds ago sounded just fine but he had a deeper voice.
- evgen 4y agoBoom. That spin at the end looked quite bad. Can't believe it took that long for FTS to end things.
- gaogao 4y agoStill getting data until you need to boom it
- sebzim4500 4y agoNormally you only activate FTS if it looks like it might leave the launch envelope.
- mabbo 4y agoIt was spinning around in circles. Rockets don't recover from that. Anyone who thought the rocket might stay in the launch envelope is crazy.
- ortusdux 4y agoEvery second it spins is more test data. I would be surprised if they used the FTS.
- rob74 4y agoYes, but still, blowing it up too soon would mean collecting less data, and the more data you have to "debug" the issue that obviously happened, the better.
- esteth 4y agoThey want to gather as much data as they can for as long as they can as long as the rocket is inside the envelope. There’s no need to blow up your science experiment until it’s actually a danger, even if you’re certain it will soon become a danger.
- aeternum 4y agoThis could be the only flight where they get data on actual aerodynamic forces during a spin. It's crazy expensive to test that again so might as well make the most of it.
- jnsie 4y agoRapid unscheduled disassembly. Classic! :-)
- compsciphd 4y agoBoom Today. No Boom Tomorrow.
- ihattendorf 4y agoBoom today. Chance for boom tomorrow.
- belter 4y agoIt was glorious. A boom but I would argue a success. Congrats SpaceX
- Tommstein 4y agoI had never seen a rocket with twice the thrust of a Saturn V doing loop-de-loops before exploding live in front of everyone. Neither had anyone else. Great success.
- godtoldmetodoit 4y agoI've done that plenty of times in Kerbal : ) Was funny to see in reality, it matched up quite closely to my Kerbal experience.
- baq 4y agoYeah you could immediately tell it went off-nominal if you played kerbals before. I always thought the way kit works in KSP isn’t realistic. Well turns out it’s quite the opposite :)
- Shelnutt2 4y agoExactly what I felt too. Jumbo rocket on first launch spinning, feels right at home, just missing Jeb/Valentina :). Big kudos to the whole SpaceX team, and all the surrounding people who have gotten things this far and I'm exciting for the next attempt!
- terom 4y agoThis end should point toward the ground if you want to go to space. If it starts pointing toward space you are having a bad problem and you will not go to space today. [1] [1] https://xkcd.com/1133/ https://xkcd.com/1133/
- bluehex 4y agoI've never loved a relevant xkcd so much.
- JustSomeNobody 4y agoMarvin Martian is very pleased today.
- scrumper 4y agoImpressive achievement, looked to me like the vehicle started rotating before the flip was due. I wonder what the tolerance is on the number of engines that can be out? It seemed like nobody was overly concerned that several weren't firing. (That shot of the engines in flight was pretty amazing though, bright circles like a Spielberg alien ship.)
- dmix 4y agoI'm guessing even with a few of the engines not firing they can still do some math to compensate?
- fallingknife 4y agoI think it would be fine on a test flight since there is no payload weight.
- guepe 4y agoI recall old interviews stating 3 off is fine for nominal flight of a loaded starship. It was empty (no payload) so probably more failure is ok. But there are limits on how assymetrical the boosters force can be. With 5 then 6 out I wonder if spin was due to too much assymetry. I hope we get more details.
- dmix 4y agoIt looked like there was multiple off on one side which can't be good right?
- geomark 4y agoI find that part particularly, interesting, how fault tolerant the system is that such a number of engines fail to fire and it still looks like a nominal launch.
- dylan604 4y ago
- fabian2k 4y agoWhile it is obviously a test flight and failure was a likely possibility, this looked a bit worse than I had expected. There were I think at least 5 engines out on the first stage, so quite a lot of engine failures. It's impressive it could still continue, but it does indicate that there is still quite some work on Raptor left. And stage separation failed, so while they certainly gathered data they did not gather all the data they would have liked. The interesting part will be to see the turnaround time until the next test.
- bearjaws 4y agoThis is likely expected, given that there is not enough weight on the craft to warrant using all engines. If it can fly without them, that gives them a great idea as to how much payload it can take up when they are lit. Edit: I may be wrong, apparently they have a great telemetry integration with their stream to show which engines are lit and which are not.
- fabian2k 4y agoThose were in an irregular pattern and not balanced. I'm pretty sure those were actual engine failures and not intentional shutdown.
- bearjaws 4y agoThey even had an infographic displaying that exact engine layout, I doubt someone drafted that up to cover up the fact they didn't light. It seems more likely to me that they prepped the infographic of the engine layout ahead of time to keep people informed. I'm just speculating however. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/184413540809965569/1098602798096076900/image.png https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/184413540809965569/10...
- fabian2k 4y agoThat was a display of the telemetry, so it indicated the actual status of the engines as far as I understand. If they had intentionally disabled some engines, they would have mentioned that on the stream.
- stephc_int13 4y agoSeeing that much SpaceX employees cheering after the explosion was kind of strange. OK this is not complete failure, but this is still a failure. Things did not go according to plans. I understand the need for PR and damage control, but I am not comfortable with it, this is not a success, this is work in progress and so far this launcher is unproven.
- xeromal 4y agoThis is assuming a strategy that aligns with your values. SpaceX has been made successful with their strategy. Look at their entire history of explosions and see that every major issue like this has taught them well. They are eating EVERYONE's lunch
- magpi3 4y agoI say this only half-jokingly: think of the satisfaction you feel when a challenging piece of code finally compiles. You know there is a lot of debugging ahead, but progress is progress.
- zachruss92 4y agoThis is an excellent analogy.
- valine 4y agoNot blowing up on the pad is a huge success. The rocket got past max-q, and they’ve proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that 33 engines can work together on one booster. I remember a couple years ago when folks like you were confident that it was impossible to run that many engines simultaneously.
- Symmetry 4y agoWhat I was really worried about was an explosion at the launch pad, that would have really delayed things so I'm glad that didn't happen. Par for the course in developing a new rocket seems to be two failures in the first 10 launches, so they can have their next one fail too and still not get a bogey. I hope they at least make it to stage separation next time though.
- hallqv 4y agoCongrats spacex team!!! Keep inspiring the rest of us!!!
- abudabi123 4y agoNot all the engines were lit. Were they within margin for stage sep and if not how many engines can they afford to lose from the thirty three?
- BenoitP 4y agoT-8h: EM "All systems currently green for launch" ---- Launch in about 3 hours (13:28 UTC), which would be: - 6:28 Pacific - 7:28 Mountain - 8:28 Central - 9:28 Eastern - 15:28 European - Other: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20230420T0828 https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20230420T0... Official video stream starts ~45mn beforehand ---- - Resources/info: https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/12n02uf/rspacex_integrated_flight_test_official_launch/ https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/12n02uf/rspacex_int... https://twitter.com/SpaceX https://twitter.com/SpaceX https://twitter.com/elonmusk https://twitter.com/elonmusk https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-test https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-... - Resources/watch: LabPadre Multi Plex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2BQKCnPkIc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2BQKCnPkIc NASASpaceflight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uouujjgkR3A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uouujjgkR3A
- BenoitP 4y agoCan't edit this comment anymore nor delete it, as it is too old (threshold at ~2h30 apparently). Please let it sink / downvote it
- ggm 4y agoMidnight in Oz.
- jiggawatts 4y ago11:30, not midnight
- wrboyce 4y agohttps://time.is/1328_20_Apr_2023_in_UTC https://time.is/1328_20_Apr_2023_in_UTC
- techdragon 4y ago<edit out, related to an older version of the above comment> The Multicam that NSF have is cool and I thoroughly recommend becoming a member if you love watching rocket launches and want even more footage than the content in the main stream.
- HopenHeyHi 4y agoThis is an enormously important launch. I had $20 it will be pushed to 4/20, so a lot riding on this. :) But seriously, I can't help but feel this is a historical moment. Hope you make the time to watch and remember it.
- pfannkuchen 4y agoClearly you should have put $69 on it, what were you thinking?
- HopenHeyHi 4y ago:) :( Goddamit.
- once_inc 4y agoI'm the other side of the bet. Still not hoping for a scrub though!
- ta1243 4y agoSensible, either way you win something
- HopenHeyHi 4y agoI award this comment 218 doge for wholesome attitude. That clears all debts between us my good sir. Perhaps one day you can buy me a space beer on mars.
- once_inc 4y agoHeh, I applaud you, my friend! Let's meet up then, at the cantina of Marsbase!
- sylware 4y agoThe end is nigh: Mr. E. Musk was reasonable and sensible while talking about starship first flight, "if it goes far enough from the launch pad before something goes wrong, it will be a success".
- DennisP 4y agoHe's always set low expectations for test launches.
- cypress66 4y agoHe has always set (intentionally?) low expectations regarding launches.
- saberdancer 4y agoNot for Falcon 1. He said he believes they have 90% chance of a successful launch. After that they had 3 failed launches and company almost went bankrupt.
- nusaru 4y agoGood point. He probably learned his lesson (at least for launches) from that point on.
- Tepix 4y agoHe said the same for Falcon Heavy
- mcv 4y agoI like SpaceX Musk a lot more than Twitter Musk. It feels almost like this past year never happened.
- IG_Semmelweiss 4y agoThe average user knows what SpaceX is about, likely has heard the falcon 1 rocket achieved a milestone with rocket reuse after multiple successful launches. But, why this launch is so important? why so much is riding on this ?
- saberdancer 4y agoIt is the largest rocket in history and it is planned to be fully reusable. If SpaceX manage to make this work they will have a launch vehicle capable of launching much more mass to orbit which will open up space exploration.
- zozbot234 4y agoIt also provides us with a kind of access to space that we lost when the Space Shuttles were grounded. It's interesting that the Shuttle was considered a hugely wasteful boondoggle in its day and age, yet now a private profit-seeking enterprise is making something that's just as capable on a way bigger scale.
- agloe_dreams 4y agoI would argue that the Space Shuttle was mostly wasteful because it really wasn't that reusable. You had to fully refurbish the SRBs, you lose the tank, The Shuttles required a ton of refurbishment themselves, all for a rather small amount of mass to orbit.
- bryanlarsen 4y agoThe shuttle ended up having a cost of $1.5B per launch. Starship is aiming for a cost of $2M per launch. They'll likely miss that goal, but even missing by an order of magnitude will be a huge game changer. And obviously price will be very different from cost. We're looking at the cost of a tonne to orbit being similar to what a kg was during the shuttle era.
- adgjlsfhk1 4y ago
- compsciphd 4y agoI'm wondering what the term "launch window" is referring to here. When one is going somewhere in space, it makes sense to me, as one wants things to be lined up well for an efficiency (/possibility). i.e. the launch window is when we can get where we want to go, and if we launch outside of it, we wont be able to. But if one is just going up and going down without any real concern of going anywhere in specific, what does a launch window mean? I can imagine it perhaps has to do with having a "clear space" to launch, but that seems something much more flexible. I'm wondering what it means here?
- MPSimmons 4y agoAlso, keep in mind that this is an (almost) orbital launch, and that it's re-entering. In this case, it's re-entering just north of Hawaii, so there may be reasons in that region to limit the launch window.
- mabbo 4y agoAs others have said, scheduling no-fly zones on multiple locations (Starship will crash land near Hawaii), but also things like "we only have so much super chilled liquid oxygen and it's going to be boiling off". Tim Dodd's stream said a few minutes ago that once they get within 45 minutes of launch, they are either launching today or not for two more days, because by that point if you try to unload all the fuel and oxygen too much boils away and you need to bring in truckloads of it more for the next attempt. Space is hard.
- saberdancer 4y agoThey have to reserve airspace and "sea space" so no one can stumble under the path of a rocket which may explode. They have to empty the town nearby, close roads, etc. They also arranged a NASA plane to come and observe.
- BenoitP 4y agoCopying analysis/speculation from the reddit thread: - in the morning so they've got the maximum amount of daylight to deal with any possible outcome - 62mn max window duration is the limit for acceptable propellant boil off