rocket landing off of Hawaii

[leilanidude]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1647...Ol2d4tAAAA

Above is Musk's twitter feed.

Launch was scrubbed due to some sort of propellant valve being frozen.

[SBH]

Looks like Musk is going to light it up on 4/20, tomorrow morning at 3:28 HST, 8:28 CT, coverage starts at 2:45 am our time and there’s a launch window of about an hour.

https://www.youtube.com/live/-1wcilQ58hI?feature=share

[SBH]

Launch a success but three of the 33 raptor engines failed to ignite and there was no booster separation so I assume they terminated the mission when it didn’t stop spinning so it won’t be “landing” near Hawaii.

---

Musk choked on that first hit.

[terracore]

"SpaceX's first attempt at launching its enormous, powerful Starship on an uncrewed test flight in space exploded in a fiery blast over the Gulf of Mexico as it tried to reach orbit Thursday...During the test flight, the colossal booster was supposed to separate from the rocket about three minutes after liftoff from SpaceX's launch site in South Texas close to the Mexican border, then drop into the Gulf of Mexico. The ship would fly in space around Earth at an altitude of over 150 miles, then splash down off the Hawaiian coast about 1.5 hours later.

Instead, the rocket never separated and continued to flip. Some debris plummeted into the ocean after it exploded on its descent, just four minutes after liftoff. You can watch the ordeal, from ignition to explosion, here, starting at 44:54

With the spacecraft flying empty and exploding over the ocean, no people appeared to be harmed by the spectacular blast. Immediately after the crash, SpaceX referred to the incident on Twitter as a "rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation."

"We cleared the (launch) tower, which honestly, was our only hope," said Kate Tice, a quality systems engineering manager for SpaceX, during the live launch broadcast.

Thunderous applause sounded from employees watching the test within Starbase, cheering for the accomplishment, despite the loss of the rocket.

Thursday's orbital flight test was supposed to be a crucial demonstration of hardware NASA will depend on to get humans back on the moon in the next few years. The space agency has a $4 billion contract with SpaceX to use Starships to land astronauts on the moon during Artemis III and IV, two upcoming missions that could come as early as 2025 and 2028, respectively. As part of the deal, the company will need to conduct a successful uncrewed test flight to the moon beforehand.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson congratulated SpaceX on the bold effort Thursday, stating that great achievements through history have demanded "some level of calculated risk."

The next try at the launch pad will likely happen in a few months, Musk said in a tweet.

The disastrous test comes three days after SpaceX waived off its first attempt Monday, citing a pressure issue in the first stage of the rocket. The team then seamlessly transitioned launch operations into a countdown rehearsal and stopped the clock just prior to ignition. After an investigation, engineers determined the problem was a frozen pressure valve. SpaceX officials later announced they'd be ready to try again Thursday, April 20.

https://www.youtube.com/live/-1wcilQ58hI?feature=share

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

"We cleared the (launch) tower, which honestly, was our only hope," 

Because the launch tower didn't rapidly disassemble, SpaceX can (relatively) quickly move the next rocket (already assembled) into place for the next test flight.

[Ccat]

I was actually at the Starships first launch this morning on South Padre Island..

Quite spectacular! But shortly after launch, it started flying in a weird spiral and then did a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" ie it exploded and crashed into the gulf of mexico.

It looked like, early on, that some engines weren't working which has been a long running problem.

BTW, 33 engines make a phenomenal loud sputtering, booming sound and releases a noticeable pressure wave which carries intense heat for miles. I was 3 miles away across the water and the heat release was like standing in a commercial pizza kitchen next to the ovens for 5 minutes or so. I thought of nuclear war for an instant.

It definitely was historic.

Ccat

[kalianna]

Ccat, thanks for eyes on the ground report.

[dobanion]

From the video I watched, it looked like it was supposed to do a very trickey controlled 180 before stage seperation. That's a monumental feat, which I think they will get right, eventually. Traditional rockets just drop the stages behind them as they go.

However, in this case, it didn't stop at 180, it just kept going, started cartwheeling, and essentially flew apart.

[TomK]

From the video I watched, it looked like it was supposed to do a very trickey controlled 180 before stage seperation. That's a monumental feat, which I think they will get right, eventually. Traditional rockets just drop the stages behind them as they go.

However, in this case, it didn't stop at 180, it just kept going, started cartwheeling, and essentially flew apart.

It was going to do a maneuver but not when the main-stage rockets were still firing and certainly not a 180-degree maneuver at that point - it would mean firing the second stage back where it came from and all that would do is drop it in the ocean very quickly.

[dobanion]

Sorry if I wasn't clear. The rocket was supposed to flip 180, separate, then the booster would go do "it's thing" for touchdown. I didn't mean the booster was going to stop and reverse it's already well established velocity. Inertia's a bitch.

If SpaceX has outlined their plans, I haven't read them. I'm just reading into what I saw and my rudimentary understanding of physics. I'd guess the booster was supposed to get clear, then slow itself down using the main engines so it'd descend back into atmosphere on a lower trajectory, then use the last of it's fuel to allow it to touchdown in a controlled fashion.

I was also reading the sounds of the folks at SpaceX. You could hear them in the video. Everybody got reaaaaaaaaal quiet when it flipped then didn't stop. I took that to mean "oh crap, that wasn't supposed to happen." About 6 somersaults later, one guy finally said "obviously, this isn't nominal."

Lastly, it looks now (that we have pictures), that the launch pad got proper ****ed and a quick retry with the second rocket isn't happening soon.

I'm not detracting BTW, this is how it goes. Stuff's gonna get wrecked, mistakes will be made, and lessons will be learned. Keep going SpaceX. And thank the stars that it isn't NASA doing this with my tax money.