Under 2 hours to launch, SpaceX report clear for propellant load which will start in next 15 minutes.

Hopefully the stuck valve problem will not recur.

Six engines out by MaxQ by the looks of it, a brave effort but what a mountain they've set themselves to climb.
The sheer scale of this project is awe-inspiring.
Vast improvement urgently required in the trite, trivial and banal commentary and that woman's dreadful unnecessary squawk-laugh.

success! Although ending in a 'rapid unscheduled disassembly' ...

The NSF feed is really good. No hysterics.
Also. Crikey! 😳

Boom..

That was really cool! Now they know what they need to work on next.

working explosive bolts.

That is definitely one thing. I would guess that keeping all the engines running is the first thing - seems like that led to low altitude and control problems.

I thought I saw the bolts trying to fire in the video. Clearly they didn't work!

Perhaps the tumble meant that the dynamics were not right for separation.

That seems very possible! I am sure they will have data to look at.

real shame about the actual outcome, fingers crossed for next time..as for:

I know what you mean...I turned off one feed because of the racket, went to the SpaceX feed and had to turn the sound off...

Bah Humbug - bring back commentary in the style of Jack King (that ages me) and the other old school NASA PAOs.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...llo-dies-at-84

On further viewing in slo-mo it seems that afer MaxQ there were a series of failures in the engine bay resulting in at least one thrust-plume or combustion jet ejecting way off the axis. I'd guess they had a series of big engine failures each triggering the next with debris/shockwave until enough damage was done to compromise the control system.
They'll learn. But I reckon it'll be a while before the next attenpt as those engines are clearly not up to scratch.
Early days yet. They'll get there, of that I have little doubt.
It seems Twatter has a useful purpose after all!

Really interested to see the ground under the stand. They’ve done an awful lot of work but don’t think the water deluge was working for this launch and spalling may have led to the loss of some of the engines.

The good news is the site is intact and they have several more Starships and boosters - with numerous incremental improvements - ready to roll-out to the launch pad.

No prolonged stand down periods for SpaceX programmes.

If the goal was to gather information, they now know what happens when it does somersaults,

I find it quite incredible that anyone can be so - er - imaginative as to thinking they could see explosive bolts fire (items maybe 20=30cm long?) in a video where a thing the size of a skyscraper is only wobbly-viewed in fuzzy full-frame from end-on...
As to how one can assume failure of a 'water deluge"... Do they have one? Where are the water towers? Not visble anyway. Isn't that why the stack is fired off a raised platform? And by what physics could debris possibly manage to return into an engine against that phasmagorical maelstrom of thrust? It's not as if it's an atmospheric engine breathing ambient air full of debris is it? Any debris from spalling concrete (which one would imagine the dimmest of SpaceX engineers would have thought of...) would simply be blown into the next county.
Sorry, just no.

Perhaps it would be helpful if watched the replay, and pay attention to the video from inside the rocket, between the booster and the second stage. There were a series of flashes around the perimeter about the time the guy was talking about stage separation. It may have not been the explosive bolts but I don't believe it was imaginative or incredible.

It was cool though!

Who left their car in that location ?

It's possible a photographer left the car there. There is a tripod with cameras that got blown over, so perhaps the car was being used as a camera platform. It's typical rocket launch operations allow photographers to place cameras at the launch site several days ahead of the launch and being in a car would protect from rain and critters. Just not so good against fist-sized chunks of concrete. Live and learn.

In Florida they don't even allow remote control of them - devices might sit for a week with the rocket on the launch pad and have to wake up and take the photos based on what they can detect at the time. SpaceX might have similar protocols.

Alternatively this is the last time that car owner fails to tip the valet.

It appears very much like an inability to orient the rocket as desired to get to stage separation - it seemed like the control system was hunting for the correct pitch, heading, and velocity and didn't get there. Perhaps this is either an Ariane V88-like software failure, possibly a sensor issue (which one was it that the IMU acceleration sensor was installed 180 degrees out?), or whatever engines were critical to stopping the reorientation weren't operating.

It's always a slight chance that crap got kicked up during the initial lighting to damage wiring or fuel/oxygen lines or nick some other critical piece. Sure, once all are lit and fully running not much will come back, but that startup is still violent.

I am very impressed that the structure held together through that maneuver. Most vehicles can't stand more than a couple of degrees off-axis before the column collapses.

I'm waiting for Scott Manley for details.

This reminds me a bit of when Oregon State DoT tried to remove a whale carcass with dynamite.

Yup - it was a camera platform.

At that launch site, Space X does not does not have a water acoustic trap or absorber like the Saturn 5 used. They also don’t have a flame trench, or so I have been told.

The space shuttle launches used to use an acoustic water trap (deluge) too.

Meanwhile, back at Rocket HQ…


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....07669f90e.jpeg

“Nasa tests out the water deluge system for its new Space Launch System (SLS). The Ignition Overpressure Protection and Sound Suppression (IOP/SS) system releases two million litres (450,000 gallons) during take-off to dampen the huge shockwaves and heat of a rocket launch. It has been in place since the Space Shuttle but has been upgraded for the SLS“

Elon Musk does not use it.

This is pretty good take on the test:

Congratulations SpaceX – The Laughing Wolf

Most of the early Falcon flights didn't land successfully - but they kept testing and figured it out. Now it's routine.
I have little doubt they'll figure this out as well.

Actually there is a deluge system around the launch mount. Also, in previous tests, debris from the pad has found it's way into the engine bay and damaged components.

Comrade Korolev couldn't make that many engines work in synchronicity either.
Personally - out of interest, test drove a Model 3 - very impressive performance, but still too expensive, and I don't need all that extra electronic frippery.
But there's no way you'd get me anywhere near any of his aerospace ventures as a passenger.
Absolutely knew that thing was going to blow up.
Crikey, it was even tilting and then gimballing to correct as it cleared the launch tower!

(my bold) errr... ;)

Were they even watching the footage, and if so did they know anything at all about rocketry? They seemed totally oblivious to the first flip, and when it went for its second they started talking about a "flip for stage separation".

I'm actually quite impressed at how robust the system was. Clearly experiencing multiple issues from an early stage with engines out, exhaust plumes that showed something other than fuel being burned, and exhaust plumes in strange directions, but the guidance system kept it pointing in the right direction for a long time regardless. Even when that couldn't cope, it managed 2 full loops without falling apart. That will have given them a lot more data, and stress-tested a lot more systems, than if someone had triggered the FTS as soon as things were obviously going wrong.

Will be very interested to see whether there were multiple independent failures or a single root cause (and if the latter, whether flying concrete was a major factor).

Seems to be a lot of spin going on!

It's obvious that they need to start building a flame trench, or the next launch will build it for them.

Well done Space X, a remarkable effort.

That could be a solution. Just launch five more and then point down: "See, it was there all along!"

There is a few seconds lag in the stream, compounded by the response time. I had a few streams up at the time and none were in sync.
Absolutely, most rockets disintegrate as soon as they get even a few degrees off plan. It looked like it was doing barrel rolls at one point. 😁
​​​​​​​I've seen one still from a video taken from the tower, it showed all engines running initially, other footage shows at least five engines down as it cleared the tower and then another four or five failures during ascent. Apparently one of the hydraulic power units let go big style too, causing slow directional control, which should be overcome on the next booster as they have changed to an electrical gimballing system.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....4658ed026.jpeg

Lots of changes in the pipeline. Booster 9, for example, also has armour around each raptor isolating them for their neighbours plus most are improved Raptor 2s. It also has a redesigned thrust puck for 13 inner engines instead of 9.

Where some of those chunks of concrete came from:

​​​​​​​

And where they went….

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/u...ust-texas.html

SpaceX’s Starship Kicked Up a Dust Cloud, Leaving Texans With a Mess

Residents of Port Isabel said that their city was covered in grime following SpaceX’s rocket launch on Thursday. The city said there was no “immediate concern for people’s health.”

Hole under the OLM (launch mount)

👀👀👀👀


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f8a44cf12.jpeg

They might need a new launch pad. Exactly what they had not wanted to happen. On a positive note this means more time to get the rocket right.

Maybe they should have considered that beforehand. Even their Falcon launches have flame trenches and water suppression systems.