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Starship Flight 7

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649 points chinathrow | 1 comments | 16 Jan 25 21:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.209s | 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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raverbashing ◴[17 Jan 25 05:49 UTC] No.42734474[source]▶
I'm not sure there's fire suppression effective enough for this type of leak (especially given rocket constraints)
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m4rtink ◴[17 Jan 25 09:21 UTC] No.42735617[source]▶
Actually the Super Heavy (first stage) already uses heavy CO2 based fire suppression. Hopefully not that necessary in the long term, but should make it possible to get on with the testing in the short term.
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Alive-in-2025 ◴[17 Jan 25 17:08 UTC] No.42740467[source]▶
What is a long term solution for this? Is there something more than "build tanks that don't leak"? I'm sure spaceX has top design and materials experts, now what ;-).
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1. m4rtink ◴[17 Jan 25 17:24 UTC] No.42740720[source]▶
I think its likely not the tanks but rather the plumbing to engines and the engines themselves leaking (sense lines, etc).

Next engine revision (Raptor 3) should help, as it is much simplified and quite less likely to leak or get damaged during flight.