"A SpaceX engineering manager, said the rocket had suffered a 'rapid unscheduled disassembly' ".
Or, in other words, it blew itself to smithereens. I suppose that it's good to look on the bright side, though, even though it's in thousands of pieces.
Ah, the power of words.
Perhaps he should have had a few more goes at launching it in Kerbal Space Program 2 before trying the real thing.
I think they were pretty much expecting that, Musk said a few weeks back that the criteria for success was clearing the tower.
The spaceX people all booed when the countdown was paused at about T-40s and cheered wildly when it eventually blew up having spun round a few times after not separating.
Apparently the thrust left a crater, so if they launch from the same facility for the next one, some construction work is in order.
It's a good thing it cleared the pad. That's the "achievement".
It might have been blown by range-safety.
Paul
Here's what it did on the ground ...
My thought also.
I noticed at one point after lift-off they showed a view of the rocket engines firing. It's also here, about 25 seconds in
Possibly, though the whole thing was supposed to flip over before separation and stage2 ignition ...
The degree of gimballing on those engines should be able to overcome a number of failed engines before tumbling.
I don't recall the Saturn V launches doing that. Lots of flame directed out the side of the platform, but not huge dust clouds.
Yes, it was some kind of auto self-destruct mechanism. At least that worked!
Aren't most of them fixed, and just a few can be gimballed?
<google>yes the outer ring of 20 are fixed, the inner 13 can gimbal, which does sound like it should have a lot of manoeuvrability ...
But saturnV launches above a huge flame trench with millions of gallons of water being dumped into it, I presume boca chica is just a concrete pad with mostly beach and sand dunes around it?
I think that the NASA way worked better.
There were less visible failures but the outdated cost-plus style of funding was expensive. Also engine failures weren't publicised. By way of example you can check why baffles were placed in Stage 1 engines.
It's a good way to get rid of old engine parts, without paying a tipping fee.
"as many as eight engines appeared to have gone out"
Something was gnawing at the vitals as the ship was rising. There may not have been enough redundancy left for the next maneuver.
The gimbal system used to be hydraulic, but it switched to electric. This version of ship may well have had the old hydraulic gimbal, and there was a hydraulic problem, It's quite possible something was on fire on the way up, burned through some hydraulic kit, and so on.
I consider the whole thing a success, because now they have proof they need a flame trench. And none of the infrastructure got ruined by a giant explosion. The whole thing is a "time saver" :-)
Paul
like that useless virgin wummin who tried to spin that failure was a success....sacked
Never seen a virgin wummin....all used.
It didn't.
It was deliberately destroyed by a dude NASA would call the "range safety officer" once it was clear it wasn't going to separate. There's a difference between it blowing up and it being blown up even if end result is the same.
Well, it beats my DIY efforts in the 1950's with a cigar tube packed with sodium-chlorate-impregnated tissue paper and balsa fins attached with Durofix! Toppled over on the launch pad and burnt/melted into a little heap of fused ash, IIRC!
Oh, ok. One of the reports says that it was an automatic sensing system that caused it to self-destruct.
Quote: "The rocket reached a height of around 25 miles above the earth, before self-destructing after its automated flight termination system activated."
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