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    SpaceX Starship explosion likely caused by propellant leak, Elon Musk says
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    SpaceX Starship explosion likely caused by propellant leak, Elon Musk says

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    23 Comments

    1. capodecina2 on

      This is why they are experimental vehicles to find out what works, and what doesn’t. I’m glad that they were able to identify this so they can address that on the next build. Even failures can be successes. And you learn more from failure.

      I don’t think that the starship was really expected to completely survive, but it would’ve been interesting to see how the new heat shield worked out. I wish it had lasted that long at least. We’ll see what happens next!

      Oh, and the chopstick retrieval for the booster, that was awesome! Job well done

    2. GeniusEE on

      I call BS…there’s no oxygen at that altitude for anything to burn outside the rocket nozzle, let alone explode.

    4. Juicyrunner87 on

      Guy needs to just get a job at gamestop and move on with his crap life. Guy has blown up more rockets for absolutely nothing in return. Elon if your reading this you need to find a new job you turd.

    7. intravenus_de_milo on

      Check out the big brain on Brett, that’s right motherfucker, probably a propellent leak.

    9. ultraganymede on

      was the explosion caused by the leak or was it the leak that caused the failure that would make the FTS system to activate?

    11. verify_mee on

      I remember the good years a few years back where Elon would just talk SpaceX and would be responding rapid fire to really complex rocket questions. I thought that was the coolest thing but now I realize that he had a team of people doing everything for him. I’m too gullible.

    13. dukeblue219 on

      When the first Falcon 1 exploded Elon threw two good engineers under the bus publicly within 24 hours rather than admit failure. Turned out it wasn’t their fault and he was just guessing.

    14. Decronym on

      Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

      |Fewer Letters|More Letters|
      |——-|———|—|
      |[BFR](/r/Space/comments/1i3fi22/stub/m7n5t5j “Last usage”)|Big Falcon Rocket (2018 rebiggened edition)|
      | |Yes, the F stands for something else; no, you’re not the first to notice|
      |[FTS](/r/Space/comments/1i3fi22/stub/m7nc25a “Last usage”)|Flight Termination System|
      |GSE|Ground Support Equipment|
      |[SLS](/r/Space/comments/1i3fi22/stub/m7nljjg “Last usage”)|Space Launch System heavy-lift|
      |[ULA](/r/Space/comments/1i3fi22/stub/m7mx595 “Last usage”)|United Launch Alliance (Lockheed/Boeing joint venture)|

      |Jargon|Definition|
      |——-|———|—|
      |[Starlink](/r/Space/comments/1i3fi22/stub/m7mzo1h “Last usage”)|SpaceX’s world-wide satellite broadband constellation|
      |[autogenous](/r/Space/comments/1i3fi22/stub/m7n5tco “Last usage”)|(Of a propellant tank) Pressurising the tank using boil-off of the contents, instead of a separate gas like helium|
      |[scrub](/r/Space/comments/1i3fi22/stub/m7mx595 “Last usage”)|Launch postponement for any reason (commonly GSE issues)|
      |[turbopump](/r/Space/comments/1i3fi22/stub/m7nc25a “Last usage”)|High-pressure turbine-driven propellant pump connected to a rocket combustion chamber; raises chamber pressure, and thrust|

      Decronym is now also available on Lemmy! Requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.

      —————-
      ^(8 acronyms in this thread; )[^(the most compressed thread commented on today)](/r/Space/comments/1i2kauy)^( has 25 acronyms.)
      ^([Thread #10990 for this sub, first seen 17th Jan 2025, 15:05])
      ^[[FAQ]](http://decronym.xyz/) [^([Full list])](http://decronym.xyz/acronyms/Space) [^[Contact]](https://hachyderm.io/@Two9A) [^([Source code])](https://gistdotgithubdotcom/Two9A/1d976f9b7441694162c8)

    18. myname_not_rick on

      Holy lord. I get it, people don’t like Musk these days because of him going off the deep end. I happen to agree, that he has gone off the deep end, and stopped following him and have lost a massive amount of respect over the last few years. That said.

      I urge people on the “r/space” sub to use their brains. This is clearly him reporting an initial cause from the internal teams. Not just random nonsense. It also makes sense; there was a faint flame seen coming out of the flap hinge on ascent, which is basically a small gap in the airframe that leads directly to that space in between the “firewall” as they’re calling it and the lower side of the tanks.

      People want transparency, transparency to initial expected cause is given, and then they jump on it as nonsense/obvious because they hate the individual that shared the info. You can dislike the person, that’s fine. I support it in fact. But that doesn’t change the data.

      It’s like everyone forgets about the team of thousands of engineers working on this stuff. But armchair engineer Steve over here thinks they know better. One person does not make a company.

    19. racingwthemoon on

      If NASA blew up as many rockets as the turd from South Africa, we’d be rethinking our investments in pure hubris.

    20. Geairt_Annok on

      Sounds like it was caused by the complete and utter failure of the CEO to be present in the office and properly engaged in the mission.

    21. Cheap_Collar2419 on

      Wow massive failure for Elon here. He really screwed up!

      ( if you give him credit for everyone else’s work, give him the failures as well)

    23. punarob on

      Obviously all taxpayer funds going to Musk or any of his companies should stop immediately and permanently and they shouldn’t be able to launch anything with their own money unless Musk himself is on it (even if not designed to carry people).