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Starship Orbital Test Flight tomorrow morning! (17/4/23)

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Just thought of this now, I wonder if the RUD was actually the flight termination system kicking in. It seemed to be out of control as it was flipping a lot and it probably was no longer able to get back straight. Could maybe be an issue with terminating the engines too, as they never stopped when they should have. Either way I'm sure they're all looking at that data now to figure out what happened.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Just thought of this now, I wonder if the RUD was actually the flight termination system kicking in. It seemed to be out of control as it was flipping a lot and it probably was no longer able to get back straight. Could maybe be an issue with terminating the engines too, as they never stopped when they should have. Either way I'm sure they're all looking at that data now to figure out what happened.
Click to expand...

Looks like they triggered a self destruct on it. It was looping out of control and any thoughts of getting starship back or doing the partial booster return was dashed.
Probably for safety reasons.
 
did the 1st stage separate? I heard them say it didn't happen as scheduled and in the images, the 2nd stage rockets never appeared to start..
1681998930453.png
 
Red Squirrel said:
Just thought of this now, I wonder if the RUD was actually the flight termination system kicking in. It seemed to be out of control as it was flipping a lot and it probably was no longer able to get back straight. Could maybe be an issue with terminating the engines too, as they never stopped when they should have. Either way I'm sure they're all looking at that data now to figure out what happened.
Click to expand...

SpaceX uses a Automated Flight Termination System for it's launch vehicles that uses GPS for positioning. If the vehicle goes outside of a pre-programmed corridor the AFTS will activate and destroy the vehicle. It is all automated so even after the vehicle started flipping around it was still staying in corridor. I was surprised the vehicle held together, despite the flips. It appears only after several flips the vehicle left the corridor and then AFTS kicked on and destroyed the vehicle.
 
I was watching and the narrator said it was a planned self destruct . An official on another broadcast said "Starship just experienced what we call a rapid unplanned disassembly,"

I like that. A rapid unplanned disassembly. It blew up!
 
Brovane said:
I was surprised the vehicle held together, despite the flips.
Click to expand...
This should get some attention. The system is very well engineered (potentially overengineered, probably intentionally) to handle those kinds of stressors. I don't feel very concerned at nominal max-q if it could handle the G's it was taking during this without cracking in half.
 
Racan said:
No kidding 😲


With all these debris I'm surprised even more engines didn't fail.
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WTF, I don't understand how the engineers at SpaceX didn't anticipate something like this happening. Did Musk just over-rule them and say let it rip?
There is usually some type of damage to a tower for a large rocket launch, SLS did some damage to LC39B but it was basically superficial like doors to the elevator getting blown off etc.
 
Dis- assemble?


Sorry, Demo Lovers: The Joe Won't Implode Like the Silverdome
 
Brovane said:
WTF, I don't understand how the engineers at SpaceX didn't anticipate something like this happening. Did Musk just over-rule them and say let it rip?
There is usually some type of damage to a tower for a large rocket launch, SLS did some damage to LC39B but it was basically superficial like doors to the elevator getting blown off etc.
Click to expand...
Hmm, that could be the case.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1313952039869788173
 
Brovane said:
WTF, I don't understand how the engineers at SpaceX didn't anticipate something like this happening. Did Musk just over-rule them and say let it rip?
There is usually some type of damage to a tower for a large rocket launch, SLS did some damage to LC39B but it was basically superficial like doors to the elevator getting blown off etc.
Click to expand...
I don't understand how that crater didn't happen in static fire tests. Did they not fire at full power for some reason?
 
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