Community Chat

[MorningLover]

Some pics from Elon Musk twitter:

T-0 in 4 mins

Starship Liftoff

Starship Supersonic

First fully integrated Starship lifting off for the first time!

[gardenman]

There were a number of issues. The launch pad suffered severe damage and hurled debris that could have damaged the rocket. Five to eight of the 33 rockets failed in flight, possibly due to damage from the debris. The hydraulic power unit exploded thirty seconds into the flight and that made the rocket engines no longer steerable which is why it went off course. The separation of the stages is done hydraulically also and the hydraulic failure prevented the separation.

All in all, it was a good learning experience for the team. A big rethink/redesign of the launch pad is obviously necessary. Determining if the onboard failures (engines and hydraulic power unit) were due to design or damage from debris is important. In either case, it's fixable. Look back at early NASA failures for comparison. NASA spent 50 billion dollars to develop the Saturn V. Musk has spent a tenth of that on Starship.