Starship Flight Test...1st Attempt.

Second try coming right up. Video seems youtubed only

 

Looks like the illudium Q-36 space modulator did its thing. Nice footage anyway!

 

plume visible on doppler

 

Looking forward to buying some cheap TSLA stock over the next few weeks.

Bob Wilson

 

I did see that at least one engine successfully restarted mid-flight, when the on-screen engine indicator went from 6 out, to just 5.

It sure seemed to leave the launchpad far too slow for anything post-SaturnV. The moment the engine indicator icon appeared on screen, 3 were already not running, producing less thrust than needed. It seemed that a lot of fuel continued exiting non-burning engines. And yet the announcers said everything was 'nominal'.

When the vehicle started going end over end, they still talked as if this 'flip' was part of the flight plan. But I guess none of this crew was yet born 60-ish years ago when other rocket launch attempts produced many films of various sorts of spectacular failures, before we finally achieved orbital success.

I did notice that it took a very long time for the range safety officer to hit the destruct button. But this delay certainly did help them harvest a lot more test data, which was the real purpose of this launch.

 

Per the stream, the raptor engines are started in phases, rather than all at once.
I am not certain how long that delay is, or if that is what led to the delay at launch.

There was supposed to be a ‘flip’. I am sure it wasn’t supposed to be a triple flip though

Overall, a great success and wonderful data gathering opportunity.

 

I did not watch the engine-o-meter consistently through the flight. I did see that four were out very early on.

Later, I did see an engine re-light... but that brought the downer count to 4. I'd missed seeing a 5th drop.

Then it started breakdancing, which was 50% spectacle and 50% rangemaster a lil late on the key I think.

I understand this to be a company-owned launch facility, so that rangemaster will have been told to wait for the absolute last moment they could plausibly get away with, in the hopes of gathering more telemetry.

Gotta be careful where you park during these things:

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Also, an unusual crossover with The Boring Company- faster tunneling method:

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Judging from the FCC flight plan, stage separation was intended to happen at T+171 seconds, 2 seconds after main engine cut off, and before the vessel started turning around. The first stage was at least going to go through some of the motions of returning for a touchdown for re-use, before dumping into the Gulf a ways offshore from the launch site.

I'm now guessing that the 'flip' was part of the first stage's planned return maneuvering, but the upper portion was never intended to still be attached at that point. Other than for a circus show during a test to intentional destruction, no one would ever intentionally flip an upper stage and payload during launch, before reaching safe orbit.

 

seems like an odd turn of phrase, no?

AFAIK, it is the FAA who would care about a flight plan. The FCC only cares about the radio emissions involved in the activity.

So... I think that's just conceptual artwork and not any kind of flight plan, but that said I still like your explanation for the specific maneuvers it attempted.

 

I'd asked Ms Google for a flight plan, and that is what initially popped up, and the brain initially read FAA, not FCC. So some edits were necessary.

The FAA has a much larger page, but I haven't yet sifted through to see if it shows what I wanted:
SpaceX Starship Super Heavy Project at the Boca Chica Launch Site | Federal Aviation Administration

 

My thought during tumbling was that telemetry would be hard to collect during. Based on presumption that telemetry antennas were aimed in the notional direction of down. That may not be correct.

The support will need some repair:

 

I do like the term "rapid unscheduled disassembly".

 

Failure of adjacent engines suggest bad teamwork, not revealed in earlier 30-second hot-fire test. Their 99+% reliability comes from standalone testing.

Starship's 33 fire circle differs from Falcon's 9 or even big Falcon's tree nines in a row. Damage to supporting structure may be getting up to engines in a harmful way.

Near-shore Gulf of Mexico now holds interesting Raptor engine debris. After the RUD, the FTS, recovering that stuff may or may not be revealing. But it might be recovered from not-so-deep waters.

Anyway, Musk suggests another try after 2 months. Six months might be a closer estimate.

 

I'm old enough to remember:


GOOD, FAST, CHEAP - they picked FAST and CHEAP.

Bob Wilson

 

Here I try to anticipate later Starship tests, and others might do differently. Boca Chica TX needs much better ground protection. It will be built, and next Starship will be more than 2 months later, maybe much more.

If that Starship test still also hurls damaging debris upward to Starhip engines, Boca Chica site will be essentially abandoned. It was always small maybe too small for this. Musk Starship will move to Florida. Or maybe barge launches that are speculative now.

Keep in mind that Musk Starship plans would seek to make ~100 launches per year. No 'under', not anywhere nohow, could handle the battering we saw just this week, so multiplied. Starships may show themselves competent but they will go only when suitable floors are developed.