SpaceX Falcon 9 engine explodes in orbit! Starlink and Starliner astronauts in jeopardy! 

ATTENTION IRRITATING HATERS!!! This is, word for word, what SpaceX says happened to that Merlin engine: "Upper stage restart to raise perigee resulted in an engine RUD for reasons currently unknown." Now, what does RUD mean? Don't think about it too long...you'll strain yourselves. So I didn’t lie about the engine exploding. I haven't lied ONCE in the history of this channel! Also, I wasn't the first journalist to talk about the implications for human spaceflight! spacenews.com/falcon-9-suffers-upper-stage-engine-failure/

I still would ride cargo dragon in a lawn chair before I rode on Starliner.

Regarding your comments on the ISS and crew Dragon I think the thing you're forgetting is that SpaceX has plenty of second stages available. We're not talking about a old Legacy space company that might be able to produce one or two a year. Rather SpaceX could send multiple crew dragons empty to the ISS to recover people if necessary. That's the genius of doing space at scale you've got a lot of backups and another second stage failure isn't going to harm anybody since the dragon is going to use its own thrust

Crew Dragon separates after SECO-1 and makes the rest of the way to the ISS using Draco thrusters. The Starlink 9-3 mission achieved nominal orbit insertion despite the apparent icing around the M-Vac engine. It was the second burn to circularise the orbit that didn't happen. As such, I believe this kind of anomaly would not have prevented mission success for a Dragon launch, but there's no doubt that it's a cause for concern.

No launch platform is going to be 100% fault free, space is hard and unforgiving.

What an amazing technical masterpiece. The engine explodes and keeps on working...

Just a sec... With Crew Dragon, there is no SE restart, where this engine (allegedly) blew up. And the second stage was in a parking orbit already, not decaying.

Explodes? When? MALFUNCTIONED is more accurate.

Considering this hasn't happened until now after all these launches can probably just be as simple as an isolated incident where this particular falcon 9 wasn't inspected as thorough as others.

Exploded might be a strong word to use hence there was no explosion. Anomaly would be preferred since F9 is a very reliable rocket

As the old saying goes, space flight is never routine.

AA couldnt wait to report on a space x failure, so he made a mistake and didnt notice😂 Dragon Capsule separates after Stage 2 engine cut off. So a crewed flight wouldnt have been in jeopardy

At worst, considering how spacex operates, this will be a minor disruption, it is unlikely that anything of note will arise from all this despite how others will try to use it.

AA headlines for the next two weeks; "EXPLOSION SPELLS END FOR SPACE X", "ELON MUSK DECISION MADE ENGINE EXPLODE", "FAILURE TO PREDICT FUTURE WILL DOOM SPACE X"

"SpaceX Falcon 9 engine explodes in orbit!" Nice MSM title.....

I was one of those who watched the launch and noticed the unusual ice build up as well as what looked like a propellant leak.

No doubt they'll want to understand what happened before a crewed launch, but nothing would prevent them from sending up an empty Crew Dragon as a life raft.

The past generation of rockets had a critical failure rate of about 1 out of 75. NASA set the rate for these new boosters at 1 out of 200. Yes, they are aware of the risk given the complexity and amount of energy involved. It’s the major reason for redundancy using separate companies for booster and crew vehicles. This is an issue, it’ll be examined and corrected, until it happens again sometime in the future. It’s the nature of the endeavor.

can someone explain to me why 90% of all RU-vidrs who do space stuff are ***** clickbaiters ??

Just cause its 2024 don't stop space travel from being dangerous.

Yeah, this again. Starliner can return to Earth, it's the service module that has problems, not the capsule itself. Dragon 2 is designed to carry 7 people on board, and it's still attached to the ISS, and NASA made a scenario to use Dragon 2 for extra astronauts during that time when the Russians tried to destroy the ISS. I'm sure SpaceX will investigate this pretty soon, it's not their first rodeo.

I wouldn’t call that an explosion. The ship wasn’t lost and continued to function. So I would call it a minor malfunction. We’ll see but I doubt this will cause any delays to manned launches. As for Boeing, they are clearly in deep trouble. Really the logical thing to do would be to use their craft to return cargo as it is unclear on its safety and send up a rescue craft, either another less faulty Boeing or a proven and reliable SpaceX craft.

SpaceX invited everyone and their grandma to tour the factory, everyone except Angry Astronaut. Every small malfunction will be an explosion from now on. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Space is hard

Although an investigation/resolution may be required to launch crew, a crew dragon can still be sent to the ISS to recover "stranded" astronauts, as it can travel and dock autonomously. Replacing crew could be an issue, but I believe recovering crew would pose no concerns.

Somewhere…some place….boeings got a bounce in their step today 😂

Saying explosion is clickbait imo. Keep the content, and headlines accurate or you threaten credibility.

"Upper stage restart to raise perigee resulted in an engine RUD for reasons currently unknown. Team is reviewing data tonight to understand root cause. Starlink satellites were deployed, but the perigee may be too low for them to raise orbit. Will know more in a few hours," Musk said via X about two hours after liftoff. "RUD" is short for "rapid unscheduled disassembly" - SpaceX-speak for an explosion or disintegration. (Perigee, in case you were wondering, is the point in an object's orbit when it's closest to Earth.) An hour after Musk's post, SpaceX provided more details via the company's X account. "During tonight’s Falcon 9 launch of Starlink, the second-stage engine did not complete its second burn. As a result, the Starlink satellites were deployed into a lower-than-intended orbit. SpaceX has made contact with 5 of the satellites so far and is attempting to have them raise orbit using their ion thrusters," the company wrote.

I mean they successfully launched and recovered the booster with successful missions over 350 times with the Falcon 9, so I think it will be okay.

Ok, cover this like Starliner: BREAKING NEWS! Falcon 9 Grounded NASA Unable to Resupply ISS Due to Failed Rocket-Supplies Running Low Polaris Dawn On Hold Next ISS Crew Stranded on the Ground See how silly this is.

Oh no, SpaceX isn't perfect. Fuck, the most reliable rocket ever, Soyuz, has had failures.

I watch them ALL. Saw it.

This is very very good. Space X was not getting any opportunity to learn anything new. This will be a good learning new failure modes and get more data.

Starliner can return, they just want to spend as long as possible understanding the problems that have arisen because the service module isn't being brought back, and you can't learn any more from it once it's burned up. For SpaceX, the fact that one engine has failed after so many have not failed, isn't an excuse to dismiss it as a one-off. NASA will want to know why THiS engine failed, and not let go until they have definitive answers.

Damn....everyone else has a failure or mishap....it like oh well, jus try again itll be ok.....youll get it next time.....but god forbid if SpaceX has a mishap....it like its the end of space flight....and elon is the devil.....WTF..... Glad you posted this lil update, i was one of them that missed the launch and had no idea this happened till this morning!!! Keep up the good work, Jordan! 🤟

Wow, you got that up fast!

Engine explosion... Then shows a engine not exploding. Dude has gone down hill fast.

space will never be rutine

ironically if this had been the upper stage for a Crew Dragon we would have been none the wiser unless a relight is required to deorbit the upper stage (and long after Dragon seperation).

I was watching from California and was surprised to see the live feed cut off

I’m going to go out on a limb and make an educated guess of a valve failure/malfunction causing the unscheduled rapid disassembly…

There goes the whole “send SpaceX to rescue Starliner” discussion.

My favorite source for bad news about … well, many things. As long as you refrain from blowing up SpaceX merchandise I’ll be a fan. You and Ellie are my two favorite sources of timely SpaceX news, atm.

Butch and Suni looking at each other like 😳

You eat one foot and you are branded a cannibal for the rest of your life.

Hi from north Africa. I'm surprised you said hi to your viewers in Africa. Been following your channel for 2 years now.

But crew dragon doesn't need the rocket to get it back to Earth. Easy to get an empty crew dragon to the space station with no threat to anyone?

Excellent reporting 👍

I was watching this launch last night, and l have never seen that much ice coming off an engine!! Something had to be leaking bad...

Rockets blow up sometimes.

You could clearly see propellant leaking out in a thin stream, in the more zoomed out view just near the j shaped pipe.

Nothing to worry! All was good until something strange hapend. I presume that was a puncture from space debris . In 7 years you are happy that this was the first time. GO SPACE X

Saw a dodgy channel had just the video with nothing. Wasn’t sure if it was fake. Sure he’d twitter and saw Elons tweet. Decided to wait for your video. Thanks AA

I'm with Angry on this one. If we can't PROVE it was hit by Oumuamua or somehow got snagged by it's massive solar sail we should scrap SpaceX and use Soyuz. Go red or go dead😂

I'd rather come back on Dragon than take my chances with the Russian capsule, which has had its own problems recently.

OH, Boing. Sounds like a part falling off an airplane. Hey where did the door go?

Im sure elon will want some answers ASAP regarding this anomoly !

Starliner... not stranded, but can't come home.

Big Deal! Nothing is perfect. They've gone a long time without any major failures. I wouldn't crucify SpaceX because of one engine. Now if you talk about Starliner...

Definitely an unfortunate turn of events. Hopefully the investigation will be quick & the vehicle won’t be grounded.

Thank you for catching and reporting it quickly.

If only we had 70s tech...then every launch would be flawless untill voyager and challenger

This was how the alien movie ended😮 the 👽 👾 is thrown into the engine 😊

It looks like the computer intelligence in charge of this rocket engine didn't even miss a beat.

Looks like that rocket wasn't even moving

Crew Dragons are already on ISS to return same crew that launched on them. This only affects further crew launches.

Thanks for the update and views 🇺🇲🇺🇦

Add another edge case to the knowledge base

I watched ! There was a lot of ice, they said 'no problem' but ...

Dragon was only at 134 km after SECO1. That did not seem to be right to me. The ice spray was going on during the first firing of stage 2. Likely Falcon 9 is OOS for at least the next year, and the FAA will pull the human rating. The Northrop Grumman resupply mission on August 3 is also in jeopardy.

Looked like it was venting fuel, they said lots of frost.

Everyone making comments needs to note that the footage we have is during the 1st burn by the second stage, showing the build up of an ice (likely LOX). We don't have footage from the 2nd burn where it did a RUD of some sort. Ah, so the engine had some major issues. So, I hope they let us (and NASA) know exactly what happened. Was it a fuel or oxidizer leak? Did a turbopump have a RUD? How did it escape quality control? Will be interesting to find out. Still, they have an enviable track record. Over 300 successful fights. New Glenn has er, zero. "Stranded" is a bit of a hyperbole though. NASA said that in case of an ISS emergency, they would indeed ride Starliner home. Beggars can't be choosers I guess. "Any port in a storm" and all that. Wonder if the Russians even have a Soyuz that is ready to go and could be sent up with one pilot to bring them home?

Wow

Maybe it is just me...but I cannot see the engine exploding... Clickbait crap spells doom for small "content" creators, you know?

I was expecting to see the second stage engine explode through whole of the video, but saw only ice building up. Is there any video of it which shows it exploding?

SpaceX, Astronauts, starlink in TROUBLE 😂😂😂😂😂 Got to get those clicks ! 😉

Very worrying considering astronauts rely on this engine type!

I really don't know much about the subject, but the spacex capsules all come down again. Can't they be sent up empty on autopilot?

Exploration is hard, and the further you go, the harder it gets. There will be more tragedies, because every road man has ever traveled, their bones remain to pave way for others to follow. The space program has had casualties before, and not just the shuttle crew. Thankfully, this looks not to be one of those type of a losses. But Boing's reputation is taking a lot of body blows lately, what with doors, and wheels, and various parts falling off. Bad optics.🤣

So a 2nd stage malfunction on launch means a dragon capsule can't re enter?

Well, at least it was just a starlink launch

dang the space debris is what sucks here one orbit taken off the list

You didn't show any rocket engines exploding. It seemed to be firing fine.

I pray that the astronauts will eventually be safely brought back to Terra Firma. Perhaps the Saturn V should be brought back into commission along with the old space shuttle?

I could see the propellant leak.

And here we are. The reason why Starliner exists. This is it right here

Calling BS on this one (again). This was the second stage of Starlink launch and NOT A DRAGON or BOOSTER. Just not the same at all. Please try to not be hyperbolic about this stuff.

Thank God we have Starliner to fall back on... or I mean trip over in the garage.

While this was bound to happen eventually and I think crew would be able to return to earth fairly safely if it happened, angry is right that NASA is going to want a significant investigation to make sure this does not happen on a Crew dragon launch.

Isnt starlink orbit higher than ISS? Not sure this comparable. Kinda shortsighted to just throw this out there, second stage failed on one mission out of literally hundreds. It's gotta be an easily identifiable error to this specifc second stage.

Dragon would have been fine. The initial burn completed correctly. The re-light failed. Clearly the 2nd stage engine was leaking (fuel?) during the initial burn video. But it did complete the burn. They will find out what the issue was and make the rocket better and even more reliable. It is what they do.

That may mean that Butch and Suny (braid it!) are going to have to prolong their stay.

Well, on a rescue mission, Dragon would be unmanned at this point of failure right? I agree an investigation is warranted. But in real life, this part of the spacecraft would be jettisoned prior to docking and picking up humans.

"And a Cheery on the Top" wrong. And a Cherry on the Bottom" when melting scrap aluminum cans in discarded presurised cylinders.

So no rescue ship for astronauts stuck on ISS any time soon

Like on the freeway when you hop in a car some bad things happen Meh

That video seems to show fluid coming off too. Probably a liquid oxygen leak.

umm ya i dont see that sir..crew dragon isn't starlink..re lights..ect.. your just angry..period

Status is now partial failure after second stage failed to restart. Starlink satellites have been successfully deployed in a lower orbit.

First failure of an upper stage for a Block 5 rocket. Only the 2nd failure of the upper stage in general over 254 flights. This upper stage is as comparable in safety/reiliabity to Centaur 3 that has been a part of Atlas 3 and 5 rockets since the year 2000. Knowing SpaceX this will be taken care of relatively quick.