SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket exploded minutes after it cleared the launch pad during a flight test Thursday. Elon Musk had said the test posed steep challenges and risks. Photo: SpaceX #Starship #ElonMusk #WSJ
This launch - and subsequent explosion - of Elon Musk’s Starship is actually just the very beginning of the spacecraft’s long road to carrying humans to different planets. What's next for SpaceX, NASA and the future of human space exploration? Check out my video from today: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Uv6uwEfk2qw.html
That's because this was a planned explosion. Other than what the misleading title of this video seems to imply. The test was to launch this vehicle beyond all the usual points of failure. The mission was a success, stage separation and reaching space/orbit were just bonus objectives.
That’s because it’s another step in the right direction we got it to a stage that we never have b4 and that’s progress, failure is the path that leads to success!
Reminds me of something Steve Jobs said about a number of his failures. He said "the fact that some things failed means that some decisions were made. We'll fix them and move on". I always liked that because it means that sometimes you have to take risks and often the worst thing you can do is let fear of failure make you indecisive and idle.
@Jaquan Kelsor 3 to 7 decades is better than never. Humanity NEEDS to spread out to other planets. Earth isn't fragile, but our continued living on it is. Asteroids, nuclear war, climate change, zombies, there's many reasons to have a backup plan, and as soon as possible. If ASAP means many, many decades, so be it. Plus, Starship isn't only good for colonizing. Many things you can do with 150+ tons to space, or 150+ tons to, maybe anywhere on Earth in under 45 minutes?
It truly was an amazing sight to watch and see. I don't feel the gen pop understands just hoe mamazing what they're watching actually is...I don't get many opportunities to use this term but man that sure was AWESOME!!
Because the explosion was expected and a planned test of the self destruction system... The launch was a success. They were testing the launch. After it shot into the sky everything else was a bonus. The explosion was expected because they planned for it to blow up. There was no way this would have been a complete success. There was no man on board to control the starship so not sure what more anyone expected to happen lol.
@@eyeteyteras1717 not a disappointment because this was the first test flight. SpaceX’s got 2-3 more of these to work with so they can afford to fail on this one
From the headline, I was expecting it early. Over 3 minutes in flight and this being the first flight... this is pretty impressive considering the engineering required
@@bigduphusaj162 success is determined by the objectives of a mission. They intended to destroy this rocket at some point during the test flight. SpaceX own objectives had specifically said anything past getting off the Launchpad was a success and giving them valuable data for future iterations. Testing a machine until failure is a basic part of developing new technology
The fact it's literally the most powerful rocket ever used and the ability to put that much thrust in such a small area with engines so powerful it blew the launch pad apart and left a crater underneath just from the amount of lift force from its engines was mind blowing. Uneven lift due to its engines power causing pad failure was a contributing factor to its loss of control and led to its having to be destroyed. Other than that it looked to be on target for a successful launch, definitely can't wait to see it in the next stage of development. The next thing to redesign is a stronger better reinforcement of the launch pad and how they achieve that goal will likely create newer unthought of advancements as well. Especially if they want to reuse the launch pad and tower, since rebuilding the pad after every launch would be an issue.
The launchpad was destroyed because they were to lazy to put in flame routing and a sound suppression system. Probably the same reason why the rocket ended up shaking. This was partly about power but majorly about stupidity.
Kind of surprised fans of space exploration are so gleeful about this. I guarantee NASA doesn't feel that way. They've been collaborating with each other a while now. Ya know, in the spirit of exploration. This event may help NASA down the line.
It didn't explode at any of the highest stress points that most rockets fail at, but aborted after failing a maneuver no rocket has done before at this scale. That's impressive. I was waiting for all the 'usual' failure points--failing to ignite, explosion on ignition, tipping after ignition, flipping at pitch over, Max-Q, throttle up malfunction/explosion...Sailed cleanly through those hazards and into the unknown.
The fact that this was their first attempt and made it that far makes me believe Elon has a great team and it won’t be long before they successfully produce such a craft.
@@tugboat6940 A more accurate statement would be that Elon is throwing money at his own ideas... which would still be incorrect, because he's also the chief engineer of SpaceX, not just an investor. I'm not saying that everything that went Starship was done by Elon, of course, but he's more than an investor.
It is all about passing milestones. This flight passed two of them when it cleared the pad and when it passed max Q. That is what makes this test very successful. Now that it is known where some of the weaknesses are, future tests will probably pass more milestones until they have a reliable vehicle. For a first test on a prototype vehicle, this test was amazingly successful. The engineers have a lot to be proud of here. Of course, I am old enough to remember Redstones and Atlases blowing up on the pads before we began using them to carry the first astronauts during the Mercury Project.
Oh dang... I thought it was an utter failure. I was shocked and didn't understand why people were laughing. I was very sad lol. That's good though, I didn't take that into account. I like SpaceX and want to see them succeed
@@Dukerdjerrbs I like SpaceX too. They might fail more often than NASA, and they might hoard the technology that they develop instead of sharing new technologies like NASA, but at least they use up public subsidies like NASA.. oh wait, socializing risks/expenses & privatizing profits is actually a bad thing.. the third thing was supposed to be good.. oh well.
I work in the aerospace industry. We at work were ALL cheering as it ascended and we don’t even work for SpaceX. So inspiring. So exciting. Good job SpaceX, I’m sure you got LOADS of data. ONWARD!!!
Spending billions of dollars of continuous failed launches. We won’t ever reach other planets with manned missions in our lifetime. It’s a pipe dream. Those billions of dollars should be used to fund… you know… hunger around the planet we live on now
After ignition it sat 6-8 seconds on the pad before release thus pummeling it's rockets with pad debris. That's why I think it was eventually detonated.
@@JimLovell-np4pvHe's not far wrong, to be fair. There was an intentionally slow startup procedure on the pad, giving the engines a few extra seconds to pulverize the ground.
🇳🇴I’ve been to Brownsville - my father was an exchange student there. Is the economy being affected positively because of the proximity to space X launch pad etc?
Like the producers of agent orange or cigarette companies, or the Ford Pinto, Asbestos makers and countless bankrupt airlines... Your statement is a great business model and slogan.
@@ge2623 Comparing this to cigarettes, Asian orange etc. is absurd. Apples vs oranges. “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”
This was a test flight for everyone confused as to why it’s a success. Totally new rocket type with few test flights before. It was a major success it didn’t blow up immediately and it’s error came when the rocket was supposed to separate meaning they know where to focus on the improvements and where to look for errors. This rocket was never intended to land on the moon already. This is test 1 and it went well. Nobody was on board. Update: I don’t care about Elon musk. I find rockets and space flight interesting. You commenting cope harder just says a lot more about you than it does anything else.
Real quick question idk where to ask this I’m not really educated on rockets and space stuff but where there people in the rocket if you know or if that info has been released to the public? I’m sorry if this was confusing
This is a great success for the team. The entire assembly survived through MaxQ. Lots of valuable data collected to improve the next iteration. With rocket tests, failures are THE path to success.
Exactly. There are some cynical A-holes in this world that guffaw at SpaceX "failures" because they have zero clue about the iterative process required to build and launch these rockets.
What a joke. As it starts to curve straight to the ocean, like every other rocket that supposedly went to outer space. Ain’t nobody getting through God Almighty’s dome firmament!
People are gonna think that it blowing up meant that it failed. Literally it just making it off the pad means everything. The fact that it also got past max q and all the way to stage separation is a huge success. So much data that they can now use for the next flights.
@@jimmcfarland3446 It was a successful launch. They weren't even sure it would make it out of first couple stages of launch with a failure. The full explosion was unfortunate but it actually traveled farther in the trajectory of the test then they might have hoped...
SpaceX is so in the frontier of space exploration that even rapid unplanned disassemblies are a cause for celebration, love you guys for trying to make humans interplanetary in my lifetime
For people who are confused about the people cheering when the rocket exploded/failed: The test flight was not about getting the rocket to space, it was about gathering important data. Data that you can’t just see with your eyes. They were expecting the rocket to have some sort of malfunction in part of the test flight. They definitely did not expect the launch pad to get damaged that much, but they learned many things from this test flight. Also the explosion was intentional as the flight termination system was triggered, but it exploded much later than expected. Starship failed to separate as the rocket was not at the correct point in flight, not because the physical mechanism failed. The reason that Starship was in the wrong place, was due to the engines unable to gimbal. This was caused most likely by the Hydraulic Power Unit being ripped off earlier in flight. It is possible that the one of the engines that exploded caused all of the engines to be unable to gimbal. The engine exploding could be caused by debris from the pad getting destroyed, but there is no evidence according to SpaceX. Hope that SpaceX can use the data from this failed test to improve their future Starships! If you have any opinions, feel free to share it.
There is much cheaper ways of getting the data at Starships current level of readiness. There were lot of people familiar with launch pad design who said water deluge system and flame diversion trench is a must, yet they blew tons of concrete into surrounding air, raining down on homes miles away, just to see the obvious. Same with stupid tin can design etc etc. Starship has nothing to do with advancing space tech, it is fan service at its worst.
@@AG-ig8uf They thought they did not need the water deluge system based off of the static fire test. They thought the launch pad would survive the test flight then install the water deluge system for the next flight. At least they know that they can't cut corners like that. For Starship not advancing space tech, there are things that you won’t see by just looking at it. For example, SpaceX is planning on making the thrusters gimbal using electricity instead of hydraulics. Thanks for sharing your opinion about the test flight.
If getting data is the only goal then why didnt they just mimic the strategy of the apollo 11 cause basicaly they reach higher than what this rocket did. BUT THATS IF THE APOLLO 11s avhievement is TRUE..😅
Remember this is the test flight of the first prototype. It not exploding on the launchpad is already an achievement. It exploded during separation which is a clear event that can be studied to determine the issue. This will provide very valuable data and is a remarkable accomplishment for a first flight.
Why are people in the comments saying they’re impressed at the rocket not immediately exploding while moving sideways? As if sideways movement is even a meaningful design consideration???
Oh but it was my friend, in this case. If you look closely you see the Rocket is being intentionally directed to a SWIRLING VORTEX in the sky. A literal energetic portal. Pretty impressive the rocket held up for as long as it did. The rocket got caught in the vortex’s swirl and was unable to pass through the energetic barrier. LOOK CLOSELY
There was a time in wich all Nasa lauches were calm , silent, no enhusiastic applaud or cheering until everything was corrrectly achieved, and dead silence when the misssion failed. Maybe we should make some steps backwards in time when cheering and applaudding only happenened when the mission was successful.
*China* - Celebrates 15 astronauts completing the fourth and final spacewalk of their six-month-long mission from the successful TianGong space station. *America* - Celebrates a rocket exploding after four minutes. The USA's days are over.
Six engines had underperformed at one point, but bear in mind that Falcon 1 (with only one engine) took four attempts to achieve orbit. Complexity increases exponentially with the the number of components, so this has to be a terrific first flight of Starship. Well done, SpaceX!
Not to disagree with a job well done, but its just not true to say complexity increases exponentially when you just replicate a single component in parallel. The whole point is that it doesn't increase complexity and has fewer critical point sof failure.
@@AlexLebed any real rocket have thousands of moving parts in multiple sub-assemblies and somehow only spacex routinely gathers data by blowing them up, its kinda sad that after all that time and testing it just spins out of control
The complexity doesn't necessarily increase ecponentially because half of the point of the gimbal engines and sheer number of them is to act as redundancy in the case of some of the engines failing.
@@nork7045 The company that routinely launches self landing rockets into space isn't capable of stage separation? Do you people like you even have thoughts in that empty head of yours?
To normal people, this is merely just one of those same looking rocket launches... but to us space fans, this is a monumental milestone for humanity's goal to finally become spacefaring.
Pretty sure it only even exploded when they told it to self destruct. At that point, it's no longer on profile and needs to be taken out before it can stray from the protected air and sea space
Perhaps air density at that altitude is was minimal so it could not damage the vehicle. More interesiting is why they haven't even try to jettison Starship and try to stabilize it under own power.
Musk invested heavily into Metabourne. Metabourne Token will make millionaires, after CEX listing it will blow up. Metaverse VR gaming and crypto have the potential to transform the gaming industry and create new business models. Metabourne Token is awaiting major CEX listings. It's possible to hit 200x this year. The integration of crypto in metaverse VR gaming can create new revenue streams for game developers and publishers, leading to more innovation in the industry. I will retire after this. Mark my words!
Hopefully not by old age waiting for that to happen because there are bigger problems that will be coming that will turn the hands of mankind forever mark these words my friend....and if not congratulations on your laid-back life your about to live....
I’ve seen lots of launches over the years, including Gemini and Apollo missions, and it still manages to bring out the childhood feeling of wonder and awe. They are only going to learn from this, as they did from past space programs. It’s exciting times again, and those born now and in the coming years are going to bare witness to events I can only dream of. Pretty cool.
It would be nice to see anything surpassing what we did back then, yes we have wonderful new tech and materials to make it easier, but even now this is so far behind what we were doing 50 years ago.
@@DavidStrchld As a kid living through the and seeing Mercury, Gemini and Apollo launches. Then the Moon landings! It was a feeling beyond a sense of pride! Not just for America but the entire World. At that age I had no doubt I would be able to travel in outer space at the age I am now? Especially at the rate NASA's space technology was advancing? Plus with what is now considered obsolete technology? Most people don't remember how advanced America's Space program really was? It wasn't until the Soviets and American docked at the space station only to realize the Soviets were still using analog tube technology as guidance systems! They hadn't perfected the transistor for solid state technology? It was a great time to be alive!
@@christianmagno984 "The mind is designed to design reality", What is the basic concept of the reality you created to live in in regards to the space program? For me it was a moment of national pride which was ultimately undone by the world praying and hoping for the safe return of the A-13 astronauts, something that changed the path of the cold war from one possibly weaponization of space to international cooperation, with the ISS as the symbol of it, all due to God listening to and acting on the requests and the prayers of the people of the world for their safe return. And on this point no one is going to change my mind, that it was actually impossible for the Apollo astronauts to safely return, but due to the prayers God changed that which allowed the return, God made a way when there was no way, and the engineers discovered it. This is a deeply help discovery of my faith and walk with God, God was always with the space program. But as one era passes another begins and nothing new is under the sun, we are once again given hope for a better future or a period of darkness with our space program. This time instead of nations, we sort of have a mad man heading it, at least in its fledgling stage. But their are other space programs coming up, including the possibility of a lunar orbit space station as a gateway to the moon. Time will tell. So without insulting others (which does no one any good) please by not calling them sheep, please let me know how you perceive the space program?
I came to this video after reading all the news titles including the title of this video. I was expecting to see a miserable failure, but instead, I was totally impressed by how smoothly the launch actually went. I got chills and goosebumps all over my body. I witnessed a huge step in the human history. Congrats to all the SpaceX engineers and everybody involved.
@@mikebuck8846 what ship? Spacex or starship? Both are doing truly astounding things with reusable rockets in collaboration with nasa so Im genuinely curious what program you think is failing?
Exactly, you noticed too. Most media want to frame this as if Elon has had erectile dysfunction or something. This was a truly impressive demonstration.
I’m glad people are starting to recognize these test launches as successes rather than failures. What we need to realize is NASA was rarely as visible with their testing, and did it at multiple times the cost. We should applaud Elon and SpaceX for bringing the public along on this journey of Rocket testing and space flight 👏🙌
Not likely, as a preliminary test , their results were surprisingly good. Not a fan of Elon, but they will note the results and move on to improve, just like they did in the past with rocket testing.
I want to tell my boss that everything I do after walking through the doors in the morning is icing on the cake, and he should just be glad I showed up at all.
For some reason, seeing the entire skyscraper sized building defy gravity and slowly lift off just made me emotional. The people working on these are solving some of the hardest problems in the world, with millions if not billions of dollars at stake, and even one small part can cause a failure of the entire system. These people are so brave to put themselves through an impossible challenge like this, and it’s a testament to mankind’s will and determination to succeed
@@EUpunisher there is a need of advancement in technology. The phone/computer you are using currently didn't help anybody around the world during its beginning stages, but now it is used everywhere by almost everybody. Similarly, this might not be useful/helpful for most of the people out there, but later might be one of the best human creations.
@@EUpunisher and many people thought the same thing about the Apollo program…. yet it’s the reason I can write this comment on my electronic device, eating my food, who’s standard was updated to those from the Apollo Program, in a building using post-Apollo manufacturing technology and can purchase and eat way more food than normal because the satellites built on the technology of the Apollo program can tell me the weather, and can determine when crops should be harvested for maximum yields. So yes, space is expensive. Yet the space program has managed to pretty much revolutionize our lives. And based on the trend, that’s not going to stop.
I wish Elon Musk would adopt regular industry practices when building/launching rockets/launch pads, he reminds me of Bob Truax back in the day. The bright flashes seen at the bottom of the rocket worry me.
Because it was the very first TEST flight. Nobody really expected it to make it past the tower and the fact it flew for so long means that they gained a lot of insights into how the design is currently going and where to make changes to make it better. It’s called iterative design for a reason. The rocket also held up much better than anyone expected. The vehicle had two flight termination bombs detonated on the side and did multiple end over end flips without failing. No other rocket would be able to hold up to that or be expected to. Most people expected it wouldn’t even hold up to the launch. Hence the fact they prefixed the flight by saying “excitement guaranteed”
That was incredible!!! Seems like there was some kind of issue with detachment but seeing that building getting launched and maintaining was a feat within itself. I can only imagine what we'll see in 5 years
Wow thats where all our bitcoin money exploded...haha... Now i kinda doubt 1969 people landed on mooon....what a bunch of liars...we humans are not made ti live in space. Keep believing guys keep investing in Tesla X...you will become rich
@@yanikivanov We landed on the moon in 1969. Deal with it. Starship is very different from the Saturn V and this says absolutely nothing about the mountains of proof that we went.
In 5 years we will be really fighting against the climate change crisis, that is the real fight, not anything related to going to space. The only solution is to save the Earth and after that then maybe going to space, but believe me the next 15 years if nothing is done about climate, we will perish
@@yanikivanov eu tenho mesma visão que vc! Não acho que dúvidar que o homen foi para lua esteja errado, baseado em todas tentativas de apenas lançar um foguete tripulado para ir a lua nos dias atuais! Eu não acredito
You can feel the power and ground shake. This is the most powerful rocket to ever exist and it was extraordinary to watch it launch. SpaceX looks like such a hype place to work I can’t even imagine
Friends who work there. It's a terrible place to work laden with inadequacy at every step. Every person involved knew the rocket would explode, they only gave it an 80% chance to leave the launch pad
@@tacotimmer8288 That's because engineers are usually smart enough to expect it to blow up the first time. It's incredibly hard to debug giant projects like this since you have such limited opportunities for testing. There's no way to know in advance everything that could go wrong. There's no way it could be any different.
@@lulu4882 it was a test, done by a private space agency, it was also the biggest rocket ever launched with almost twice the weight of Saturn V, it's amazing it even lifted off
@@stevemadak6255 It was terminated by flight control. The launch itself was spectacular, even with 3 failing engines and more to fail throughout the first minute. For the very first launch of this rocket, its mighty impressive. How many rockets have you seen explode on the pad without lifting an inch?
How long until the next attempt? I'd love to be there in person next time. Seeing a rocket that big go off, not many people will get to witness it themselves, even once the launch has been perfected.
@@peteruhl8181 I'm an engineer. I did work on the Atlas V. This was a spectacularly successful test. EDIT (explanation): The purpose of the test was to learn as much as possible. If the sensors throughout the vehicle were streaming all the data back to SpaceX (where it can be analyzed), it will have been a successful test. That data will be used to improve the system.
@@peteruhl8181 it is one of most complicated engineering projects in the world. Those engineers will figure out quickly in next few months. I can not help them but I can encourage them to do better’s
When I first saw this i knew something was not right about the launch. These rockets leap off the pad like they are excited to get airborne, but not this starship. The second it FINALLY left the pad it was drifting to the left in my vantage point and if you look closely.....you can see the rocket gimble the engines to compensate to correct the drift. I watched this I dont know how many times, but fastforwarding and rewinding close up took a bit to see it slowly frame by frame.
Yes becauee there were multiple engines that failed right after liftoff, if you look closely you can see huge chunks of concrete getting launched vertically by the booster... There could be chunks that hit the engines making them fail.
Even though there were multiple engines out, the rocket performed well up to that time. I was truly amazed that the Starship spun over 720 degrees before it was blown-up. I have never seen a rocket handle that much stress and stay together. Amazing engineering!
Totally awesome first launch! I'm surprised that the issues didn't happen when they usually do for new rocket designs, I was expecting the launch stage to fail or some issue with staying pointed in the right direction. Hopefully the fix is something simple and easy, those engineers have already gone through a ton designing an entirely new rocket.
it's clear that Starship SN11 experienced a pogo oscillation failure (31 -33 ) raptor engines firing at once vs (SLS) Artemis 1 rocket which has a total of four engines. this and its apparent Disposable launch pad will be a huge hurdle for SpaceX as Multi-engine rockets are much more susceptible to pogo oscillation phenomenon than single-engine rockets. it took Nasa many years of R&D and is the reason why SlS Artemis 1 chose to use tried and true rocket "boring" technology Pogo was in fact the main cause of the soviets (30 ) engine N-1 rocket failure Pogo oscillation is a phenomenon that occurs when there is a feedback loop between the combustion process of the rocket engines and the rocket structure. The vibration caused by the combustion process can cause structural oscillations in the rocket, which in turn can feed back into the combustion process, leading to a potentially dangerous cycle of vibrations. In multi-engine rockets, there are more engines that can contribute to the vibration, which increases the likelihood of pogo oscillation occurring. Don't be so Salty Spacex fanboys! its ok! lol Cheers from Park City Utah!
Very impressive engines! Loved the view directly under the ship with the circular boosters on full display! And the entire ship keeping itself together for so long after it started to spiral was also impressive! Cool explosions at the end too!
@Doug L Yeah nah bruh i ain’t ever heard of a 120m rocket that weighs 11 million pounds and has 16 million pounds of thrust launching 50 years ago. What nihilistic delusion are you living in fam.
@@Cuppachoccy Hey buddy, do you know what a completely destroyed launchpad and launch base means? Do you know what "being forced to clean up the adjacent nature habitat (literally) by hand" means? Do you know what losing your launch license means? Do you know what a disastrous launch from the moment the engines were turned on means? I can go on. Please look at this objectively and compare it to actual tests that have been done the last 60 years.
@@dendikke3 Hey I'm out of the loop on the Starship launch clusterf*ck (the way you make it sound) and subsequent aftermath, can you share a source/ link that cites all these things you mention?
