SpaceX (Vol. 2)

[louiechevy]

They plan to build at least two towers at pad 37, possibly four with two for launches and two for catching! They already have a built tower at 39A and are in the process of building the flame trench, launch mount and tank farm. They've also started work on another giga bay at the Cape with the ground cleared and the footings in already.

[Beati Dogu]

SpaceX are also leasing SLC-6 at Vandenberg after Delta IV operations ceased there too. Demolition and rebuilding is supposed to take place later this year.


Meanwhile, the 10th Starship flight is scheduled for June 29th. That’s just 33 days after the last one.

[Athlon]

Starship 36 exploded on the pad..

[louiechevy]

Ship 36 has exploded while undertaking a static test fire, huge fireball and fire at the test site

[dxg]

$10bn and 10 failures with V2 apparently.

[Pincher]

louiechevy said:

Ship 36 has exploded while undertaking a static test fire, huge fireball and fire at the test site

I read that it exploded before the static test - anyone else see that?

[louiechevy]

yes the actual test fire didn't take place, I meant it was there for a static fire and exploded while tanking, there's still a fire going at the moment.

[durbster]

I had thought SpaceX was fairly well protected from Musk these days but could Starship be SpaceX's Cybertruck, in that they had to compromise the engineering because the boss demanded certain things?

I know they blew up a lot of rockets before they nailed Falcon 9, but it always felt like they were moving forwards.

[Dog Star]

I’m beginning to wonder if there’s someone sabotaging these now.

[Arrivalist]

That was one hell of a fireball.

[Eric Mc]

Time for a serious, serious rethink about this whole programme.
And NASA really has to reassess their manned lunar programme.
I hope no one was hurt in that explosion.
I’ve just watched it and it just blew during tanking.
I’m sure the test facility has been badly damaged - if not totally destroyed.

[Eric Mc]

Dog Star said:

I m beginning to wonder if there s someone sabotaging these now.

No - it’s just obvious that it’s a flawed concept. And always has been.

[dxg]

Eric Mc said:

Time for a serious, serious rethink about this whole programme.
And NASA really has to reassess their manned lunar programme.
I hope no one was hurt in that explosion.
I ve just watched it and it just blew during tanking.
I m sure the test facility has been badly damaged - if not totally destroyed.

Has the favoured new head for NASA been announced? The guy that got de-announced the other week seemed to have had his head screwed on. Less community outreach and more actual spaceflight.

Connected?

[Eric Mc]

I doubt it.

The consistent failures of Starship are entirely due to the way the rocket is designed.

I really cannot see how they are going to get this thing to work.

This is a serious set back- probably more than the ones that occurred in flight.

I am sure the test facility has been badly damaged.

[Arnold Cunningham]

Especially since it doesn't appear to be plumbing that caught fire and escalated, it appears to be a catastrophic failure of the tank.

[Bear-n]

Slow-mo ka-boom

[Eric Mc]

Just watching some replays on NSF and they seem to have detected that the forward flaps had just been tested a split second before it went bang. There were two explosions - the upper tank went first followed a split second later by the lower tank.

Whether the movement of the forward flaps had a bearing on what then happened is obviously unknown at the moment.

Edited by Eric Mc on Thursday 19th June 09:30

Edited by Eric Mc on Thursday 19th June 09:31

[Arnold Cunningham]

Exactly. You can see the tank disintegrating before ignition

[Easternlight]

I see Honda are doing reusable rockets now.

[Peterpetrole]

I wonder of with all the new Starship pads being developed whether they are at the stage at looking at parallel development of integrating existing expendable upper stages, or at least the engine and fuel gubbins, as they must be sitting on loads of bigger version Starlink satellites ready to launch.