By 
December 10th, 2020
Credit: SpaceX
“Mars, here we come!!”
That’s from SpaceX chief rocketeer, Elon Musk, given the December 9 flight of Starship serial number 8 (SN8) that lifted off from the company’s Cameron County launch pad in South Texas.
SN8 successfully ascended, transitioned propellant, and performed its landing flip maneuver with precise flap control to reach its landing point – but also experienced what’s called a “rapid unscheduled disassembly,” RUD for short.
Credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Low pressure in the fuel header tank during the landing burn led to high touchdown velocity resulting in a hard, destructive landing.
Serial number 9 (SN9) is up next, a SpaceX posting explains.
Crater in the right spot
Back a few days ago, pre-launch, a Musk twitter said that “probably 1/3 chance of completing all mission objectives.”
In post-flight tweets, Musk said that the engines and the SN8 high altitude flight test did great. “Even reaching apogee would’ve been great, so controlling all way to putting the crater in the right spot was epic!!”
Musk also later tweeted: “Fuel header tank pressure was low during landing burn, causing touchdown velocity to be high & RUD, but we got all the data we needed! Congrats SpaceX team hell yeah!!”
Re-watch yesterday’s test flight here at: https://www.spacex.com/
Posted in Space News
