Originally published at: Starship Reaches Space Before Falling Into Ocean - AVweb
Tuesday’s test flight made progress but didn’t achieve its goals.
The mission failed. It went teets up. Who are you trying to fool.
The main goal was to test Starship’s heat shield on reentry. Instead, it lost control, tumbled, and slammed into the Indian Ocean. The Super Heavy booster also blew up. That’s two losses, no controlled reentry, no successful heat shield test.
But the report tries to dress it up with lines like “Starship reached space,” and “lots of good data to review.” That’s PR (read BS) speak. Sure, reaching space is something, but that wasn’t the mission. Acting like they scored a win because they collected data is like calling a blown engine test a success because you got to analyze the shrapnel.
SpaceX wants to launch every few weeks. Fine. But let’s not pretend this was anything more than another fiery loss, just a slightly more sophisticated one.
The real story?
Same rocket, new crater.
2 Likes
It seems to me that SpaceX is trying to do something completely new here; there are bound to be failures.
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena , whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
~Theodore Roosevelt
3 Likes
“Starship Reaches Space Before Falling In Ocean” as the headline of yesterday’s SpaceX misadventure should become exhibit A in journalism 101 of impotent, misleading headlining. Is someone at AvWeb groveling for a PR job at SpaceX?
“Starship Reaches Space Before Falling In Ocean” […] should become exhibit A in journalism 101 of impotent, misleading headlining.
Did it not reach space? Did it not fall into the ocean?
[And “Impotent” headlining?]
1 Like
Maybe you can do better, Raf. If you aren’t failing, you aren’t doing anything.
1 Like
Well, SpaceX could use the NASA/Boeing method. Spend billions of dollars over a couple decades, accomplish almost nothing, and then cancel the project. You know the methods used for the SLS and the Starliner.
2 Likes
At taxpayer expense. What a gig.
A few days ago I posted this message on another site…
“I have low expectations… changes-on-changes-on-changes-on-changes-etc… often result in ‘new unanticipated consequences’.”
But the jury is waiting for hard evidence… either way.
As a reminder… EVERY Saturn V launch 1960s/1970s was a mission success for the Launcher.
As I recall, S-IC & S-II BOTH lost 1-engine during their burn phases, different missions… but extending burn time for the remaining engines achieved the staging goals. The S-IVB stahe performed almost flawlessly. NO SATURN V FLIGHT was ever compromised by any element of the Saturn V launch vehicle… which was the intent of 1st & 2nd stage redundancy design.
Also, a side note… the Russians eventually asked NASA “why the Saturn V did not become the heavy lifter for NASA, due to it’s impressive flight record”?? NASA responded, simply, “S-V’s congressionally funded mission was completed… and the reusable Space Shuttle… it’s replacement… was already in preliminary design”. Cough.
1 Like
Reaching space before falling into the ocean is not news. Alan Shepard did that back in 1961 and lived to tell the story. Failing to achieve primary mission goals is the headline of this recent Starship mission.
Raymo: “If you aren’t failing, you aren’t doing anything.”??
A nonsensical excuse to soften a failure.
“…demise a little bit.” 
WOW! That has to be the quote of the month. Kinda like being slightly pregnant. Or, “It’s just a flesh wound!”.
Good thing it slam into Mumbai instead.
1 Like
I guess Elon will be firing the director of the FAA again, or in this case the acting director.
Gotta just love the tripe we keep seeing in this section, e.g., firing the FAA Administrator.
While I’m a great supporter of SpaceX and look forward to every launch, I’m extremely disappointed that a leak could cause such a failure. What do they suppose the cause of the leak was. A bit of grit under a B-nut? Maybe someone missed tightening a connection? Maybe a 100% oxygen atmosphere and flammable components? Oh, that was Apollo I. Never mind. The “experts” in the comments section will surely come up with the cause.
Tesla sales are down. Gotta sink some more rockets at taxpayers expense… 
Hey Jason, I think the taxpayer funded rockets are the Falcon 9 and they’re pretty much paying for themselves. And how are Tesla sales related? Oh, I get it, your current “enemy of the state” is involved. Sheesh…
2 Likes
With the repeated & various errors with Starship, I’m concerned there will be an error that causes innocent, unknowing people to lose their lives.
I think the primary goal of this flight was for the ship (2nd stage) to make it to Second-Stage Engine Cutoff (SECO), as the previous flights of this second version of the ship didn’t make it. That is progress.
Also to note, this flight used one of the previously flown boosters, with several of the engines being reused, with one of the engines being reused twice before. Another note to progress. Those engines performed well, from what I can tell.
The booster failed in part because they were changing the profile of the reentry. They were going to test partial engine descent, and perhaps the fuel was sloshing quite a bit and caused the explosion. Again, this was a test of something new. More data is good.
Could you imagine NASA back in the day trying to make all of the Saturn V rocket reusable? If SpaceX’s goal wasn’t to make Starship reuseable, I think you’d see more “progress” in getting to Mars.
Now, I think the idea of colonizing Mars is a bit nuts, but if people want to do that, then have at it. It’s not for me, but others seemingly want to.