6mo ago

It was a fuel leak. Someone didn't tighten something all the way.

www.space.com

SpaceX Starship explosion likely caused by propellant leak, Elon Musk says

It's their 7th launch and they're still fighting issues with keeping the fuel where it should be. Elon has successfully created a machine that can kill any number of astronauts in sub-orbit and land to do it all over again. How is anyone not getting this? I'll never forgive him for taking back intellect on space travel to the 1950's .

25 comments

There are plenty of legitimate reasons to hate Musk. Bashing spacex's safety isn't one of them, because falcon 9 has the best safety record in the history of orbital launchers. They launch astronauts all the time, and have never had a single mishap in a manned flight. They're even the people who are going to rescue the astronauts stranded by Boeing's screw-up, which I suspect makes them the only spaceflight organisation which is going to have safely landed more people than they launched.
Also, a fuel leak doesn't imply something wasn't fastened correctly. If that were the case it would have been leaking on the launch pad. Much more likely something was damaged by vibration or heat during the flight
- Also, a fuel leak doesn’t imply something wasn’t fastened correctly. If that were the case it would have been leaking on the launch pad. Much more likely something was damaged by vibration or heat during the flight
  Two words: Dynamic load
  Also Falcon =/= Starship. They demonstrated true excellence with that one, it's even more amazing they're floundering on this one, and by such a low bar.
  
  Dynamic load on the plumbing connections, where loads will be dominated by hydrostatic pressure, leading to a failure near the end of a burn when there weren't any engines starting or stopping to generate transient pressures? Not likely.
  And they really aren't foundering. They're trying to do something very difficult, which nobody has ever achieved before, and losing the some of the first handful of rockets each time they try to crack a major new milestone is entirely within expectations. They've been deliberately weakening parts of the vehicle specifically to push it to the very limit, which doesn't sound like the strategy of a team which is worried about blowing a few of them up.
  Since someone is likely to point out the space shuttle, I'll point out in return that people at the time were proudly proclaiming that it was the most complex machine ever to fly (by which they meant, "most distinct parts") as if that were an achievement rather than a monumental failure of engineering. It tried to do what Starship is trying to do, and it failed.
  
  And how did falcon get to where it is today?
  
  Comparing a now well tested design with a great track record to a still experimental design that's trying to push the limits isn't really fair. It would be more valid if Space-X had decided to stop at a certain point and declare it good for operation and had lost a few payloads. That's not what's happening.
- Does landing more people than they've launched mean they get a bit of a buffer? You can lose a couple and still be at 100% people returned.
Space flight just isn't as interesting when it's for profit.
“Elon musk says.”
I’ll wait for independent verification.
I've been saying for years now that SpaceX is a horrible company, just like all other Musk companies. Awesome to see that so many other people are seeing Musk for what he is: a scammer
why tho… why would they do an article on a guess by the ceo guy… thats so weird in this context
- Dont ask questions to a grifter, just see the grift. Whatever actually blew it up was way worse. Now that he's set the record tho, it doesn't matter. It HAD to be him.
Wasn't this meant to bring back those stranded astronauts next month? Guess they better they extend their travel insurance. Good thing Elon doesn't have a history of fishing for publicity with bold statements and little follow through.
- No, that's a different and largely unrelated rocket.
  The one which will be bringing back the astronauts is literally the rocket with the best track record in history, and usually flies at least once a week.
  This explosion was a prototype for a new rocket, which has only been sent to space a handful of times
  
  Please forgive the naive question
  If it goes every week, why does it need to wait to go get them? I'm thinking it has to do with something like flight plans, but I have no idea
- This until people stop getting grifted.
- Wikipedia tells me the Saturn V development cost, in 2023 dollars, was about 50 billion. Starship, as of 2023, cost about five billion.
  These are test flights. They are done to find problems. They will fail. It's a totally different approach to the Apollo program.
  
  They literally are blowing up rockets like there is no tomorrow and call it "a process", and then there are guys like you who literally believe that crap.
  SpaceX still hasn't been able to come to even 10% of what the Saturn V has done, and they have the knowledge of the Saturn V, they have computational power that is beyond what the Saturn V Engineers could even dream of, they have the newer and better materials, they have the newer and better construction method, they have all the countless advantages that the Saturn V engineers didn't have.
  And what do they do? Blow up a launch pad because adding a flame diverter would be too expensive. Blow up a banana over the Indian ocean. Blow up rocket after rocket, and APPLAUDE AND CHEER, like WTF? They set goals of *getting off the launchpad, anything else is extra"
  This is what billions of tax payer dollars has given you, the guy who will be in charge of government efficiency, lol
  Meanwhile there is blue origin too and oh look, no boom! It. Just. Worked.
  elon musk is a scammer

25 comments