NASA's Future SLS Booster Just Failed Its First Test

Between this and Starship's ongoing issues, we're liable to a Red Chinese moon instead of one with all nations there....not a nice thought, you know?

Update on Ship 36's Static Test Stand Explosion

Late last night Ship 36, undergoing a final static-fire prior to launch of Flight 10 later this month, suffered a catastrophic failure resulting in destruction of the upper stage along with damage to Massey's Test Stand where the test was to be held.

According to reports out of Texas, the explosion looks to be the result of a failure in the Starship COPV (Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel) near the methane header tanks, resulting in a leak of superchilled methane that later ignited and caused the explosion. Thankfully, there were no casualties but Massey's Test Stand will have to be rebuilt extensively.

Now the question becomes "when will SpaceX launch Flight 10? At the time of this post, no one knows.

SHIP 36 EXPLOSION! Something Weird Happened to S36 Static Fire Test! Mas...

Within the spaceflight community, "Go Fever" is regarded as a nasty bitch (apologies for the language there) and late Wednesday night it struck SpaceX hard with the explosion of Ship 36 during a static fire test, with subsequent destruction of the Massey's Test Site at Starbase.

First reports are a burst rupture in the methane tank of Ship 36 but again, that is a first report; nonetheless, it is almost certain Starship's next flight (currently Flight 10) won't be for some time to come, if at all this year.

What Exactly Happened On SpaceX's NINTH Starship Test Flight!

Tuesday's Starship flight test (Integrated Flight Test 9) was a mix of successes and failures. On the one hand, they (a) proved directional kickback of the Super Heavy booster was possible, (b) achieved trans-atmospheric insertion of Starship, the first since Flight 6...and that was pretty much it.

On the other hand, (a) the Super Heavy demised at the point of the splashdown burn, (b) Starship failed to deploy the Starlink mass-simulator payload from the Ship's Pez dispenser payload bay and (c) suffered a propellant leak which ultimately doomed Starship.

Not the best of circumstances but there's a point here: this was, after all, a test flight and no test flight is ever 100%. Given Elon Musk's words last night, expect the next couple Starship Flight Tests' to be along similar lines as Flight 9 - he has already has at least three Starship Block 2's at Starbase in different stages of rollout and he has several Super Heavys' also ready to go including at least two from previous flights (most likely the boosters from Flights 5 and 8).

This is going to be an interesting summer for SpaceX and the American spaceflight community...

Watch The FIRST EVER Human Polar Mission

Watched the launch via. SpaceX's live feed and it was awesome; this marks the first crewed polar orbital flight in history and as things stand (roughly 10:02pm US EDT) things are going alright. Good luck and Godspeed to them!

Starship Suffers Second Consecutive Launch Failure

We know a few things from today's flight: (1) Booster 15, the Super Heavy used today, successfully returned from launch and was caught by the "chopsticks" on Orbital Launch Mount 1 (OLM-1), (2) Starship Ship 34 did reach the 8 minute in the flight as it did on Flight 7, but (3) once again there was a failure of the rocket at this point; unlike Flight 7, this one appears to be an engine failure of some sort (that's my guess; the FAA and SpaceX haven't said anything yet) and (4) this is the second straight failure of the Block 2 Starship.

Now, what could explain the failure of Ship 34 here? That's a good question; best guess at the moment is that harmonic vibrations in the attic section of Shiop 34 (where the engine & fuel lines are located) caused something to fail there, which then led to failure and/or explosion of one of the engine bells, which cascaded into total loss of Ship 34. Remember this is a test flight, the eighth of the Starship era and if anyone remembers the path Falcon took through Falcon 1 and now Falcon 9/Falcon Heavy, you know nothing is ever 100% certain in flight testing. That's why flight testing is as extensive as it is, but two consecutive failures of Starship?