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Mostly agree with your positive conclusions- but I can’t help thinking about the poor judgement re the known weaknesses of the launchpad. The concrete was nowh
by garyclarke27 3y ago
Mostly agree with your positive conclusions- but I can’t help thinking about the poor judgement re the known weaknesses of the launchpad.
The concrete was nowhere near strong enough to withstand that much thrust - thousands of lumps of flying concrete are obviously going to damage the engines, they were lucky that none of them pierced the fuel tanks
- nickpp 3y agoElon chimed in on Twitter: 3 months ago, we started building a massive water-cooled, steel plate to go under the launch mount. Wasn’t ready in time & we wrongly thought, based on static fire data, that Fondag would make it through 1 launch. Looks like we can be ready to launch again in 1 to 2 months. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1649523985837686784?s=20 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1649523985837686784?s=20
- HarryHirsch 3y agoOK Elon, they used flame trenches since Gemini. Why did you not start building one 6 months ago, then it would have been ready in time for the launch?
- 19870213 3y agoFrom what I understand, when they plan to land on the Moon or Mars, they won't have a flame trench setup (on the Moon/Mars), so it needs to be able to land and take off from the ground.
- localplume 3y ago[dead]
- nunuvit 3y agoYeah but there's a huge difference between fully loaded in earth's gravity and (a smaller stage) partially empty in less gravity.
- ilyagr 3y agoMoon or Mars would only get the second stage of the starship, with 9 engines (was it?), not the super-heavy with dozens. So, it's okay to only have the flame trench on Earth.