SpaceX Starship lands upright, then explodes in latest test

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MARCIA DUNN

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX’s futuristic Starship looked like it aced a touchdown Wednesday, but then exploded on the landing pad with so much force that it was hurled into the air.

The failure occurred just minutes after SpaceX declared success. Two previous test flights crash-landed in fireballs.

The full-scale prototype of Elon Musk’s envisioned Mars ship soared more than 6 miles (10 kilometers) after lifting off from the southern tip of Texas on Wednesday. It descended horizontally over the Gulf of Mexico and then flipped upright just in time to land.

The shiny bullet-shaped rocketship remained intact this time at touchdown, prompting SpaceX commentator John Insprucker to declare, “third time’s a charm as the saying goes” before SpaceX ended its webcast of the test.



In this image from video made available by SpaceX, one of the company's Starship prototypes fires its thrusters as it lands during a test in Boca Chica, Texas, on Wednesday, March 3, 2021. SpaceX’s futuristic Starship looked like it aced a touchdown Wednesday, but then exploded on the landing pad with so much force that it was hurled into the air. The failure occurred just minutes after SpaceX declared success. (SpaceX via AP)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/spacex-elon-musk-mars-9c93e49fdc17dc98dcfc82120f3f117f

[Miguelito Loveless]

1. Closer each time.

I don’t know if I would want the job of inspecting the rocket after touchdown. I feel like I would be starring in a real life Wile E. Coyote cartoon

[dalton99a]

2. Oh well

[Warpy]

3. Amazingly, it studk the landing for about 10 minutes or so

The landing frame either didn't deploy or got crushed. There was a small fire that was put out by auto fire suppression, but gas continued to vent and it went boom.

They're getting really close with this one, real Buck Rogers stuff.

[lagomorph777]

16. Until hours later, I thought everything was fine.

They stopped the stream a few minutes after landing; I thought that was that. Then later, saw the videos pop up with the explosion.

I noticed two things during the live stream:

(1) At about T+1:05, something started venting in large quantity, near the tail.
(2) After landing, a fire on the ground next to the vehicle. They started spraying water at it. Announcer made no mention of it.

I am guessing the two things are connected.

Incidentally, that shot just before landing, as it flips vertical and blasts its engines toward the camera, is just epic and cinematic.

[SunSeeker]

4. Yikes. Good thing it's unmanned.

Elon, you gotta work on quality control. At Tesla too.

[truthisfreedom]

6. Tesla has amazing quality control. All of these prototype Starships are experiments.

He's making an omelette and you're complaining about broken eggs.

[SunSeeker]

11. Tesla used to have amazing quality control. No more. Google "Tesla quality control."

Last edited Thu Mar 4, 2021, 05:46 AM - Edit history (1)

You'll see what I'm talking about:
https://www.motortrend.com/news/tesla-model-y-ev-safety-quality-issues-problems/

The original Model S had great quality control. But as Elon ramped up production, expanded to different models and tried to make things cheaper, quality has suffered greatly, particularly fit and finish.

Elon has also gotten a lot more arrogant over the years. As any engineer will tell you, that's a recipe for disaster. You have to be humble and assume the worst, and engineer for it.

[truthisfreedom]

12. Do you own a Tesla? I do.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

14. You might address the poster's points by

... saying if you have an S or not.

... by saying if you purchased your Tesla early on or later.

In any case, even if a company has a 50% complaint rate (far higher than Tesla, I think), there will still be thousands of satisfied happy customers. Anecdotal data is not data, just anecdotes.

[truthisfreedom]

5. Elon calls this RUD. Rapid unscheduled disassembly.

[Polybius]

7. We really, really are a long way from Star Wars technology

Why can’t the engineers figure this out?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. Actually, ... people use rocket science as a metaphor because it is, you know, like difficult. . .nt

[William Seger]

8. What a coincidence -- the same thing happened to Trump at QPAC

[DanieRains]

10. Trump Looked Like He Was Sleep Lying

Or something.

[GReedDiamond]

9. BLNT...

...(Better Luck Next Time).

[bucolic_frolic]

15. The crash landings are epic

Metaphor for TSLA? Because, you know, valuations.

[eggplant]

17. Rocket science is hard

We cheer when a plane successfully lands without its landing gear. This is a prototype and is expected to have issues. Each one of these things they light off is better than the last.

How many Falcon 9 rockets have been launched and reused? Landing them on drone ships in the ocean? The first few missed or fell off or what have you. Nowadays, their success is barely mentioned.

Just wait until they start building and testing the Super Heavy booster. Those will be some big explosions.

[mdbl]

18. I don't know about anyone else but,,

I am not going to even consider going into space unless the vehicle I am in can't double as a bomb.