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Vehicle is all solid 3-staged. Explosion ~5s into flight, right after immediate pitchover. Reportedly company explained that onboard auto FTS activated accordin

Vehicle is all solid 3-staged. Explosion ~5s into flight, right after immediate pitchover. Reportedly company explained that onboard auto FTS activated according to local media. Post-launch conference is/was currently planned 13:30 JST(0430 UTC). No more information for now. e: conference now re-scheduled to 14:00(0500 UTC), 3p live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F5dHsgBMMU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F5dHsgBMMU

WalterBright 3y ago
> Vehicle is all solid 3-staged. I once embarked on an R&D program to make a 2-stage rocket out of bottle rockets. I'd tape the second engine under the first, and the first's fuse midway along the 2nd's fuse. Then light the lower engine's fuse. It was nothing but explosion after explosion, the top engine would never ignite, or sometimes fall to earth and then ignite. But being a Certified Rocket Scientist, I doggedly soldiered on. Finally, success!! The rocket rose up about 10 feet till the lower engine was exhausted, then the top engine ignited! Woo-hoo! It launched skyward another 10 feet before exploding. I was never able to duplicate that stupendous success. I bet Musk could have made it work reliably!
- qingcharles 3y ago
  Estes rocket motors always supported multi-staging. I made a ton of many-stage rockets as a kid. In fact, that was probably the biggest development -- how many ridiculous stages could I chain into one rocket? https://estesrockets.com/products/mongoose https://estesrockets.com/products/mongoose
numpad0 3y ago
update: Conference is now over. Not much technical statements than "FTS was activated ~5s, all debris/damages localized to company property, we're investigating". No immediate change of plans for flights 2 and 3 - first time asked the answer was worded like "we transport customer assets, missions are theirs", but the second one sounded like "no we're not paying out of pocket for an RTF dummy flight"(both my interpretation).
beej71 3y ago
FTS == Flight Termination System.
- stephenitis 3y ago
  I appreciate this

WalterBright 3y ago

> Vehicle is all solid 3-staged. I once embarked on an R&D program to make a 2-stage rocket out of bottle rockets. I'd tape the second engine under the first, and the first's fuse midway along the 2nd's fuse. Then light the lower engine's fuse. It was nothing but explosion after explosion, the top engine would never ignite, or sometimes fall to earth and then ignite. But being a Certified Rocket Scientist, I doggedly soldiered on. Finally, success!! The rocket rose up about 10 feet till the lower engine was exhausted, then the top engine ignited! Woo-hoo! It launched skyward another 10 feet before exploding. I was never able to duplicate that stupendous success. I bet Musk could have made it work reliably!

qingcharles 3y ago
Estes rocket motors always supported multi-staging. I made a ton of many-stage rockets as a kid. In fact, that was probably the biggest development -- how many ridiculous stages could I chain into one rocket? https://estesrockets.com/products/mongoose https://estesrockets.com/products/mongoose

numpad0 3y ago

update: Conference is now over. Not much technical statements than "FTS was activated ~5s, all debris/damages localized to company property, we're investigating". No immediate change of plans for flights 2 and 3 - first time asked the answer was worded like "we transport customer assets, missions are theirs", but the second one sounded like "no we're not paying out of pocket for an RTF dummy flight"(both my interpretation).

beej71 3y ago

FTS == Flight Termination System.

stephenitis 3y ago
I appreciate this