CaughtCross
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 2,933
- 5,708
The Astronomy Thread
- Thread starter Araxen
- Start date
-
Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Kiroy
Marine Biologist
- 35,321
- 102,338
ya they just need to dial in the power on the final landing, but that was pretty much a best case scenario
- 1
Oldbased
> Than U
- 28,424
- 67,392
Just missed it bringing in groceries but Murrica F ya. SpaceX is the future.
Hard to tell what was and wasn't planned because as the release said yesterday they want DATA as much as they can get about various scenarios.
The next SNs are already built and have more features/advancements so the fact this grain silo flew was huge.
Hard to tell what was and wasn't planned because as the release said yesterday they want DATA as much as they can get about various scenarios.
The next SNs are already built and have more features/advancements so the fact this grain silo flew was huge.
- 1
Dandain
Trakanon Raider
- 2,092
- 917
That was a massive success. Just massive. The fact it failed how it failed. They got data on every system. And that flip maneouver seemed so aggressive, was amazing to watch it right itself, just not enough time to slow the fall.
Edit: I'm guessing the rocket engine shutoffs are intentional, or at least what we see is the remaining engines re-gimbling their thrust to stabalize the flight with the loss of 1/3 then 2/3rd of power. On the reignition at least two engines fired back up to right itself. One of them could have failed, but the movement is definitely related to stabilizing with the change in thrust I think.
Edit: I'm guessing the rocket engine shutoffs are intentional, or at least what we see is the remaining engines re-gimbling their thrust to stabalize the flight with the loss of 1/3 then 2/3rd of power. On the reignition at least two engines fired back up to right itself. One of them could have failed, but the movement is definitely related to stabilizing with the change in thrust I think.
- 2
Oldbased
> Than U
- 28,424
- 67,392
I'm sure you've seen the falcons land enough to see the course correction on those at the last second sometimes snaps them hard even though it was mostly righted.
Just like they only burn one engine on reentry and not all 9.
The engine plume at the end was bright green. Not sure if it was out of one of the 2 fuels or testing a new propellent at the end.
- 2
Might have been a test. See it can self-correct and continue flight with unexpected engine loss. All three lit back up just fine on the final landing burn.
Mudcrush Durtfeet
Hungry Ogre
- 2,428
- -757
Seeing something so large spin so fast and NOT lose control was crazy.
It would be terrifying to be aboard such a craft when it was doing that though.
Clean up on aisle 4!
It would be terrifying to be aboard such a craft when it was doing that though.
Clean up on aisle 4!
- 1
Ukerric
Bearded Ape
- 8,311
- 10,287
Scott Manley (who made a quick appearance on LabPadre permanent cam at Boca Chica) dissected the entire flight, if you're interested:
TL;DW: The rockets shutting one after the other are because the SN8 was reaching maximum intended speed (first), then maximum altitude (second). And Scott nailed it when he spoke earlier: the main risk there was the fuel tanks maintaining enough pressure to let the engines function. At least one of the two raptors that needed relighting had not enough fuel, meaning the oxygen was burning the engine rather than fuel (hence the green flame) and not enough thrust to stop the rocket on the pad rather than "below it".
Actually no. Just one, the fuel tank didn't provide enough fuel to the last engine light up. If it had, SN8 would have landed (and maybe keeled over from some weak leg or something)
That's why there's SN9 to... SN16 already in the pipeline.
Last edited:
Ukerric
Bearded Ape
- 8,311
- 10,287
Only two did relight. You see it more clearly on slow-mo, but engine 42 (rofl) didn't light up for the landing and gimballed to the side to let the other two work.
Zindan
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 6,999
- 4,664
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
- 47,372
- 80,774
Unless you're embedded deeply within the SpaceX team working on this particular flight you've got no idea how many things went wrong. Presuming that the only thing that went wrong is the primary problem that caused the RUD is naive. A big part of rapid prototyping isn't just building something, seeing if it explodes, and then if it explodes fixing the main reason it exploded, but also deeply ingraining diagnostics within the system to notify of less visible problems and to fix those too. This is even more important in these systems where you get precious few chances to actually test the system.
meStevo
I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
- 6,493
- 4,773
Which is why this was probably a perfect test. More than they could have hoped for, even if they stuck the landing successfully. That'd have been even greater for PR, but exposing this potential issue, getting the complete flight profile and all the related data. Just an amazing test and effort by their teams with multiple starships ready/nearly ready to accept adjustments and go again and again and again.
- 1
Looks like the axis rotation is much closer to the nose on that rotation. Much less motion there than at the tail. Might be intentional to remove g forces from passengers during propulsive landing. As crew dragon does the parachute water landing.