SpaceX’s Starship slammed into the Indian Ocean after an uncontrolled reentry on its ninth test flight Tuesday. The Super Heavy booster, which was refurbished after a previous flight, was also lost in an explosion. Starship soared far beyond the Caribbean corridor over which two previous flights rained debris and disrupted air traffic. The rocket reached orbit and was setting up for reentry when attitude control was lost. “Leaks caused loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phase. Lot of good data to review,” said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
Although the flight was a big improvement over the previous two on some counts, it failed to achieve the primary objective of testing a new heat shield. The spacecraft was vented of all its propellants and allowed to fall into the recovery area out of control. The company intends to launch test flights every three to four weeks while it continues to develop the system, which SpaceX intends to eventually use for flights to Mars.
The mission failed. It went teets up. Who are you trying to fool.
The main goal was to test Starship’s heat shield on reentry. Instead, it lost control, tumbled, and slammed into the Indian Ocean. The Super Heavy booster also blew up. That’s two losses, no controlled reentry, no successful heat shield test.
But the report tries to dress it up with lines like “Starship reached space,” and “lots of good data to review.” That’s PR (read BS) speak. Sure, reaching space is something, but that wasn’t the mission. Acting like they scored a win because they collected data is like calling a blown engine test a success because you got to analyze the shrapnel.
SpaceX wants to launch every few weeks. Fine. But let’s not pretend this was anything more than another fiery loss, just a slightly more sophisticated one.
The real story?
Same rocket, new crater.
It seems to me that SpaceX is trying to do something completely new here; there are bound to be failures.
“Starship Reaches Space Before Falling In Ocean” as the headline of yesterday’s SpaceX misadventure should become exhibit A in journalism 101 of impotent, misleading headlining. Is someone at AvWeb groveling for a PR job at SpaceX?
Did it not reach space? Did it not fall into the ocean?
[And “Impotent” headlining?]
Maybe you can do better, Raf. If you aren’t failing, you aren’t doing anything.
Well, SpaceX could use the NASA/Boeing method. Spend billions of dollars over a couple decades, accomplish almost nothing, and then cancel the project. You know the methods used for the SLS and the Starliner.
At taxpayer expense. What a gig.
A few days ago I posted this message on another site…
“I have low expectations… changes-on-changes-on-changes-on-changes-etc… often result in ‘new unanticipated consequences’.”
But the jury is waiting for hard evidence… either way.
As a reminder… EVERY Saturn V launch 1960s/1970s was a mission success for the Launcher.
As I recall, S-IC & S-II BOTH lost 1-engine during their burn phases, different missions… but extending burn time for the remaining engines achieved the staging goals. The S-IVB stahe performed almost flawlessly. NO SATURN V FLIGHT was ever compromised by any element of the Saturn V launch vehicle… which was the intent of 1st & 2nd stage redundancy design.
Also, a side note… the Russians eventually asked NASA “why the Saturn V did not become the heavy lifter for NASA, due to it’s impressive flight record”?? NASA responded, simply, “S-V’s congressionally funded mission was completed… and the reusable Space Shuttle… it’s replacement… was already in preliminary design”. Cough.
Reaching space before falling into the ocean is not news. Alan Shepard did that back in 1961 and lived to tell the story. Failing to achieve primary mission goals is the headline of this recent Starship mission.
Raymo: “If you aren’t failing, you aren’t doing anything.”??
A nonsensical excuse to soften a failure.
“…demise a little bit.”
WOW! That has to be the quote of the month. Kinda like being slightly pregnant. Or, “It’s just a flesh wound!”.
Good thing it slam into Mumbai instead.
I guess Elon will be firing the director of the FAA again, or in this case the acting director.
Gotta just love the tripe we keep seeing in this section, e.g., firing the FAA Administrator.
While I’m a great supporter of SpaceX and look forward to every launch, I’m extremely disappointed that a leak could cause such a failure. What do they suppose the cause of the leak was. A bit of grit under a B-nut? Maybe someone missed tightening a connection? Maybe a 100% oxygen atmosphere and flammable components? Oh, that was Apollo I. Never mind. The “experts” in the comments section will surely come up with the cause.
Tesla sales are down. Gotta sink some more rockets at taxpayers expense…
Hey Jason, I think the taxpayer funded rockets are the Falcon 9 and they’re pretty much paying for themselves. And how are Tesla sales related? Oh, I get it, your current “enemy of the state” is involved. Sheesh…
With the repeated & various errors with Starship, I’m concerned there will be an error that causes innocent, unknowing people to lose their lives.
Well, if you have to explain a headline, it’s a bad headline but here goes. To me, the most important think is it didn’t rain debris over the Caribbean and that’s what the headline was supposed to convey. As headlines go, it was accurate and concise, which is part of the goal but it buried the lead for some folks.
How guilty, or knowledgable should they be in order to alleviate your concerns?
I would have thought my comment would have made that plain… They would be the highest authority to know that 1. MCAS was there, & 2. pilots didn’t know it was there.
This is a perfect example of government waste and fraud. He should close himself down!
Before the Saturn V there were 62 failures of Thor & Delta rockets, including a failure on the launch pad that spread radioactive plutonium around the area. And I’m not sure how the number of people who worked on development of the Saturn V compares to the the number working on Starship, but the Saturn V spent 6 years in development. And before it was the Saturn V it was called the Centaur-5.