SpaceX's Massive Rocket Explodes Due to Rapid Unscheduled Digging 

Watching what is effectivley a skyscraper do several cartwheels in the air was something I'll remember. Surprised the connections to Starship were strong enough to withstand those forces.

When I saw it start tumbling, I was immediately reminded of many of my KSP rockets 🤣

That launch reminded me of an old story from the early days of the Atlas ICBM program. An Atlas was launched and the assembled group of program engineers watched anxiously. Groans broke out and became yells of dismay as the vehicle loss stability and performed a total of three loops before exploding. But while all this was happening there was one man who was cheering loudly, sounding like he was a rodeo. After the vehicle blew up the others turned to the cheering man and angrily asked what was wrong with him, didn't he realize that was a serious failure? He beamed back at them, clearly delighted. "Did you see those loops? That was fabulous! I'm with the structures group!"

Tumbling around at nearly mach 2 and not immediately disintigrating was incredibly impressive to me.

As we were watching the launch, my son said, “That’s the most KSP launch ever!”

Finally. The first serious and technically sound analysis of this event - in the Scott Manley quality we are used to expect. This as definitely worth the wait! Thank you very much! I also believe that stage zero is the main challenge - I never understood, why they did not build a proper flame diverter. It‘s quite different, if you start a solo starship with three engines or a super heavy booster with 33 engines. The crater is impressively massive!

I think there are a couple of problems. 1. The one thing you noted was the lag, my concern is that the launch clamps held the vehicle a bit too long. 2. Once it actually started moving it actually had pretty good acceleration, i will have to inspect the telemtry, but it seems to be higher than net 2 meters per second. - So I wonder if they thought they werent getting enough power, increased power to compensate for sticky launch clamp, and when that clamp finally released sent a shock wave up the system causing an O2 leak. -The problem might not have been immediately obvious, when the craft passed max Q tears in the skin of the craft might have allowed reconvergece shock wave to damage internal components. I think their rocket has too much fin on the top and not enough steering on the bottom. I would have the boost stage shorter and wider as this would give more control. Having it shorter means you have it higher of the pad and the ejecta is over a wider area, however see bottom, given the ISP this is hardly going to make that much of a difference. BTW, i did note the debris, if you look carefully, as the main engines clear the smoke there were a couple of large pieces of debris following them. It could be the case that erosion of the launch base caused the launch clamps to bind. After the rocket launched there was a huge piece of debris that i spotted behind the Launch tower. This ISP of those 327 which translates to an exhausted velocity of 3240 m/s or about 7000 mph. At the center of the plume its pretty much a gigantic plasma torch. Imagine that cutting through concrete.

Thanks Scott. I hadn't thought that blast debris knocked out a couple of engines (and possibly more damage) but now that seems very likely. Great recap and analysis!

Lmao, your live reaction was appropriate Scott. Also, holy crap that crater under the OLM was way worse than it looked in the first pic available.

It would be very interesting to know if a majority of failures can be back traced to damage due to flying debris of stage zero. I would not be surprised if some engines were struck.

I am honestly impressed how long and how many individual failures it took for the thing to explode. Great video.

Literally any engineer worth their weight could've told you that that pad was going to fail spectacularly

I think my favorite part about watching this was when I noticed how the vapor trail was moving. I have played enough KSP to recognize that effect and I instantly went "welp it won't make it"

I'm amazed the 2 bits of Starship stayed attached to each other for as long as they did. The stresses as it twisted and turned must have been incredible.

We're not going to be sending humans to Mars anytime soon.

That was the most Kerbal launch failure I've seen out of Space-X so far. Most people would say just exploding is the most Kerbal. But ask yourself if the following sounds like literally everyone's experience with a KSP launch at some point: You have this oversized stack on the pad, and stupid amounts of engines. Something breaks almost the moment you launch because there's always that one staging error... Worried, but undaunted, you pilot the inherently unstable and off-axis-thrust rocket to medium altitude, but you can already see the control slipping away as the air gets thinner and the CoM of the rocket shifts to the upper stage. It begins to slowly tumble, but your struts hold. However, the tumble ruins your outbound trajectory, so the rocket starts to fall back into the atmosphere. You desperately try to recover, but it just continues to cartwheel, and finally something snaps, and the chain-explosions begin. You enjoy the show before reverting to VAB.

I love that after it failed my immediate response was, "Can't wait for the Scott Manley video explaining what I just saw."

I'm so happy they actually show you what's going on in real time. Feels like I'm watching a KSP video haha

This is the first video of yours I've seen and I've got to say I'm impressed with how thorough you are about explaining your theories and supporting them with technical information. Great video!

Respect! Great video, packed with info and specifics. Extremely well done. You'll be my go-to source on these things now.

I'm super impressed by the whole thing spinning and going that much off prograde without disintegrating. Don't think I've ever seen a rocket do that before. Outside of KSP of course, where my rockets pretty much always do a somersault at some point before achieving orbit.

SpaceX engineers were patiently waiting for this video Scott could tell them what went wrong

Great explanation of what went wrong Scott thank you I really enjoy your channel!

Thanks Scott, always enjoy your commentary and insight!!

To me, the Manley Version is always the definitive version, and the wait was worth it. Deep insight as always. Thank you! I've got to say, though, that their Stage Zero was always going to be smithereens. I mean, what were they thinking? SLS very nearly wrote off its launch pad, so there was a precedent.

The fact that it didn't come apart spinning like that at those angles and speeds had me very surprised. That's one heck of a strong structure.

It was wild to see that thing even lift off of the ground - I expected much worse and was pleasantly surprised. One of the cooler things I've seen in my lifetime of watching these launches regardless of eventual disintegration

Awesome analysis Scott - thank you as always!

I was waiting for this! It's not official until Scott Manley does an analysis! Also, I really hope SpaceX release all the on-board footage. I want to see all the details.

This is a great post & explanation, as usual from you. Thanks & I'm trying to share it with my fellow space nerds. All the best and keep up the excellent content!

I think the internal view and the view looking down the rocket were supposed to capture the staging event. Also, at times during the tumble, I saw engine rich exhaust green a good distance from the vehicle.

I know next to nothing about rockets, but always come here for a thorough explanation that presents technical data in a relatable manner. Thank you again, Scott, for making a complicated subject easy for anyone to understand.

The fact that the structure held up that long while spinning out of control at 2,000kph is amazing!

@Scott Manley - Thank you for your informative and entertaining videos. This 62 year old guy learns a lot from both you and Mars Guy. I don't know if my grandkids will be raising hell on Mars but thanks to you & MG I'm able to envision what the future could be like.

4:58 you can quite clearly see that 6 engines are out (2x 2 in the outer ring and 2x 1 in the outer ring and middle), not 5 as per the HUD.

Best technical explanation yet, Scott you do not disappoint.

at T+1:28, you can see a massive fire in the engine skirt at the center, i think that the hydraulics are leaking everywhere at this point and spraying out into the exhaust plume causing the plume to burn orange, also this would explain the loss of control at the end as the hydraulics have completely run out of oil.

You’re the best Scott, keep up the excellent work!

This rocket launch is exactly what happens to me when I'm in bed with my gf. It's chaotic thrust at the beginning, 30 seconds of supersonic thrust, and an explosion at the end, then random clapping in the background.

This launch took me right back to my KSP days, when I launched rockets without doing any math.

Looks like Tom Scott made a surprise appearance, watching the launch with you 😮

Fantastic test, waiting for the next launch with great hopes!

It's so satisfying to watch SpaceX Rockets explode.

Thank you Scott, You are one of the few on RU-vid who reports facts with good explanation and no hype. I do respect your integrity.

Tom Scott and Scott Manley? Best crossover ever!

Scott, we need more detail and conjecture from you regarding the events seen during the launch: T+00:28 parts shedding from vehicle, T+00.32 bright flash in exhaust, T+01:11 intermittent bright flashes, T+01:56 big flare in exhaust plume, T+0.02:14 cloud/explosion inside the interstage skirt. Love your analysis so far!

Great video! Good comprehensive review of the aftermath of the launch. 🙂👍

When it did those flips with the second stage attached and did not break up it was truly an amazing sign of engineering

Been waiting for this update since the launch, you are the most technical space RU-vidrs. Love the content 👍🏻

Great recap!

Scott thanks for explaining this in detail, very helpful video.

I have been waiting for Scott’s take on this!

It was an absolutely Kerbal launch. One of the coolest things I have seen. Great analysis as always.

I am so happy this blew up! I hope the next one does as well! And on and on... But with absolutely NO loss of life.

"It did dig deeper than most other rockets". I laughed enough to spook my cat.

The biggest problem with stage 0 is, as you said: Mars. There won't be a stage 0 there, unless they bring it with them. Then again, there won't be that massive booster on Mars either. So it will be interesting to see how they deal with this.

Looking forward to Scott's breakdown of what happened

Thanks for the in-depth look at the launch.

Thanks Scott, Great Analysis, i was waitong for this video!

Great review! Nice to see someone looking at this in a methodical and balanced manor.

I don't know what SpaceX expected when it comes to the launch pad. This candle is too powerfull.

Thank you so much Scott. As always you have given out the most detailed explanation than every body out there. Very reliable and makes all sense.

Thanks for a great analysis.

Great video again Scott

Excellent summary - thank you. Yes, no point in launching any more Starships from Starbase until they sort out the launch pad. Given previous damage on tests, damage to the pad on a fully-stacked flight was inevitable. The booster was probably fatally wounded by flying concrcete before it had even cleared the tower - particularly given its lateral movement.

Plenty of videos about this, but you didn't fail to perform up to par. Great job on the analysis, Scott!

This is why I wait for Scotts video, better than any newspaper.

The only discussion that I bother with. Worth the wait. Well done.

The best post launch summary out there - as always. Thanks Scott.

I am very impressed with the structural strength of the rocket. This is huge because it’s easy to lower strength but probably impossible the other way. A huge success to their structural engineers.

Quite an insightful video!

Great video. Excellent analysis. Thanks!

It seems the real genius of starship is that it digs it's own flame trench on take off 😊. Very cool launch and I loved every minute of it.

4:27 "engine rich exhaust" still remains a pretty hilarious phrase! 🤣

Nice and clear explanation. Thanks!

words cannot describe how excited i am to see a skyscraper belly flop from the heavens to spin upright and get caught by another skyscraper.

I’ve been waiting patiently for your post launch analysis. So many others rush to post their videos to get the early views, but your review never disappoints. My guess is August before we see another launch 🚀

Thank you Scott, you gave me answers to the many quetions I had over this launch. Onwards and (hopefully) upwards to the next launch.

Dude, that was a great reaction by you!😁 Great analysis, thank you for sharing.

Great video, one of the best about this topic

KSP actually taught me something. As soon as i saw the sideways movement as it tryed to correct upwards back on tack, I knew it was doomed. All the engine rich exaust was obvious, but I hoped, maybe its enougth without a payload. But the slinding ruined all hopes and from this shot on I only waited for the termination. And i got serious N1 backflashes, like instant, I wish them alle the best. It ws an amazing launch

The amount of analysis you do is amazing, love all the map overlays and added graphics. Makes it very ELI5! Thanks!

At least they have most of the excavation for the deluge system done now, but it definitely would have been cheaper to use an excavator. I so wanted to see if the heat tiles were going to work.

Great analysis

I remember seeing the debris spewing upwards during launch, as well as the random engine flares; but two more things of note are the change in colour of the exhaust flames, and the glassed remnants beneath the launch pad. As the rocket is spinning out of control and falling back toward the surface, you can see some of the exhaust turning greenish, which is consistent with burning metals like copper. It's likely that by this point, the rocket has gutted itself so deeply that the flames are burning up the internals of the craft. Furthermore, the closeup of the damage to the launch pad shows that the heat of the exhaust has at least partially melted ground particulates enough that they stuck together and formed globs of slag, a particularly big one of which cooled down mid-gloop right in the middle of the picture; which shows that its brief lifespan included at least a passing interest in photography and modelling which is nice.

Been waiting for your take on this Scott. I think your post launch debriefs are spot on and very informative.

really good, interesting and informative video Scott - thanks! Hope Spacex have a good stock of gaffer tape! ;)

if you look at the prelaunch gimbal test, one center engine had no cryo frost on it. Which could mean that that engine did not do the chill down and therefore never ignited.

Great job as always, Scott. I was there for my first launch, and with the haze I wasn't sure what was going on.

Rapid Unscheduled Digging... Just the title made me laugh Scott. Brilliant

As usual, your video is by far the most informative. You would make a pretty good crash investigator. Thanks for feeding our insatiable desire for information. The pad damage just goes to show, you can't just dismiss the experience of pretty much every other rocket design team since the 1950's and forego an important piece of equipment like a flame diverter on the most powerful booster in history. As for Mars take-off, at least it would only be a Starship, not a SuperHeavy. But they may end up going for a take-off like Lunar Starship HLS, with smaller engines to get above the surface before the main engines light.

I know we’re supposed to be “Three cheers! Data data data!”…. But that was a huge launch infrastructure fail. These are really smart people - it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that level of damage was going to happen without a flame diverter. That energy had to go somewhere, and it was allowed to be random instead of directed away from all things important. They trashed the launch pad and a lot of ground support equipment, not to mention that FOD damage to engines and at least one HPU is likely the cause of the launch failure. I won’t be surprised if the orbital launch mount needs a near complete rebuild. At least two of the large tanks near the pad are likely damaged beyond repair as well. Elon’s estimate of two months to be ready for the next launch is absurdly optimistic, even for Elon.

0:38 hold on is that tom scott?

I cant belive i never thought this was so exiting

Great video, and explanation ❤

'It's moving! It's moving! I did not expect that' 😭😂

I was impressed with how well starship handled the stress of the spin. It also surprised me that it took that long for the flight termination to blow up the rocket

Waw, amazing progress!!

Awesome analysis, thank you!

Was waiting for your words on that milestone, and you didn‘t dissapoint, as always, thanks!