Astrophysicist Scott Manley discusses the mostly successful test flight, landing, and ultimate explosion of SpaceX's Starship SN10
This happened yesterday, March 3.
The next vehicle (SN11) is supposedly already built and awaiting a test date. I'm sure they'll be making a few adjustments to improve on this performance, which was pretty darn cool, but not without some issues. The belly flop and 'skydiver' maneuver did work as planned, though. I think demonstrating that was one of the goals of this test, so at least that part was 100% successful.
Starship might well be a valid transport option to the Moon, and even to Mars in the not too distant future, but it's still not close to being ready for manned flight. Those Raptor engines are really pushing the envelope with 2.5 times the thrust-to-weight ratio of the Rocketdyne F-1 engines used in the Apollo Program's Saturn V. It doesn't look like an engine failed here, however. As Scott Manley says in the video, more like a plumbing problem (faulty fuel line or something).
Still, they're definitely making progress. Check it out...
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He's Scott Manley. Fly safe.
It is like the old saying....The operation was a success, but the patient died.
Good film, good preliminary explanation
Amazing! Also amazing that blowing up cannot be avoided (yet) via fail-safe engineering. But with all that fuel that has got to be a nightmare challenge.
I just noticed the chyron at the bottom of the NASA feed he used (starting at about 8:58).
"Starship SN10 landed on the landing zone; then burned off the excess propellant in a rapid fashion."
LOL. NASA's having some fun with them.
Full burn until 4:20.