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Starship Flight 7

(www.spacex.com)
649 points chinathrow | 1 comments | 16 Jan 25 21:25 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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terramex ◴[16 Jan 25 23:04 UTC] No.42732041[source]▶
Looks like second stage broke up over Caribbean, videos of the debris (as seen from ground):

https://x.com/deankolson87/status/1880026759133032662?t=HdHF...

https://x.com/realcamtem/status/1880026604472266800

https://x.com/adavenport354/status/1880026262254809115

Moment of the breakup:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DE52_hVSeQz/

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dpifke ◴[17 Jan 25 01:58 UTC] No.42733260[source]▶
Preliminary indication is that we had an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity.

Apart from obviously double-checking for leaks, we will add fire suppression to that volume and probably increase vent area. Nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month.

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1880060983734858130

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coldtea[dead post] ◴[17 Jan 25 05:06 UTC] No.42734284[source]▶
[flagged]
askl ◴[17 Jan 25 13:16 UTC] No.42737195[source]▶
It's just taxpayer money they're blowing up, so it doesn't really matter.
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ericd ◴[17 Jan 25 14:21 UTC] No.42737755[source]▶
They're blowing up their own money, unless you still count it as being the taxpayer's after the government pays them for launch services.
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pclmulqdq ◴[17 Jan 25 14:47 UTC] No.42738032[source]▶
R&D for starship has a several-billion-dollar NASA grant. Something like 30-50% of the money being blown up on this program is taxpayer money.
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ericd ◴[17 Jan 25 14:58 UTC] No.42738161{5}[source]▶
Fair. I think that was for HLS rather than the launch systems, but I guess if it’s already been disbursed, it’s probably all commingled.

But that still means it’s not just taxpayer money, it’s mostly theirs. They’ve been raising equity rounds this whole time.

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1. Alex-Programs ◴[17 Jan 25 15:10 UTC] No.42738311{6}[source]▶
It hasn't been disbursed yet (entirely). They get rewards for certain accomplishments.