SPACEX - Starship Launch of 24/7 - A Cascading Failure

On April 20, 2023, the maiden flight of Starship/Superheavy 24/7 took off from Boca Chica, Texas.

It did not go as well as initially thought.

[KerbalLauncher]

The flight termination system is the MOST IMPORTANT component of any experimental flight! It's failure to terminate is extremely concerning.

[saumyacow]

What I find intriguing is the deafening silence regarding what this means for Starship's chances of landing safely on Mars. I've noted before that Starship would throw supersonic debris for many kilometres - owing to the low gravity and rarefied air on Mars. Hence it would have to land a long, long way away from base. All of which adds to the trauma experienced by its crew. It also occurred to me recently that it's hard to land something like Starship into a crater, even with legs. And of course, a proper landing pad comprising thousands of tonnes of steel and concrete (and probably a lot of water) isn't going to happen on Mars. I'm pretty sure some people subconsciously realise this now, but just don't want to think about it. My comments have attracted precisely zero replies.

I've been trying to persuade people that "Mars Direct" is a bad concept and that if we're going to have sensible and realistic human missions to Mars we need to travel to and from Mars via Mars orbit. In other words, we need a quite separate, light, crew only, fully propulsive Mars lander/ascent vehicle. One that requires far less fuel and one that can be designed to mitigate the issues that come with landing on the bare surface.

[tatata]

The most bizarre moment was all the fans cheering as it crashed and burned just as the camera switched to Musk’s reaction. He wasn’t cheering.

[null]

Even sceptics have to agree this was ground breaking 😂

[smetljesm]

The fact that this launch site was constructed so close to "protected area" the tanks were so close, the base was so weak gives off vibes those people are hustling each other, investors and public.

[Crispy_Bee]

Musk: "“Success is not what should be expected tomorrow. That would be insane.”
Musk-Fans: "Oh Elon, you so goofy. Of course I'll be a success."
*Starship explodes*
Musk-Fans: That explosion was great! What a visionary!"

[periodificationateifierscandal]

I knew that the launch would fail, but I didn’t know how disastrous it would be. The comparisons to the N1 and Soviet way of engineering are definitely warranted, but even the Soviets had the common sense not to test the launch vehicle in close proximity to urban areas. Truly bizarre.

[burritocodes]

You know what really, really bugs me about all this? The devastation obviously bothers me. Loss of species bothers me. Musk bothers me. But there is something that bothers me even more than all that.

I'm a private pilot. If I was to stick my propeller a foot into restricted airspace, I would get a letter with a nice fine attached. If I proceeded to completely ignore the restricted airspace, I would have an F16 up my butt. Musk not only stuck his propeller into restricted airspace, but continued through it, out the other side, and the FAA never even sent him a letter.

That's what really bugs me.

[DoctorBiobrain]

It was embarrassing how SpaceX, Musk fans, and the media immediately touted it as a success before they had time to analyze anything. The sooner the reaction was, the less likely it should be trusted. This was definitely the most complete breakdown I’ve seen of the launch so far.

[dhayes]

The scope of this entire project has been grossly underestimated. Forget Mars. It will be a miracle if this thing makes it to orbit.

[sfdntk]

What blows my mind the most about this abject failure is that the ground crew actually tried setting off the self destruct process when the rocket began tumbling, but all it did was blow a tiny hole in the side of the fuel tank — they're so incompetent they can't even figure out how to make a working self destruct button!

[JoeSimonsen]

It’s always a weird feeling after something fails as hard and completely as you thought it would. It’s not joy or anything like that but a sort of quiet sadness.

[sebastianmelmoth]

We blew it up. Success! Nothing like a good old unscheduled disassembly, I was struck by how the TV analysts kept repeating that this was a brilliant achievement and the disassembly was a great sign of progress. 🙄🙄🙄

[HansCSchellenberg]

This reminds me so much of a company I used to work for. Nothing mattered except the ego's of senior management and how senior management looked. They were constantly spinning their utter failures into "success".

[Nine-Signs]

Snip snip snip.
This is the sound of corners being cut.

Shovel shovel shovel
This is the sound of astronauts being buried due to corners being cut. In due course.

[LordRenegrade]

Wow.. that whip manoeuvre to separate stages is like a desperation move used in KSP when something doesn't disconnect right due to part overlap... ouch.

[reneeleegreco]

I worked on local trail improvements and was shocked the US Fish & Wildlife cleared this .. they have Plovers, sea turtles, manatees etc in this area

[FRANKMUSIKOFFICIAL]

Musk is Musk. But I am appalled that the government agencies and state ever even entertained this site for its primary use. It’s terrifying. Especially seeing how obtuse the FAA and NASA are being. Keep up the fantastic work. Been here since you had 2k subs. Great work deserved of the traction it’s received.

[THIS---GUY]

The mission:

The Starship spacecraft was to fly nearly one orbit around the Earth (Complete failure) before reentering the atmosphere (complete failure) and performing a targeted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii (complete failure)

The Super Heavy booster was to have separated (complete failure) and performed a controlled landing in the Gulf of Mexico's about 20 mi (30 km) off the Texas coast about 8 minutes after liftoff (complete failure).

The entire launch facility was destroyed or damaged. (Complete failure)

Even appears that the flight termination system failed as well.

Somehow a huge element of people are cheering this on as a success. No acknowledgment of utter failure from MANY.

These are the same people who also still believe tesla level 5 full self driving is just a matter of turning on the service (and will be available by end of year 2017) but in 2023 still on level 2 & they would still call it "progress" and not acknowledge any failure whatsoever.

[ericcarabetta]

The neoliberal model of outsourcing everything is going smashingly.