Rocket Report: Starship fails for a second time; what’s to blame for Vulcan delays?

"During Starship's ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly."

See full article...

 

[ringobob]

It's deeply offensive to compare the deaths of over 6 million people to someone whose tweets you don't fully agree with sometimes

Oh, give your performative outrage a rest. It's not offensive to call a Nazi a Nazi. Whether that Nazi is actually Hitler, or merely someone who actively boosts the ideology today, as Musk has.

It's not that I disagree with Musk. It's that I disagree with Nazis, and Musk has put himself squarely in their camp.

 

[ringobob]

A majority of people disagree with you completely. Yes you are annoying.

Is this "majority of people" in the room with us right now?

 

[bp_968]

Incidentally said person is backpedaling furiously from the job slashing he was revelling in a few days ago: trying to avoid the backslash as services break down. Which suggests that he may be starting to feel the pain.

​

Edit: the quote from Darkest Dungeon comes to mind: These nightmarish creatures can be felled! They can be beaten!

Politics aside, RIP Wayne June. What an absolute legend.

 

[Flitzpiepe]

I seem to remember actual military analysts (especially after German surrender) that Hitler actually DID get into individual battle plans towards the end - and that was one of the major reasons Germany lost WWII.

Might have been an accelerator to the inevitable loss. There was nothing the Third Reich could have done to turn around its fortunes. Which was a good thing, Hitler and his fanatics brought death and pain and destruction never seen before to the world and in the end to their own lands.
And it all started by vilifying a large chunk of their own population.
Does that sound vaguely similar to current developments?

 

[Crolis]

Does that include resupply missions to ISS?
Remember, we're not the only ones with bodies up there.

If SpaceX is the only company that can handle it, retrieve our people and be done with it. It's not that fucking hard. I don't want a Nazi getting my taxpayer money. I don't want a Nazi succeeding. Until he sells the company in disgrace, that's how it's going to be. If that hurts the space industry or space advancement it's a small price to pay.

 

[Nafun]

Perhaps if he slashes the SpaceX workforce in, oh, let's say about half, that will improve efficiency and make the rocket perform better. No need to think about it or anything, just do it and see what happens. Really, this is all the rage among management these days.

 

[blackhawk887]

Re Spacex: Note that the chopsticks swiveled way off to one side to catch the booster. Can we assume that was nominal and intended?

Yes. There are radar sensors mounted on the chopsticks that measure the location of the booster as it comes in, so the chopsticks can adjust to the actual booster location. It doesn't need to come in exactly in the center.

 

[Sjoerd Verweij]

Imo the fundamental concept was proven with the V1's successful flight

I totally read that as a different V1, you know, the pulsejet version that only went to London?

Context is a hell of a thing...

 

[MedicalGeek]

US companies are rapidly becoming as unrealiable as the government.

US companies fear the consequences if they don’t fall in line. They’re cooperating in the hope that will reduce the risk that they will be coerced to fall in line.

 

[Sjoerd Verweij]

It sure looked like a Nazi salute to me. Still, I cannot get on board with reveling in the engineering failures of others. Can we take a more principled approach to fighting back?

All 8 of my grandparents (law and blood) who went through WWII would definitely agree that we need to take a more principled approach to fighting back against fascists. It would involve a dark alley and a .22.

 

[markgo]

I debated long and hard about interjecting myself in this comment free for all but I find it curious that all bad things on Earth are attributed to Musk and the above comment is one of them.

Sure he is a idiot and doing a lot of harm right now but he is not responsible for all of the toxic trash that is thrown into the waters of the world. You all must be forgetting that yes his shit blew up but I would bet on a pound for pound basis that any other rocket company throws more poundage of waste in the water than SpaceX. I mean sure they deorbit the second stages but everyone else throws a complete first stage away every time which is tons more materials than SpaceX I mean how much does SLS mass when its discarded in the ocean? How about Ariane 6? Chinas multitude of long march rockets? Also the Gulf of Mexico has a huge cruise ship industry and do you know how much raw sewage they dump into the ocean every year? Get over yourselves one man does not destroy the earth it has been an ongoing endeavor by lots of people and countries.

The level of bile and vomit that spew from both sides of the political spectrum right now makes me sick. Neither side is innocent of anything and corruption runs rampant through the entire political system and both sides turn a blind eye to the issues in their own house in order to throw trash at the other. So those of you living in glass houses shouldn't be throwing stones. Funny how the righteous indignation swings from one side to another based on whose person is in office and how they turn a blind eye to what their candidates do.

I used to look forward to reading the rocket report and comments every Friday but now the level of political dumdassery that has pervaded these comments as ruined it for me as it has now turned it into another echo chamber of people spewing crap without thought or reason. it is sad to see that we have turned from a country of logical discourse to people screaming at each other figuring whoever screams loudest with the most outrage must be right.

Amazing how all these folk with a few dozen comments keep telling people how to behave.

 

[EllPeaTea]

Twitter thread from SFN summarising the SPHEREx pre-launch presser.

Spoiler: Tweet embed

View: https://x.com/spaceflightnow/status/1898107890306523167

Some highlights:
F9 had some issues, with a leak in the fairing separation pneumatics.
Post-landing fire caused B1086 to topple in less than a minute.

 

[markgo]

Your categorization of people by weak associations reeks of Nazism as much as anything else.

Every accusation an admission.

He literally supports AfD and did a Nazi salute twice. What more do you want?

 

[nwright91]

Every accusation an admission.

He literally supports AfD and did a Nazi salute twice. What more do you want?

To be blunt, they decided supporting fascism is an acceptable cost for their childish fantasies to be fulfilled, and they resent that, at least for now, other people have the ability to call them out for it.

 

[clewis]

Profits. He profits from spacex. And control. He also completely controls spacex. Oh hey look, talk of cutting Nasa's budget way down AND talk of privatizing NOAA stuff, again. I wonder who benefits from Nasa cuts and cuts to NOAA and their weather satelites. Na, definitely no way Elon is inserting spacex into actual government curruption here :eyeroll:

Wait, did you say he's "politically unpalatable" Is this a joke? Thowing sig heils doesn't make him unpalatable, it makes him hitler. I'll stop thinking of Hitler as a genocidal maniac since I now realize he was just "politically unpalatable" :bigger eyeroll:

Do you know the history of the country spacex is in because it really doesn't seem like you do.

No one so completely separates the art from the artist to the point where we're hanging hitler's paintings in our houses. Let's all show off our Gacy paintings...

No one so completely separates the art from the artist to the point where we're hanging hitler's paintings in our houses... yet.

I mean, Orange Mussolini reportedly keeps a book of Hitler quotes nearby. You might yet see a Hitler painting hanging in the White House. Although that would be because he so admires the artist, rather than an attempt to separate them.

 

[jaimelannister13]

I find the recent anti-SpaceX sentiment here to be extremely annoying, it goes beyond the "separate the artist from the art" issue, Musk himself has little involvement in SpaceX day to day and principally just sets overall business strategy and time and selects from meta-options presented to him by the engineers. It's no surprise that SpaceX is the best run Musk company as a result. Being against an objectively cool, if not revolutionary, piece of technology that thousands of people are sinking their lives into just because the man who ultimately owns most of it is politically unpalatable is really quite petty imo.

you're saying that being a Nazi is just being politically unpalatable, huh?

 

[clewis]

I like this comparison! Tesla obviously should have been working on cheaper and better smaller cars, like the ever-rumored Model 2. SpaceX clearly could also be working on a better Falcon 9. Maybe it recovers more of the second stage. Could Stoke's resusable second stage launch on a Falcon 9? They could just buy Stoke. Or maybe it improves the F9's current performance. If they tuned up the engines a little more, they could do more return-to-pad landings, saving a lot on the drone ship. Maybe they could also do the Heavy's chopstick landing, saving the weight of the landing legs.

Yet this kind of incremental improvement appears to bore Musk. Or maybe it's not flashy enough to support Tesla's ridiculous P/E ratio, or SpaceX's private valuation. He appears to operate on hype these days, both in claims about FSD and in savings from DOGE.

Yet this is the 8th failure for Starship/Heavy. It's nowhere near production quality, never mind being man-rated. The hype has to deliver at some point. When all it delivers is a Cybertruck, that's the beginning of the end.

They have continued the incremental improvements on Falcon 9 Block 5. Crew Dragon launches used to be a barge landing, but now they are RTLS.

But nobody's watching Falcon anymore. Hell, one of them caught on fire after landing. That's usually good for a nice fireball, and I didn't even go watch the video. I really only track them to see if I'll get a nice light show when they launch from Vandenberg, or if there's a chance of a Vandy RTLS.

Does anybody know if the SPHEREx & PUNCH launch is RTLS? I might wake up that early if the launch is RTLS.

 

[Markkf]

Always very cool to see the booster return and be caught by the chopsticks.

That is the big achievement of Starship just like the upright landing was the big achievement of Falcon 9. Now if they’d just make a disposable second stage with fairing halves or sat dispenser they could claim victory before the next big thing.

 

[Markkf]

Fun X-37B fact: although it’s not part of the official tour of Cape Canaveral you can see the mini-VAB/hangar dedicated to the X-37 right next to the big VAB. It even has a “home of the X-37” banner. So perhaps not quite home yet.

Aren’t there technically two spacecraft and they take turns flying. So one is ready soon after the other returns. So what became of the service module?

 

[dollyllama]

Doesn't someone have a video of the failure on Xitter? I'm fine with viewing Elon failures on Xitter, but boycotting Xitter for everything else.

 

[MedicalGeek]

All 8 of my grandparents (law and blood) who went through WWII would definitely agree that we need to take a more principled approach to fighting back against fascists. It would involve a dark alley and a .22.

I had a family member who provided medical care for concentration camp survivors immediately after they were freed. His answer would involve a 1911. Day or night. In the middle of the street or down a dark alley.

 

[MarkW98]

Does anybody know if the SPHEREx & PUNCH launch is RTLS? I might wake up that early if the launch is RTLS.

Yes, it is RTLS according to nextspaceflight.com:

https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/details/5764

 

[machowie]

Stop sane washing the nazi fascist destroying the US government and blatantly corrupting it to provide more money to his companies. And please stop spouting nonsense like "Elon having very little to do with the company these days" just so you can play pretend.
People lashing out by boycotting and vandalizing companies owned by vile, evil, fascist nazis is the only way they can make their discontent heard. The only non-violent way to hurt a billionaire bully and fascist is by hurting his wallet and speaking up wherever and whenever.
Sorry it affects your hobby but guess what: Preserving the US' democracy and functioning government is a HELL of a lot more important than said hobby.

this

 

[dread pirate nancy]

Never forget.View attachment 104524

Meanwhile on the Swatsticar front....Suspicious Tesla Sales Surge Triggers Canadian Government Investigation

 

[alisonken1]

If SpaceX is the only company that can handle it, retrieve our people and be done with it. It's not that fucking hard. I don't want a Nazi getting my taxpayer money. I don't want a Nazi succeeding. Until he sells the company in disgrace, that's how it's going to be. If that hurts the space industry or space advancement it's a small price to pay.

So. You're OK with murder?
I would suggest to at least limit your discord until AFTER the ISS resupply is no longer a consideration. Or about SHSS.

Like I said - US astronauts are not the only ones in the ISS.

 

[jbk]

I wonder how highly-skilled employees building rockets will respond to counseling sessions about their bathroom breaks taking too long.

It'd be a shame if bottles of piss ended up in sensitive areas of the rocket because the workers couldn't take bathroom breaks. A damn shame...

 

[Ploroxide]

View: https://bsky.app/profile/andrewparsonson.bsky.social/post/3ljsqbluy6227

 

[gotosoda]

I find the recent anti-SpaceX sentiment here to be extremely annoying, it goes beyond the "separate the artist from the art" issue, Musk himself has little involvement in SpaceX day to day and principally just sets overall business strategy and time and selects from meta-options presented to him by the engineers. It's no surprise that SpaceX is the best run Musk company as a result. Being against an objectively cool, if not revolutionary, piece of technology that thousands of people are sinking their lives into just because the man who ultimately owns most of it is politically unpalatable is really quite petty imo.

Does the "objectively cool, if not revolutionary, piece of technology" result in income for the "politically unpalatable" fascist dweeb? Does said "objectively cool, if not revolutionary, piece of technology" benefit from subsidies paid by the tax dollars of the people who are being gutted by said "politically unpalatable" walking K-Hole?

Then burn, baby, burn.

 

[hestermofet]

Starshit exploded = a surprisingly good day

Oh don't worry, Vice-President Trump will make sure the American taxpayers will provide another giant metallic phallus to compensate for Elon Musk's extremely tiny penis.

 

[hestermofet]

I find the recent anti-SpaceX sentiment here to be extremely annoying, it goes beyond the "separate the artist from the art" issue, Musk himself has little involvement in SpaceX day to day and principally just sets overall business strategy and time and selects from meta-options presented to him by the engineers. It's no surprise that SpaceX is the best run Musk company as a result. Being against an objectively cool, if not revolutionary, piece of technology that thousands of people are sinking their lives into just because the man who ultimately owns most of it is politically unpalatable is really quite petty imo.

I dunno, synthesizing hydrogen cyanide at industrial scale is objectively cool technology that promises to revolutionize the fight against malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases. Until fascists decide to trademark it as Zyklon B and used it to murder disabled people, homosexuals, Romani, and Jews.

I'm on the side of those who are cheering when the V2 rocket test blows up in the face of the Nazi rocket scientists. Why are you on the other side?

Also, when you are simping for Nazis, make up your damned mind. Either Elon Musk is a brilliant genius who will single-handedly save our species by building every spacecraft by hand that will carry mankind to Mars, or he has absolutely nothing to do with SpaceX, his name just accidentally showed up on the company masthead as a typo. It was supposed to say Felon Musk who is a totally different person, no relation.

 

[hestermofet]

My point is that just because Musk has proven himself to be a Nazi does not make the activities of every employee at SpaceX reprehensible. Ridiculing, ostracizing, and canceling people because of weak associations is what got us to this point in the first place because enough of them said “fuck it” and turned against reason.

Hey, don't call me complicit in Nazism just because I'm an accountant and my job was to calculate how many cows could fit in a cattle car destined for Poland, and I never stopped to ask why my boss instructed me to assume cows only have two legs when I made my calculations! I take umbrage at the fact you would insinuate Roman Salute Final Logistical Solutions of being associated with Nazism in any way! How dare you!

 

[Jack56]

Kulasekaranpattinam. Has a rhythm. But eight syllables? No-one will want to attempt to mention it.

 

[Celery Man]

My point is that just because Musk has proven himself to be a Nazi does not make the activities of every employee at SpaceX reprehensible. Ridiculing, ostracizing, and canceling people because of weak associations is what got us to this point in the first place because enough of them said “fuck it” and turned against reason.

 

[Celery Man]

Twitter thread from SFN summarising the SPHEREx pre-launch presser.

Spoiler: Tweet embed

View: https://x.com/spaceflightnow/status/1898107890306523167

Some highlights:
F9 had some issues, with a leak in the fairing separation pneumatics.
Post-landing fire caused B1086 to topple in less than a minute.

Summary of the F9 issues (via an NSF post):

• An extensive off nominal fire broke out in the aft end of the rocket, which damaged one of the landing legs, causing the rocket to tip over.
• A fuel leak occurred during ascent, approximately 85s into flight. It sprayed kerosene onto a hot component in the engine, which vaporised. Didn't affect main mission due to lack of oxygen to react with.
• About 45s after landing, oxygen came into the compartment which caused the fire and blew out a 'Barrel panel' on the side of the rocket.
• SpaceX still trying to determine what caused the leak, as a lot of aluminium components melted making it harder to investigate.

View: https://www.youtube.com/live/Xq5CH-d4IuU


They’re really batting a thousand on things recently, wow.

SpaceX’s dominant position in the industry means, if they fail, they’ll have done it to themselves.

 

[tie]

The Nazi rocket company failed again. Hurray!

Strange how they were so quick to blame DEI efforts after an airplane crash. Why aren't they blaming DEI this time? Maybe the SpaceX Nazis are imbecilic hypocrites?

 

[xcodemustdie]

american rocket failed
european rocket succeeded

Theres some sort of symbolism there but can't quite put my finger on

Looking forward to the next US GDP figures, wondering how much they will go down

 

[Flitzpiepe]

This is an incredibly eloquent and solid take on what is happening and why we can't white-wash this because of enthusiasm for space tech. Well done, in my opinion you slam-dunked it and it it should get pinned on top by the author of the article...

Much appreciate your endorsement. Took some time to craft.

With the end of WW2 there was a serious and mostly well intentioned and also successful effort at educating the following generation of Germans into responsible non hating citizens. That which the far right so often decries as a restriction of free speech was a part of it: You can’t have a functioning Democracy survive in the long term in which parts of the population work actively towards the dehumanisation of other parts. Such a system will eat itself up from the inside and turn into some sort of totalitarian system.

That is why the modern democracies of Western Europe mostly restrict hate speech. We learned that with the blood of those millions and millions killed in WW2 and all those erased by total evil in concentration camps.

We in Germany in turn have been wondering for a long time, how America allows for such rampant hatred in its political discourse. Maybe by declaring itself to being exceptional it felt immune to that kind of virus.

Lo and behold in 2015 a dubious figure, descendant of German migrants no less, bursts into the political scene spitting with hate and grievances …

Sorry for the length, but this is all so very important.

 

[sigsgaard]

"During Starship's ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly." = "It go KA-BOOOOOOOOOM"