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
      554·
      7 months 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·
        7 months 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·
          7 months 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·
            7 months 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
              5·
              7 months 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@sh.itjust.works
              32·
              7 months 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.

      • llamacoffee@lemmy.world
        14·
        7 months ago

        It blew up about 3000 km/hr short of orbit, so thankfully all of it has burned up in Earth’s atmosphere already :)