Spaaaaacceee ! (News)

[pacific]

I'm quite interested in space exploration, science, travel, history (all of it really!) and wondered if anyone else on the forum is too?

Some quite big space-news yesterday with the launch of the Falcon Heavy + Starship, which came to an explosive end (or 'rapid unscheduled disassembly', as it is also brilliantly known) 

spacenews.com/starship-lifts-off-on-first-integrated-test-flight-breaks-apart-minutes-later/

I'll have to say, whether it was labelled as a success or not (I'm not quite sure I understood all of the whooping and cheering as it exploded), the launch was extremely impressive. 30ft taller than the Saturn V rockets, it was the largest rocket ever launched. I was lucky enough to see a Saturn V in the flesh, and fulfil a childhood dream, when I visited Florida and the NASA museum a few years ago. I honestly don't think the videos of the launch capture the scale!

Am reading a book about Yuri Gagarin ('Beyond' by Stephen Walker), which is about the whole space race really, and my takeaway from the 50s and certainly early 60s is that an awful lot explodes and fails before they finally get it right. With apparently another 8 similar rockets in production hopefully next time they'll be able to analyse what went wrong here and get it better next time.

Anyway - floor is open for anyone else's thoughts on the launch, or anything else about space travel or exploration!

[crispy78]

Sounds like they hit the self-destruct button:
"At T+4:00, the vehicle broke apart when controllers activated the flight termination system on both the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage."

[Disciple of Fate]

Maybe it was my reading, but I didn't see it:

They sort of expected it to explode on the launch pad and damage vital systems. So the cheering came from the fact that even though it exploded, it did better than what was partially expected.

Edit: source

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told a conference in February that the "the real goal is to not blow up the launch pad."

www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/elon-musks-spacex-launches-debut-flight-starship-rocket-system-2023-04-20/

[rsquared]

It seems odd that, after the last few decades and the significant technological advances and knowledge base that's been built up, that these guys are happy that it didn't blow up on the launch pad. Personally I'd be expecting the thing to get a lot further.
But I'm no rocket scientist.

[adurot]

On the one hand I can understand it. Increasing the scale of something isn’t so simple as just making it bigger and expecting it to work the same

On the other hand, when I happened to check Twitter and saw the trending livestream of the ship just about to launch, I did totally stick around and watch it Just to see it explode because so many of their ships seem to.

Too lazy to look for a link now, but did you see it Obliterated the launch pad taking off and flung debris over a quarter a mile away to destroy at least one parked car with chunks of high speed flying concrete? Reportedly some shots of the water show debris splashing down even further out than that.

[Disciple of Fate]

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/04/21/spacex-starship-launch-debris-shrapnel/

Source on the extent of the damage.

[pacific]

I've read from an unverified source (Mastadon! haha) that the lack of escape/channels and trenches in the launchpad were responsible for some of debris and heat-wash coming back up and hitting the bottom of the rocket, this caused damage to some of the Raptor engines and was effectively what killed it. The bad part is that Musk over-ruled the engineering team for cost concerns about having those trenches built. Just checking whether this is correct and will feed back!

I know the Soviet/Russian launch areas just had a great big pit under their launch platforms (and still do at Baikonour), and Soyuz launch successfully from their all the time, so it obviously is a valid structure for launch.

[adurot]

Yeah, he rushed the launch time table and they didn’t install the infrastructure needed to reduce sound and debris. Dirt was blown as far as six miles away to cover a nearby town, apparently even shattering a window that far away.

gizmodo.com/flawed-spacex-starship-launch-texas-town-covered-dust-1850368682

[easye]

Big news about the Japanese private moon lander today. Anyone got any updates?

[Disciple of Fate]

They lost contact, will see if I can find a quick English source.

Edit: www.cnn.com/2023/04/25/world/lunar-lander-japan-uae-hakuto-r-scn/index.html

[pacific]

Damn that is disappointing.

[redchimera]

The clarity of the Earth in that picture linked from the Twitter feed is amazing! What a shame it's lost.

[pacific]

Not really 'news' but following the anniversary of man's first flight into Space, I have just been reading 'Beyond' by Stephen Walker. It's about Yuri Gagarin, but also the Mercury project that was taking place at the same time, and the contrasts between what the Russian and American astronauts were experiencing as part of the program. A fair amount of new material has become available over recent years, mostly diaries from the engineers and even one of the program cosmonauts (they would have been in severe trouble if it had been discovered!) but it's excellently written, and I would thoroughly recommend if you have an even passing interest in the 'space race'.

www.amazon.co.uk/Beyond-Times-Book-Year-2021/dp/0008372543/ref=asc_df_0008372543/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=499292279914&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7690187061544132563&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006886&hvtargid=pla-1292909586669&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

For a bit of news - The ESA's 'Juice' mission successfully launched month, heading off to study Jupiter's moons. An 8 year voyage to get there! 

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/science-environment-65258309