SpaceX Mars rocket prototype explodes during test flight

[RussBLib]

Source: CNN

Austin, Texas(CNN Business)An experimental SpaceX rocket exploded at the end of a high-altitude test flight Tuesday, but heavy fog at the site left even SpaceX at least publicly uncertain about exactly what caused the explosion.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk did confirm the explosion on Twitter, though, saying "At least the crater is in the right place!"

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/30/tech/spacex-sn11-starship-test-flight-scn/index.html

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I live 6 miles from the launch site at Boca Chica. The fucker took off at 8am in a thick fog and my house started shaking. This, using only 3 Raptor engines. Ultimately, 28 Raptors are supposed to be used to achieve orbit.

[JohnSJ]

1. I am surprised they didn't wait until the fog burned off before the test

[turbinetree]

2. I am not surprized that Musk said this:

“Looks like engine 2 had issues on ascent & didn’t reach operating chamber pressure during landing burn, but, in theory, it wasn’t needed,” Musk tweeted on Tuesday, after SN11’s test flight. “Something significant happened shortly after landing burn start. Should know what it was once we can examine the bits later today.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-exploration-starship/spacex-starship-sn11-rocket-fails-to-land-safely-after-test-launch-in-texas-spacex-idUSKBN2BM25U

In theory it wasn't needed ..............I guess when you have three failures now, maybe it's time to go back and look at your theories ........because apparently there is a flaw and it could be fatal.......

[godfree2]

3. Musk is a hack, not an innovator

innovator

[mac2766]

26. Lol...

Elon Musk is one of the greatest human beings of our generation. The success of the Tesla automobile company against all odds - ALONE - should be enough to make that clear. Not to mention many other accomplishments.

I do agree that American space travel should be left to NASA. I'm also a person who believes that we're wasting way too much money and resources on space travel. The money could be spent to better serve humanity.

But Elon Musk is anything but a hack.

[MerryHolidays]

4. I'm not sure I am comfortable in handing large chunks of the US space program to private entities

Back in the 1960s, NASA worked with Boeing, North American Rockwell, Grumman, Rocketdyne etc to have its super successful projects like Mercury, Gemini, and the greatest of them all, Apollo. That was a great collaboration of the government and the private sector.

Then, NASA controlled the US space program. Today, I guess it's Elon Musk?

That's a far cry from the glory days of NASA. I am huge fan of a well-administered NASA, where the profit motive is not the motive, but the love of science and discovery. That's how we got Neil and Buzz, and several others, to the moon and back, and got Apollo XIII home safely. That's how something as amazingly complicated as the Mars Perseverance mission could land on Mars just a few weeks ago.

I am not sure SpaceX has anywhere near that capability.

[lagomorph777]

5. NASA and its contractors blew up lots of rockets early on.

Musk is developing a bigger rocket than the legendary Saturn V. This will take some time (and explosions).

[MerryHolidays]

6. True, but that was in the 1960s, when it had never been done before.

The Saturn V, the greatest rocket of them all, successfully completed all its mission. And it remains the ONLY rocket to carry humans outside of low Earth orbit, and all of them safely.

We're talking about 1960s technology that was able to accomplish so much. It is a real shame that Richard Nixon etc. took their collective foot off the pedal of the US space program in 1970. As a result, our folks (and all folks) have not done more than an Earth orbital mission since 1972.

I like the fact that we have heroes like Neil and Buzz, etc. Somehow, there is something very different when things are privatized so that a principal qualification to become an astronaut is how much you can pay.

We've messed Earth up so much...I hope we don't do so with space. SpaceX's launch of a Tesla and "Rocketman" to orbit Mars is an example of what space exploration has become. Perseverance is an example of what it could still be.

[aggiesal]

8. " ... when things are profitized ...", there I fixed it ...

I with you on SpaceX.
I have friends who went to work in the LA facility.

Private companies like SpaceX will not have the protections that NASA had to work with to make this a safe and successful venture.

I worked for Dan Goldin for 3.5 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Goldin

The NASA stories he would tell me were purely interesting and entertaining.
He had all kinds of NASA photos hanging on his wall at work.

[ripcord]

10. Without SpaceX we would be at the mercy of Russia

[ForgoTheConsequence]

11. And with SpaceX

We're at the mercy of a science-denying, egotistical, anti-union, walking example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Why do so many "liberals" like this conservative shit stain?

[MerryHolidays]

12. That's precisely my point

Nixon basically slowed down the progress of the US space program in 1970, and it's a shame.

I cannot believe that the US does not currently have a human-rated launch vehicle. That NEVER should have happened, and it cannot rest in the hands of any private company. Space is far too important to cede it to private companies.

[ripcord]

23. Private space companies are the goal of our space program

President Obama set us on this path in 2010 and it is going just as planned for private companies to be the future of space travel and industry.

[MerryHolidays]

24. If we're fine with privatizing everything, then no worries

The problem is that some things, like prisons, space, etc, should not be EXCLUSIVELY in the hands of the private sector. That's just nuts. A PPP or private-public partnership is fine. Exclusively in the hands of the private sector is not.

[ripcord]

25. Practicality was one part of the equation

There is no way the government could have got us back into space in the time frame and at the cost at which private companies did. We are going to see a lot of private industry in space especially at first as mining will be a major part of expansion out of our immediate area and the government is not going to put up the funds if they can get private companies to do it for them. Don't be surprised if there is as much or more private expansion into space with the blessings of NASA and our government.

[speak easy]

22. What Musk is attempting has never been done before either.

A High Altitude flip

[aggiesal]

7. 6 miles would be Port Isabel or South Padre Island ...

I'm not a SpaceX fan.

[OnlinePoker]

9. This is why SpaceX bought two former oil rigs.

Once they're retrofitted, the intention is to launch the rockets from these out at sea to keep the disruption to humans to a minimum.

[RussBLib]

13. I wish he would hurry up

Each explosion seems worse than the one before. This time debris was scattered over a rather wide area.

[truthisfreedom]

14. Elon's doing things that have never been done. A couple of failures that hurt absolutely nobody

happen and suddenly everyone's a rocket scientist and they all know better.

Go soak your collective heads. Without failure, there is no innovation. Every single one of you poo-pooing Elon is just another anti-technology reactionary.

[MerryHolidays]

16. I have NO idea what you're talking about

No one is anti-science...the issue is keeping science in the hands of Elon Musk, when it was so much better in the hands of NASA.

NASA has done EVERYTHING SpaceX has done an infinite times over.

"Go soak your own collective heads"? My, oh my.....

[truthisfreedom]

18. You're projecting. NASA loves Elon. They have no interest in doing what he's taking over.

That's why they support him.

[MerryHolidays]

21. If anyone's projecting, it's you

I have absolutely no care about a private company. NASA has long used prime contractors like Boeing, Lockheed, IBM etc. That's all SpaceX should be: a contractor to NASA. Nothing more. I hope that President Biden will see the insanity of letting private companies run our space program.

It is extremely scary that the US does not have a human-rated space launch vehicle.

Elon Musk is not exactly in the league of these folks who were NASA Administrators, who took the US space program to, literally and figuratively, unparalleled heights. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_administrators_and_deputy_administrators_of_NASA

[Mr.Bill]

15. For some perspective,

read the first few chapters of The Right Stuff. People forget how much stuff we blew up and how many test pilots we buried in the 50s before our successes in the 60s.

[MerryHolidays]

17. Yup, and the point is that these successes were in the 1960s

That's more than 50 years ago.

I do not want the future of the US space program in the hands of a private company.

[Mr.Bill]

19. Neither do I.

If for no other reason, no matter how successful they are, they can be bought by a foreign entity, break up themselves, merge with another company, etc.

[truthisfreedom]

20. Ask NASA what they want.