18 minutes ago, Luis Hernandez said:

 

I heard that was basically their goal: clearing the tower. They were considering anything beyond T-10 minutes a success. Let's see their findings.

I only saw 28 of them, sometimes 29. I thought it was because SpaceX would light them after Max-Q.

 

Yes, I heard that too.

Not sure how many Raptors were confirmed, I assumed it was all of them. 

 

17 minutes ago, stans said:

This is why we don't put people on this sort of test flight.  It did make it off the pad, seems something went wrong when it came time for the primary booster to separate.  I'm sure a whole lot was learned today, next test may be 100% successful.  Time will tell.

 

Yes, didn't separate. I'm assuming they activated the flight termination system  when it started tumbling. 

Had it reached MECO before it started to spin?

Edited April 20, 20233 yr by Christopher Low

3 hours ago, martin-w said:

Nope, very successful.

Reminds me of the old surgeon joke: "The surgery was successful, but the patient died" 😄

Going to need a new launch pad.

 

That was awesome, amazing the speeds it achieved even with 6 engines not firing, the rocket is ugly like a Dr Evil looking thing but its performance is impressive. Yes just getting something that big off the ground is a success and it flew for almost 4 minutes before the self destruct 

5 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

Had it reached MECO before it started to spin?

Supposedly yes, but I saw fire at all times, including the intended spin and the unintended ones🤷‍♂️

Gotta watch the replay...

Observing that 16 million pounds of thrust tells us one thing though... we desperately need antigravity. 😁 Get working on it in your sheds space cadets, I know you can do it.

51 minutes ago, martin-w said:

Observing that 16 million pounds of thrust tells us one thing though... we desperately need antigravity. 😁 Get working on it in your sheds space cadets, I know you can do it.

We need a space elevator.

24 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

We need a space elevator.

 

😲 Can you make one in your shed?

How are you at making carbon nanotubes? 

Would need to be a 22,000 mile long nanotube cable to the station, then another 40,000 miles to a counterweight. I'm thinking a chunk of asteroid.

Alas, me thinks material science isn't yet up to the challenge of a space elevator but I'll leave it in your capable hands.  

22 hours ago, goates said:

Going to need a new launch pad

 

And regarding that... why on Earth aren't they using a flame pit and thrust deflector to protect the pad, like NASA do for Artemis. Even Falcon launces use a flame pit and deflector.

9 hours ago, martin-w said:

 

😲 Can you make one in your shed?

How are you at making carbon nanotubes? 

Would need to be a 22,000 mile long nanotube cable to the station, then another 40,000 miles to a counterweight. I'm thinking a chunk of asteroid.

Alas, me thinks material science isn't yet up to the challenge of a space elevator but I'll leave it in your capable hands.  

I'll work on the space elevator, while you get cracking on antigravity.... It'll be interesting to see which shows up first! 👽

3 hours ago, martin-w said:

 

And regarding that... why on Earth aren't they using a flame pit and thrust deflector to protect the pad, like NASA do for Artemis. Even Falcon launces use a flame pit and deflector.

Seems Musk didn't want to use one. Here's an overview of what happened. Looks like that decision to not built a trench or deflectors of some kind might have been a big factor in engines failing on the rocket.

 

So....since so many raptor engines fired at once, it created blow-back and caused the 5 or so engines to cut off?  

Could be a mix of physical damage from broken concrete and debris directly hitting some engines, along with damage from the vibrations and noise damaging others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_suppression_system

Almost the entire flight, I thought things looked wrong, and thought I was seeing suspicious flickers of flame. Plus towards the end, things did not look correct at all. I said aloud to myself "I don't like this".