Starship Flight Test (Launch in 1 hour)

The Multicam that NSF have is cool and I thoroughly recommend becoming a member if you love watching rocket launches and want even more footage than the content in the main stream.

BenoitP9• 3 years ago

Edited!

whitehexagon6• 3 years ago

Any non youtube sources around please?

[Edit] wasn't there a couple guys covering the earlier main stage testing / launches, I seem to remember watching those without google streams?

BenoitP9• 3 years ago

(French): https://www.twitch.tv/hugolisoir

Though I bet that if youtube is blocked at your workplace, so is twitch.

detrites2• 3 years ago

For youtube-exclusive sources, you can usually switch out the domain to that of an Invidious instance. Eg: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=-1wcilQ58hI

List of instances: https://docs.invidious.io/instances/

BenoitP9• 3 years ago

Can't edit this comment anymore nor delete it, as it is too old (threshold at ~2h30 apparently). Please let it sink / downvote it

HopenHeyHi4• 3 years ago

This is an enormously important launch. I had $20 it will be pushed to 4/20, so a lot riding on this. :)

But seriously, I can't help but feel this is a historical moment. Hope you make the time to watch and remember it.

once_inc2• 3 years ago

I'm the other side of the bet. Still not hoping for a scrub though!

HopenHeyHi4• 3 years ago

I award this comment 218 doge for wholesome attitude. That clears all debts between us my good sir. Perhaps one day you can buy me a space beer on mars.

ta1243• 3 years ago

Sensible, either way you win something

pfannkuchen2• 3 years ago

Clearly you should have put $69 on it, what were you thinking?

HopenHeyHi4• 3 years ago

Goddamit.

sylware• 3 years ago

The end is nigh: Mr. E. Musk was reasonable and sensible while talking about starship first flight, "if it goes far enough from the launch pad before something goes wrong, it will be a success".

DennisP• 3 years ago

He's always set low expectations for test launches.

cypress66• 3 years ago

He has always set (intentionally?) low expectations regarding launches.

saberdancer5• 3 years ago

Not for Falcon 1. He said he believes they have 90% chance of a successful launch.

After that they had 3 failed launches and company almost went bankrupt.

Tepix• 3 years ago

He said the same for Falcon Heavy

mcv• 3 years ago

I like SpaceX Musk a lot more than Twitter Musk. It feels almost like this past year never happened.

IG_Semmelweiss3• 3 years ago

The average user knows what SpaceX is about, likely has heard the falcon 1 rocket achieved a milestone with rocket reuse after multiple successful launches.

But, why this launch is so important? why so much is riding on this ?

saberdancer5• 3 years ago

It is the largest rocket in history and it is planned to be fully reusable.

If SpaceX manage to make this work they will have a launch vehicle capable of launching much more mass to orbit which will open up space exploration.

zozbot234• 3 years ago

It also provides us with a kind of access to space that we lost when the Space Shuttles were grounded. It's interesting that the Shuttle was considered a hugely wasteful boondoggle in its day and age, yet now a private profit-seeking enterprise is making something that's just as capable on a way bigger scale.

ddevault2• 3 years ago

The cheapest and most popular rocket today in terms of cost per kilogram sent to low-earth-orbit is the SpaceX Falcon 9, which is estimated to cost about $2700/kg. If the Starship meets its goals, it will cost $10/kg to LEO. It has a payload capacity and infrastructure which can economically deliver massive payloads to any solid surface in the solar system. It could send three full-sized bulldozers to Mars in a single trip. This is the largest scale space project ever conceived and portents a major shake-up to the space industry and a big step towards establishing a permanent human presence off Earth.

BenoitP9• 3 years ago

$10/kg to LEO is insane

checkyoursudo• 3 years ago

How much of a setback would disaster be? Would SpaceX keep going, or would failure leave room for competitors to take over? (If there are competitors? I don't even know tbqh.)

TMWNN2• 3 years ago

The cheapest and most popular rocket today in terms of cost per kilogram sent to low-earth-orbit is the SpaceX Falcon 9, which is estimated to cost about $2700/kg. If the Starship meets its goals, it will cost $10/kg to LEO.

I've read that the cost will be $2700/kg even if Starship is completely expended; that is, no reuse. But far, far, far larger payloads, of course.

ragebol• 3 years ago

Falcon 9 can be partly reused. Falcon 1 was a predecessor, that only flew 4 times IIRC.

notfried• 3 years ago

TL;DR it’s the tallest and most powerful rocket, is reusable, designed to refuel in space, and intended to take cargo/humans to Mars, and thus its successful launch marks the beginning of us becoming a multi-planetary species, per Musk’s plan.

tjpnz• 3 years ago

There's far less certainty around how viable a system it will be and the only way to fully know is through a semi-successful test flight.

m348e912• 3 years ago

It has more engines than any rocketship, making it the most powerful rocket ever built. (33 total)

https://ibb.co/7SrTK7P

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

blendergeek• 3 years ago

This will be the first ever launch of "Starship" SpaceX's next generation rocket.

Starship (and more specifically the Super Heavy booster that carries Starship) is the most powerful rocket in history and is designed for the purpose of carrying humans to Mars. SpaceX's new Starlink satellites are much bigger than the old ones and really require a larger rocket - this will be Starship.

This is also the first ever orbital flight test of a "Full Flow Staged Combustion Engine" [0], making the Raptor Engine the most advanced rocket engine in the world. Many people didn't think that full flow staged combustion would work so this is a great vindication of the concept.

Starship will also be the lunar lander for the upcoming NASA Artemis moon landings.

[0] https://everydayastronaut.com/rocket-engine-cycles/

IG_Semmelweiss3• 3 years ago

Thank you for this

HopenHeyHi4• 3 years ago

They currently send up Starlink satellites in batches of about 50 on the Falcon 9. On a more or less weekly cadence or 4 times/200 satellites a month.

When Starship gets going it might carry as many as 400+ per launch. In other words eventually they'll be able to throw more stuff into orbit in 1 month than they currently can in 1 year.

It literally means their bottle neck will be producing enough starlinks, and other payloads, per day. Incidentally, those things are also used by the military and in Ukraine.

Having this much payload capacity at this moment in time is very important. Without SpaceX people who want to put satellites into orbit would be somewhat at the mercy of Russia and China as capacity elsewhere is extremely limited.

tempaway457512• 3 years ago

I'd argue not that much actually _riding_ on this, it might just blow up on the launchpad or it might go up in the air. Either way they will try again in a few months.

So the difference between success (defined by musk as getting far away enough from the launchpad not to damage it) and failure (rud on pad) is a few months on the development timeline and money to rebuild the (quite complicated) tower.

Will be fun to watch either way, unless its a scrub.

If they have, like, 3 consecutive launchpad explosions over the next few years, then maybe we'd start talking about the whole project being in trouble.

If it actually does the whole flightpath then that will be pretty amazing.

The other question, why is this important: Its the biggest, most re-usable most ambitious rocket ever made. The 33 engines, apart from being numerous, are of a design more ambitious/challenging than any other rocket engine we've ever seen.

(edit: engine adjectives)

phkahler• 3 years ago

> Even each one of the 33 engines has more complicated design than any other rocket engine we've ever seen.

I was with you up to there. Spacex loves simple designs. The Raptor seems much simpler that the Space Shuttle main engines for example. Moat advanced design maybe, but not sure about "complicsted".

compsciphd2• 3 years ago

I'm wondering what the term "launch window" is referring to here. When one is going somewhere in space, it makes sense to me, as one wants things to be lined up well for an efficiency (/possibility). i.e. the launch window is when we can get where we want to go, and if we launch outside of it, we wont be able to. But if one is just going up and going down without any real concern of going anywhere in specific, what does a launch window mean?

I can imagine it perhaps has to do with having a "clear space" to launch, but that seems something much more flexible. I'm wondering what it means here?

saberdancer5• 3 years ago

They have to reserve airspace and "sea space" so no one can stumble under the path of a rocket which may explode.

They have to empty the town nearby, close roads, etc.

They also arranged a NASA plane to come and observe.

trollied• 3 years ago

They have NOTAMs out to keep the airspace clear, and also have to keep a few different sections of sea clear of marine traffic (2 landing zones, and an area surrounding the takeoff zone). Add to that road closures, people evacuated from the local village etc, you just can't carry on with all this for an extended period of time.

unwind• 3 years ago

Slightly edited definition from NOTAM [1]:

A Notice to (Airmen|Air Men|Airman|Air Missions) is a notice filed with an aviation authority to alert aircraft pilots of potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the flight.

Might be helpful to fellow aviation-challenged folks.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOTAM

BenoitP9• 3 years ago

Copying analysis/speculation from the reddit thread:

- in the morning so they've got the maximum amount of daylight to deal with any possible outcome

- 62mn max window duration is the limit for acceptable propellant boil off

MPSimmons2• 3 years ago

Also, keep in mind that this is an (almost) orbital launch, and that it's re-entering. In this case, it's re-entering just north of Hawaii, so there may be reasons in that region to limit the launch window.

mabbo2• 3 years ago

As others have said, scheduling no-fly zones on multiple locations (Starship will crash land near Hawaii), but also things like "we only have so much super chilled liquid oxygen and it's going to be boiling off".

Tim Dodd's stream said a few minutes ago that once they get within 45 minutes of launch, they are either launching today or not for two more days, because by that point if you try to unload all the fuel and oxygen too much boils away and you need to bring in truckloads of it more for the next attempt.

Space is hard.

BenoitP9• 3 years ago

Video analysis:

* Parts of launch platform going up in the air.

* Rocket drifting laterally wrt to the launch tower.

* Part of hydraulic system blowing up with an engine at T+30

* T+50: fire on the left of the rocket engines

* T+1m05: something blowing up on the right

* T+1m27: weird color between engines. recirculation? fire?

* T+2m0: trajectory just wrong, but still not destroying it to get more data out of nominal parameters

* T+3m: green flames means oxygen-rich mix burn-corroding the engine from the inside

* T+4m: booster exploding, then a few seconds later starship. Was it voluntary?

* launch tower relatively intact, all things considered

* rocket stayed attached to launchpad for a long time up to 7 seconds (time to light up all engines?)

Launch: Lost up to 6 engines, Max-Q passed, separation failure, going a bit KSP-style, vehicle destruction

T 0: launch

T-40s: Countdown hold, no scrubbing yet. Can hold for 15mn. Problem with bleed purge. Would restart at T-40s

T-1: Gimbals working ok

T-3: Fully loaded

T-7: Only first stage to finish loading (scheduled at T-3)

T-11: Still go for launch

T-18: SpaceX "Starship’s Raptor engines are chilling down in preparation for liftoff"

T-37: EM "Starship on track to launch in ~37 mins"

T-80: SpaceX "Fueling of Starship’s upper stage is now underway"

T-86: SpaceX "Fueling of the Super Heavy booster is underway"

T-117: SpaceX "The Starship team is go for prop load; team is keeping an eye on the weather"

T-8h: EM "All systems currently green for launch"

----

Note: Can't edit or delete my previous comment anymore, please disregard it. New info will be on this one

----

Launch in about 1 hours (13:28 UTC), which would be:

- 6:28 Pacific

- 7:28 Mountain

- 8:28 Central

- 9:28 Eastern

- 15:28 European

- Other: https://time.is/1328_20_Apr_2023_in_UTC

Official video stream starts ~45mn beforehand

----

- Resources/info:

https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/12n02uf/rspacex_int...

https://twitter.com/SpaceX

https://twitter.com/elonmusk

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-...

- Resources/watch:

Twitter stream (official, slightly ahead): https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1649033533846097927?s=20

Mission control audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBKCePn1E5A

Multistream: https://multistream.co/p/RB8Ao4GidTy/Starship%5C_Flight%5C_T...

Everyday Astronaut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAl3gVvMNNM

LabPadre Multi Plex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2BQKCnPkIc

NASASpaceflight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uouujjgkR3A

chinathrow• 3 years ago

And the stream from Everyday Astronaut, Tim Dodd:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAl3gVvMNNM

pixl974• 3 years ago

rocket stayed attached to launchpad for a long time up to 7 seconds (time to light up all engines?)

This is the expected behavior. Engine lighting occurs in 3 stages and takes 6-8 seconds to complete.

BenoitP9• 3 years ago

Damn, poor launchpad ^^

Kye2• 3 years ago

NASASpaceflight stream if you like informed commentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uouujjgkR3A

SpaceX's streams start after a lot of interesting stuff happens, and can be a little sparse.

shafyy• 3 years ago

Crazy that YouTube recommended me this fake Space X channel on YouTube. It's a mix of the actual stream but with deep fake Elon Musk voice trying to get you to send him cryptocurrencies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOBZqwS0ELQ

macintux• 3 years ago

Sounds like the scammers who hijacked Linus Tech Tips’ YouTube channel a few weeks ago.

chrisjc2• 3 years ago

It never stops! All the crypto-scam videos that show up during all the live streams for SpaceX launches, Telsa events, etc... is just unbelievable.

With all of Google's AI/ML resources, you would think they could do something about it.

jansan2• 3 years ago

I totally bought into it (before the launch) until I actually scanned the QR code.

woudsma• 3 years ago

What's up with the presenters' audio? Either they all have a lisp, or something is not configured right. It sounds like they're saying 'Starschlip' instead of 'Starship'.

xeromal3• 3 years ago

They have a lisp. The guy who presented the fuel a few seconds ago sounded just fine but he had a deeper voice.

evgen• 3 years ago

Boom. That spin at the end looked quite bad. Can't believe it took that long for FTS to end things.

gaogao• 3 years ago

Still getting data until you need to boom it

sebzim4500• 3 years ago

Normally you only activate FTS if it looks like it might leave the launch envelope.

mabbo2• 3 years ago

It was spinning around in circles. Rockets don't recover from that. Anyone who thought the rocket might stay in the launch envelope is crazy.

hathym• 3 years ago

why is everyone cheering ?

tekla• 3 years ago

Because it achieved the primary objectives.

haliou• 3 years ago

It cleared launch pad which was the most important goal.

drybjed• 3 years ago

Starship didn't blow up on the launch pad. That's a success during development.

have_faith• 3 years ago

Anything above getting it off the ground is considered a success for this test.

thatswrong0• 3 years ago

Getting it off the ground was the goal apparently

gghhzzgghhzz2• 3 years ago

the cheering throughout the whole thing was extremely annoying and completely unnecessary

hagbarth• 3 years ago

Because it was a test launch. The whole point is to get data so it doesn't do that when you launch real cargo.

pahae• 3 years ago

Apparently anything more than clearing the launch pad was a win. Musk's dead stare seems to disagree tho

fabian2k4• 3 years ago

When it exploded it was already very clear that stage separation had failed previously. So the disappointing part was 10-20 seconds before, the final explosion was inevitable, and well it was an explosion so it looked nice.

Kye2• 3 years ago

Getting into the air and having an obvious failure last that long -- meaning the automated abort didn't think it would escape the cleared area until then -- rather than make it explode immediately means a lot of data to make the next launch better.

jansan2• 3 years ago

That is American positive thinking. Usually really good for motivation, but sometimes annoying and hard to read for us non-US people.

WastingMyTime89• 3 years ago

SpaceX gives you an audio feed of onlookers who act like rabbid fans at a rock concert and only patches audio of the control room when they find it convenient. It's extremely annoying but you get used to it.

bitL• 3 years ago

Surreal. Cheering after a failure and forced smiles with shaky voices from moderators afterwards.

DavidSJ• 3 years ago

Didn't look to me like FTS. I think that was aerodynamic forces once the altitude got low enough.

vidarh2• 3 years ago

I tuned in late and was just about to rewind to the takeoff when it blew up... Oh well, with the speed they've developed this, I'm sure the next attempt won't take long.

braymundo• 3 years ago

The launch sent shivers down my spine and made me a cry a bit. What a sight to behold!

jjkaczor• 3 years ago

It's good to know that I am not the only one who gets a little choked up about spaceflight. Yes, we have many things we need to do on this planet - but, we cannot keep all of our eggs in one single basket - humanity needs to reach for the solar system, then the stars.

pirate787• 3 years ago

Same. Seeing the rocket clear the launchpad and race humanity towards the heavens... amazing stuff from SpaceX, the entire Starship program is a fraction of NASA and other space agencies' annual budgets yet SpaceX continues to conjure the future.

Denvercoder9• 3 years ago

Can't believe it took that long for FTS to end things.

There's no reason to activate the Flight Termination System until it leaves the launch corridor and safety becomes a factor. It's a test launch, you want to gather as much data as possible, even if the test doesn't go as you hoped.

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK• 3 years ago

Is it normal that 5 or 6 out of 33 engines didn't ignite?

aequitas• 3 years ago

Looking at the footage it might seem that some of them exploded or failed during flight.

jnsie• 3 years ago

Rapid unscheduled disassembly. Classic! :-)

compsciphd2• 3 years ago

Boom Today. No Boom Tomorrow.

ihattendorf• 3 years ago

Boom today. Chance for boom tomorrow.

belter• 3 years ago

It was glorious. A boom but I would argue a success. Congrats SpaceX

Tommstein• 3 years ago

I had never seen a rocket with twice the thrust of a Saturn V doing loop-de-loops before exploding live in front of everyone. Neither had anyone else. Great success.

godtoldmetodoit• 3 years ago

I've done that plenty of times in Kerbal : )

Was funny to see in reality, it matched up quite closely to my Kerbal experience.

baq• 3 years ago

Yeah you could immediately tell it went off-nominal if you played kerbals before. I always thought the way kit works in KSP isn’t realistic. Well turns out it’s quite the opposite :)

Shelnutt2• 3 years ago

Exactly what I felt too. Jumbo rocket on first launch spinning, feels right at home, just missing Jeb/Valentina :).

Big kudos to the whole SpaceX team, and all the surrounding people who have gotten things this far and I'm exciting for the next attempt!

terom• 3 years ago

This end should point toward the ground if you want to go to space. If it starts pointing toward space you are having a bad problem and you will not go to space today. [1]

[1] https://xkcd.com/1133/

bluehex• 3 years ago

I've never loved a relevant xkcd so much.

JustSomeNobody• 3 years ago

Marvin Martian is very pleased today.

scrumper• 3 years ago

Impressive achievement, looked to me like the vehicle started rotating before the flip was due. I wonder what the tolerance is on the number of engines that can be out? It seemed like nobody was overly concerned that several weren't firing.

(That shot of the engines in flight was pretty amazing though, bright circles like a Spielberg alien ship.)

dmix2• 3 years ago

I'm guessing even with a few of the engines not firing they can still do some math to compensate?

fallingknife• 3 years ago

I think it would be fine on a test flight since there is no payload weight.

geomark• 3 years ago

I find that part particularly, interesting, how fault tolerant the system is that such a number of engines fail to fire and it still looks like a nominal launch.

dylan6044• 3 years ago

Even the Saturn V rockets could handle engine failures, and it had a much smaller number of them.

dylan6044• 3 years ago

(That shot of the engines in flight was pretty amazing though, bright circles like a Spielberg alien ship.)

I had similar thoughts too. When it first cut to the shot exposed for all of the thrusters, I spoke out loud how gorgeous it was and I'm sitting here by myself. This shot plus the recent spirals from fuel dumps, SpaceX has given us some cool imagery lately.

fabian2k4• 3 years ago

While it is obviously a test flight and failure was a likely possibility, this looked a bit worse than I had expected. There were I think at least 5 engines out on the first stage, so quite a lot of engine failures. It's impressive it could still continue, but it does indicate that there is still quite some work on Raptor left. And stage separation failed, so while they certainly gathered data they did not gather all the data they would have liked.

The interesting part will be to see the turnaround time until the next test.

bearjaws2• 3 years ago

This is likely expected, given that there is not enough weight on the craft to warrant using all engines. If it can fly without them, that gives them a great idea as to how much payload it can take up when they are lit.

Edit: I may be wrong, apparently they have a great telemetry integration with their stream to show which engines are lit and which are not.

fabian2k4• 3 years ago

Those were in an irregular pattern and not balanced. I'm pretty sure those were actual engine failures and not intentional shutdown.

throw1234651234• 3 years ago

Does anyone know what the failure rate on these engines is and what the "safety margin" will be on the final version? As in x/y engines being out is fine?

dylan6044• 3 years ago

i'd imagine this margin would be different per mission taking into consideration the payload weight, the desired altitude, etc.

0x0203• 3 years ago

At T+6ish seconds, while the vehicle is still on the launch pad, you can see a massive explosion at the base of the first stage. Then another engine blows the side of the ship apart shortly after getting airborne (T+29s), then a few more engines go later. It's possible the later failures may have been a result of the big one at the start.

I'm wondering if the fist stage simply didn't get the speed necessary for the second stage to safely separate. *edit: Looking at it again, it appears to me at least, that it started tumbling well before expected separation. With no payload, I can imagine they decided not to separate for safety reasons.

piva00• 3 years ago

I noticed the same during ignition/lift-off, there was a chunk of debris catapulted way high up and my first thought was an "oh oh!". I wasn't actually expecting it to go too far from the launch pad, was pretty surprised the rocket kept going.

clnq• 3 years ago

It seems like at T+55s to T+65s you can observe a LOX leak in both telemetry and the bright flame.

Around T+02:30 the assembly flips horizontally at least 90 degrees based on the telemetry and the camera views.

Merad• 3 years ago

From what I've read their bar for this being a success was getting off the launch pad. Everything after that was a bonus.

idlewords• 3 years ago

The rocket successfully exploded high above the launch pad

foobarbecue• 3 years ago

However, it looks like there was widespread damage to the launch facilities due to concrete flying everywhere.

red-iron-pine• 3 years ago

My car started and then exploded after I got out of my driveway. Another successful commute to work.

xnx• 3 years ago

The forced/unnatural feeling clapping/cheering from the video feed is so weird. It seemed like there would be a short silence in the room when something bad happened, then the "APPLAUSE" sign would go on.

RetpolineDrama• 3 years ago

There was nothing forced or unnatural about it.

stephc_int132• 3 years ago

Seeing that much SpaceX employees cheering after the explosion was kind of strange.

OK this is not complete failure, but this is still a failure. Things did not go according to plans.

I understand the need for PR and damage control, but I am not comfortable with it, this is not a success, this is work in progress and so far this launcher is unproven.

xeromal3• 3 years ago

This is assuming a strategy that aligns with your values. SpaceX has been made successful with their strategy. Look at their entire history of explosions and see that every major issue like this has taught them well. They are eating EVERYONE's lunch

Gwypaas• 3 years ago

"How to not land an orbital rocket booster" - https://youtu.be/bvim4rsNHkQ

magpi3• 3 years ago

I say this only half-jokingly: think of the satisfaction you feel when a challenging piece of code finally compiles. You know there is a lot of debugging ahead, but progress is progress.

zachruss922• 3 years ago

This is an excellent analogy.

valine• 3 years ago

Not blowing up on the pad is a huge success. The rocket got past max-q, and they’ve proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that 33 engines can work together on one booster. I remember a couple years ago when folks like you were confident that it was impossible to run that many engines simultaneously.

kiba• 3 years ago

It is a success. They cleared the tower and able to collect data to do course correction.

Failure is not being able to finish development of starship within a reasonable time period. This is just an iteration.

0zemp1c• 3 years ago

but I am not comfortable with it, this is not a success, this is work in progress and so far this launcher is unproven

we need a "middlebrow dismissal" link

spacemark• 3 years ago

That's really not how engineering tests work - the objectives of the test were met, by definition that's a success. Not achieving stretch goals doesn't make it a failure.

Of course it's a work in progress and the launcher is unproven. But damn, that was an amazing first attempt. With more vehicles already in integration, I have little doubt they'll eventually nail this.

guardian5x• 3 years ago

It was a test, an experiment. The outcome gave them lots of valuable data. They all knew the likelihood of it failing was very high, so its nice to have it work better than expected.

zachruss922• 3 years ago

Having the culmination of your work for the past several years actually culminate in a test flight is definitely a thing to celebrate in my opinion. The test flight is a ... test ... of a hypothesis that this system will make it to space (technically not orbit this flight).

Even with the failure they undoubtedly gathered loads of metrics to address for their next attempt.

The promise of Starship will lower the financial and logistical barriers of getting to space significantly which has the potential to open our civilization to tons of new possibilities that we haven't even considered yet.

stephc_int132• 3 years ago

Launching rockets is very hard, clearly, and this one is quite big.

At this point, I don't believe Elon Musk words, I think the guy is not "fully there", unfortunately, I've heard too much bullshit.

I also think that some of the best rocket engineers on the planet are working at SpaceX and that they could achieve their mission, but I'll fully believe it when it is done.

I hope that Elon ego will not ruin this.

Symmetry2• 3 years ago

What I was really worried about was an explosion at the launch pad, that would have really delayed things so I'm glad that didn't happen. Par for the course in developing a new rocket seems to be two failures in the first 10 launches, so they can have their next one fail too and still not get a bogey. I hope they at least make it to stage separation next time though.

hallqv• 3 years ago

Congrats spacex team!!! Keep inspiring the rest of us!!!

abudabi123• 3 years ago

Not all the engines were lit. Were they within margin for stage sep and if not how many engines can they afford to lose from the thirty three?

Starship Flight Test (Launch in 1 hour)

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