Hi everybody, welcome back to the show.
Today we're going to do our final episode of Starship Week
for the Starship IFT 2 launch. I'm your host, Will Walden and
this rocket, the Starship rocket experienced A partial success in
a dramatic failure during its latest test flight.
The spacecraft, which is designed for deep space
missions, managed to launch and separate from its Super Heavy
booster, but ultimately ended in an explosion.
In the first phase of the flight, the Super Heavy booster
successfully ignited all 33 Raptor engines, feat that has
been challenging even in ground tests.
However, after the Starship spacecraft separated and
continued its ascent, the booster unexpectedly exploded.
The Starship reached an impressive altitude near the
edge of space before encountering issues that led to
the loss of signal and the activation of its self destruct
mechanism. Now, this incident is a reminder
of the complexities of this gigantic rocket, especially with
new in these untested tech. Now, the FAA has already
announced an investigation into this mishap.
Now let's explore this event a little bit more.
Now let's talk about the flight. The recent SpaceX Starship
launch marked another huge step in the company's pursuit of
space exploration. The launch saw the Starship
spacecraft lift off with a super heavy booster, achieving a
successful separation. Unfortunately, the booster
exploded post separation, a set back that overshadowed the
partial success of this whole flight.
But it's the complete success in my mind.
SpaceX aimed to push the spacecraft to near orbital
velocities. This is a huge milestone for
them, and it's for the future of their deep space missions.
And despite reaching a significant altitude, the
spacecraft ultimately lost contract and triggered its self
destruct mechanism, a safety measure to prevent it from
veering off course and hurting people and property.
Now John Insprucker, we call him Daddy over here with the the
SpaceX fan club over here who's an aerospace engineer, explained
the late activation of the flight termination system.
He works at SpaceX, which occurred over the Gulf of Mexico
and this incident highlights the inherent risks in testing
advanced rocket technology. SpaceX statement emphasized the
learning approach, underscoring that each test, regardless of
its outcome, contributes to improving Starships reliability.
And the FAA's involvement with a statement confirming no injuries
or damage to public property sets the stage for a little bit
of more of a thorough investigation into this and
they'll just be uncovering the root cause of this incident.
But the FAA swift response to Space XS Starship test flight
It's an important aspect of the ongoing development of the
Starship. Their statement confirmed the
occurrence of a mishap, which resulted in the loss of the
Starship vehicle, but thankfully reported no injuries or damage
to public property. The agency's role is crucial in
ensuring that such ambitious aerospace endeavors adhere to
safety standards and regulations.
They have initiated A mishap investigation to determine the
specific causes of Starship's failure, and I'm assuming that
once they figure out what the causes were, they will make sure
that SpaceX addresses those concerns for the IFT 3 launch,
which will be coming up probably in the first quarter of next
year. The FAA's investigation is
standard procedure following such events, aiming to provide
insights that can prevent future incidents.
The decision on whether the Starship Super Heavy vehicle can
return to flight will depend on the findings of this
investigation and their assessment of Spacex's measures
to ensure public safety. And the duration of the
investigation is uncertain. As previous inquiries had taken
several months, this one might be a little bit less time, and
this process demonstrates the FAA's commitment to overseeing
the safety of aerospace developments.
Now we have to talk about the hot staging.
This is a new part of the Starship IFT 2.
SpaceX Starship test flight brought attention to the complex
process of what they call hot staging.
This is the technique used during the Rockets launch.
This method of first for SpaceX on Saturday is part of the stage
separation process. Unlike the pneumatic pushers
used in the Falcon 9 rocket, Starship separation involved
igniting its engines to detach from the Super heavy booster.
So the top part ignites the engines while it's still
attached to the bottom part. And this aggressive separation
approach, referred to as separation by blunt force
trauma, was identified as the riskiest part of the flight by
Elon Musk. An explosion of a super heavy
booster post hot staging was an unexpected outcome, indicating
the challenges of this new technique.
Although SpaceX was prepared for the possibility of the booster
not surviving, they actually didn't expect it to survive.
They expected to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico and
disintegrate, and the actual event provided valuable data for
future improvements of hot staging and the booster flip
back maneuver. Now the goal was to reignite the
Super heavy engines for a controlled landing, a plan that
went kind of awry. Kate Tai, senior manager at
SpaceX, acknowledged the dynamic nature of hot staging and its
potential risks, and this incident underscores.
After the tumultuous hot staging, the Starship spacecraft
continued its ascent, though showcasing that SpaceX is on the
ball. With their engineering
capabilities, Mission Control erupted into cheers.
The Starship near the end of its engine burn, seemingly on course
for Earth's orbit. However, the situation took a
turn when SpaceX lost video signal with the spacecraft,
followed by the loss of data. And usually when you lose data
from a spacecraft, something pretty bad happened.
Now this indicated the Starship was not performing as planned,
leading to the activation of its Flight Termination System in the
spacecraft journey, which was intended to complete nearly a
full orbit around Earth. The splashdown near Hawaii was
cut a little bit short, and this abrupt end to the test flight
highlights the unpredictable nature of starships and
especially with these new technologies.
And since this is only the 2nd test flight, it's going to get
better every single time. The early termination of the
flight, while disappointing, is a part of the iterative process
of testing and learning and rocket development.
The recent Starship incident bears a resemblance to the first
launch attempt in April, sort of, but a super heavy booster
experienced engine failures leading to an out of control
spiral and activation of the self destruct feature.
These repeated mishaps demonstrates the challenges that
SpaceX faces in developing such a complex and massive rocket
system. However, the company's approach
to rocket development is notably different from traditional
methods. SpaceX embraces learning
opportunities presented by these gigantic fireballs in the sky,
and they're kind of mishaps, and they use them to enhance their
designs and strategies going forward.
The rebuilding and upgrading of the launch site in the Starship
systems following the April mishap, their philosophy of
learning through flying and testing, as opposed to relying
solely on ground simulations and models, has been a key aspect of
the rapid development cycle. This approach, while sometimes
leading to dynamic failures, is instrumental in Spacex's pursuit
of breakthroughs in space technology.
I want to say thank you so much for listening to the show today.
Today's discussion highlighted the complexities and the
challenges in Spacex's journey to advanced space exploration
technology. The recent Starship test flight,
while not fully successful, provided valuable insights for
Spacex's ongoing development, and as investigations continue,
we look forward to understanding more about this important event
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