Musk's rocket exploded again, this time it may be NASA's fault: Due to the late arrival of the supervisor, the Starship prototype SN11 was forced to launch in thick fog

Jia Haonan from Aofei Temple
Quantum Bit Report | Public Account QbitAI

Musk blew up another big rocket.

But this time , the explosion of the Starship prototype SN11 was not like the flames and smoke that billowed when its predecessors "died heroically".

The entire launch process of SN11 followed a "hazy" route, and it was ignited and launched into the sky in dense fog with extremely low visibility.

As a result, the outside world did not see how the rocket was launched into space, nor did they see the final explosion.

Even SpaceX and Musk himself were unable to immediately infer the cause of the failure.

Musk unlocks a new posture for "hazy" rocket launch

About 14-15 hours ago, there was heavy fog in Boca Chica, where the SpcaceX launch site is located, in southern Texas.

The ground cameras deployed by SpaceX couldn't even capture the outline of the rocket clearly.

△ 5 seconds before ignition, can you find where the rocket is?

Some SpaceX fans drove to the launch site and waited there, but of course, it was impossible for them to see any details clearly.

However, even with such bad weather conditions, SN11 still made it:

△ Rocket ignition

During the entire process, only the camera inside the engine compartment sent back clear images:

The rocket's ignition and ascent process went smoothly, reaching a height of about 10 kilometers. Then, as practiced by several previous Starship prototypes, the engines were shut down in sequence, and the hovering and free fall (including using the wings for attitude control) processes were completed at high altitudes.

5 minutes and 47 seconds after ignition, one of the three Raptor engines reignited and began the landing process. But then SpaceX cut off the live broadcast signal.

In this way, the outside world never saw the situation of SN11 again until the news came out that the wreckage of the rocket fell to the ground.

△ Local residents found rocket debris 5 kilometers away from the launch site

To this day, the outside world still doesn't know what went wrong with the rocket. The only thing that can be confirmed is that the ignition and climb in the first half went smoothly.

Although the scene was so foggy that you couldn't see your hand in front of you, a photographer named Trevor Mahlmann went against the grain and ran about 10 kilometers away from the launch site to take some clear photos of the rocket during the landing process.

Trevor Mahlmann said that from what he observed, unlike the attitude control of previous Starship prototypes during the descent and landing phase, SN11 seemed to be spinning around its axis at the beginning of its descent.

He speculated that SN11 may have encountered major problems in the early stages of free fall.

Foreign media arstechnica speculated that it is also possible that SpaceX discovered that there was a problem with the rocket and started the self-destruction program ahead of time.

SN11 is such a "hazy" rocket. Its appearance cannot be seen, the launch process cannot be seen clearly, the explosion was not witnessed by anyone, and the cause is not clear.

This time, SpaceX fans and onlookers were really left alone.

What does Musk think about this test flight mission?

Musk's statement

After the SN11 launch mission failed, Musk made a few brief comments about the mission on Twitter.

He said the No. 2 engine had a problem during ascent and did not reach the required chamber pressure during the landing burn.

But this is not a fatal problem. Some problems occurred after the engine ignition during the landing phase, and the specific reasons remain to be analyzed.

Well, it seems that Iron Man himself has no idea what is going on.

Musk also replied to the same tweet, saying that at least SN11 landed in the right place after the explosion. Moreover, the rapid production and iteration of the Starship prototype is an efficient way to solve the problem.

At the same time, he also said that SN11's successor, SN15 (skipping SN12-14), will be assembled soon and can be pulled to the launch pad in a few days.

The new SN15 has made great improvements in software, hull structure, and avionics systems.

Why is Musk in such a hurry to iterate?

One reason is that NASA will launch a bidding for the Artemis lunar lander at the end of April. If the Starship is not successful by then, it may have a very negative impact on the bidding, so SpaceX has been conducting test flights so frequently in recent times.

Does it feel familiar to you to be in a state of panic when the deadline is approaching and errors occur frequently?

After so many explosions, what is Musk’s next move?

In fact, Quantum位 has been following Musk's space exploration journey like following a TV series.

For the Starship series alone, we have reported in detail every important progress before, SN8 , SN9 , SN10 , etc.

Including SN11 this time, Musk has lost a total of 10 Starship prototypes, including ground ignition and explosion, hull structure experiment accidents, and previous landing explosion accidents.

According to Musk's expectations, it will take at least SN20 testing before the 1.0 version of Starship, that is, the mature version capable of carrying out missions, can be finalized.

This goal is aimed at 2021-2022.

According to this timeline, we will be able to watch a starship test flight on average every 1-2 months in the future.

When will we be able to land on Mars? Previously, Musk himself set a goal in a chat room with netizens: within five and a half years .

Whether it can succeed or not, we will have to wait and see.

At the end of last year, Musk and his family moved from California to Texas. Foreign media analyzed that the reason why Musk moved was because Texas has no state income tax.

After the move, Musk will indeed be able to avoid paying taxes on his Tesla stock options.

But Boca Chica , Texas is also SpaceX's main test site and launch base.

Musk said Boca Chica is the gateway to Mars, and then suggested to the local government that Boca Chica be renamed Starbase .

It is not known whether the local authorities adopted his suggestion, but Musk himself has changed the name of the launch base to Starbase.

After the failure of the SN11 mission, he issued a "recruitment call" on Twitter.

He said SpaceX's talent needs have expanded dramatically, and now it needs engineers, construction workers, scientists and other talents to join, and the location will be at Starbase.

He called on technical talents to move to Starbase to live and if they think it is too small, they can also consider living in the nearby Brownsville area.

It is expected that the population of the interstellar base will increase by more than 1,000 people in the next one or two years.

One More Thing

Musk has previously criticized the inefficiency and bureaucracy of the US space administration for hindering the progress of space exploration.

And this time, the failure of SN11 may really be the fault of the U.S. Federal Aeronautics and Space Administration (FAA).

Previously, the FAA believed that there were violations in the SN8 launch process, so it required that FAA supervisors must be present for future SpaceX launches.

SN11 was originally scheduled to launch on March 29th local time, but was forced to be delayed because the FAA supervisor could not arrive on site that day.

According to The Verge, the supervisor was unable to arrive in time because of a flight delay. The FAA had no intention of rebooking the flight that day, so the supervisor went home directly from the airport to rest.

Therefore, SN11 had to take off on March 30th local time in thick fog with almost no visibility.

On March 29, the originally planned launch date, Boca Chica had a light breeze and sunny weather.

Reference link:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/03/spacex-loses-another-starship-prototype-as-landing-sequence-fails/