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upps SN10 had Rapid Unexpected Disassembly
Even though it didnt stay intact, this was one of the most insane and epic moments of my life. The sheer magnitude, the raw power, & just the thought of what the future may hold for us all. Even though we’re a long way from Mars, we’re a lot closer than yesterday. Godspeed SN10
Starship SN10 landed in one piece!
SpaceX team is doing great work! One day, the true measure of success will be that Starship flights are commonplace.
RIP SN10, honorable discharge
This is a composite image of SN10's launch and landing. I set this camera to shoot one frame a second, threw out any overlapping shots and stacked them all so we can see the trajectory better. @NASASpaceflight
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On Wednesday, March 3, Starship serial number (SN10) successfully completed SpaceX’s third high-altitude flight test of a Starship prototype from our site in Cameron County, Texas.
Similar to the high-altitude flight tests of Starship SN8 and SN9, SN10 was powered through ascent by three Raptor engines, each shutting down in sequence prior to the vehicle reaching apogee – approximately 10 km in altitude. SN10 performed a propellant transition to the internal header tanks, which hold landing propellant, before reorienting itself for reentry and a controlled aerodynamic descent.
The Starship prototype descended under active aerodynamic control, accomplished by independent movement of two forward and two aft flaps on the vehicle. All four flaps were actuated by an onboard flight computer to control Starship’s attitude during flight and enabled a precise landing at the intended location. SN10’s Raptor engines reignited as the vehicle performed the landing flip maneuver immediately before successfully touching down on the landing pad!
You can watch a replay of the flight test above.
As if the flight test was not exciting enough, SN10 experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly shortly after landing. All in all a great day for the Starship teams – these test flights are all about improving our understanding and development of a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo on long-duration interplanetary flights, and help humanity return to the Moon, and travel to Mars and beyond.
Congratulations to the entire Starship and SpaceX teams on the flight test!
Exciting day & not over! #10 came through - flew to 10km, did the Adama maneuver, got the data we needed, flipped and landed! Time for #11...Geronimo! And more to come - I'm working Falcon 9 launch tonight. But no webcast for me, I've done mine today (abort, recycle, launch).
So we finally got an official name for the skydiving stuff Starship does and someone at Space X is obviously a Doctor Who fan
The FAA says it "will oversee the SpaceX investigation" of the "Starship SN10 prototype mishap... All debris appears to have landed within the designated hazard area and the company reports no injuries or public property damage."
The FAA will approve "any corrective actions SpaceX must take before return to flight is authorized." The probe would "validate that the safety systems performed as designed and that the analysis of public risk was accurate. It also will determine the root cause of the mishap."
Post stall, this thing can outmaneuver a Sukhoi!
View: https://twitter.com/rgvaerialphotos/status/1368988596137517059StarShip SN11 is out of the highbay and getting ready to roll towards the launch pad, we could possibly see another flight by the end of this month!
SN11
Raptors spotted!
Musk mentioned the other day that the engine didn't throttle up when commanded... no word yet on whyThe problem the first two times seemed to be restarting in a timely fashion with a rapid geometry change that the Falcon 9 never had to deal with. The third attempt seemed to be bad logic in the landing profile - all three engines restarted, so there were plenty of options, but the controller shut down one then two and the last engine didn't seem to have sufficient thrust to soften the landing. I assume this is a question of fine tuning the software that controls thrust and/or how many engines stay lit, it looks like so far they were banking too heavily on one engine being sufficient. It looks like they really are going to have to rely on two for almost the entire landing cycle to get it to come down soft enough reliably.