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BFR Developments

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C C Offline
Take away the initial and occasional smoke trails, and I still can't get over how much the exhaust plume of methalox powered Raptor engines looks like a gigantic oxy-acetylene cutting torch flame. So similarly clear that the glowing circles of the engines correspond to the apertures at the end of the cutting tip, just a lot more of them.
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Yazata Online
(Apr 22, 2023 12:44 AM)C C Wrote: Take away the initial and occasional smoke trails, and I still can't get over how much the exhaust plume of methalox powered Raptor engines looks like a gigantic oxy-acetylene cutting torch flame. So similarly clear that the glowing circles of the engines correspond to the apertures at the end of the cutting tip, just a lot more of them.

Elon actually called it "the world's biggest blowtorch"!

I notice that the flame is bright yellow on the pad, as it interacts with the ground, which near the beach probably has lots of salt/sodium in it. As it ascends the flame gets blue and almost transparent. Then something unknown happens and exhaust plume turns bright yellow again, and the rocket appears to almost immediately go out of control. (My guess is that it was leaking all of its hydraulic system fluid into the plume.) It flipped around multiple times as its exhaust plume grew more transparent again until its onboard explosive charges were activated.


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Here's a video by Tim Dodd (Tim's going to the Moon!) and Consider Cosmos (who make the most artistically beautiful Starbase videos)

https://twitter.com/Erdayastronaut/statu...1621216258
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Yazata Online
(Apr 20, 2023 11:21 AM)Yazata Wrote: [...] Back at the launch site, lots of debris thrown around. First photos of the OLM show what appears to be significant damage, including what might be a crater underneath it.

Edit - I should add that I'm increasingly skeptical of that photo of the crater under the launch mount I posted above. I'm starting to suspect it's a fake.

Although that particular photo does appear to be bogus, it seems that the reality is considerably worse:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1649537668177354754

"All that's left of the concrete lateral support beam is the rebar! Hopefully, this didn't gronk the launch mount."

One of the participants on a Starbase discussion forum I frequent is a retired construction superintendant with experience building high-rises. His opinion is that the OLM is toast and will have to be completely rebuilt. Without the lateral beams, launch vibrations would drive the supporting piles (technically they are 'piers') apart, weakening the structure until it collapses. A re-do wouldn't be cheap, hundreds of millions at least and would take more than a year to construct, halting all launches until it's done. (And there's no guarantee it wouldn't just happen again next launch. This is why Elon pays the engineers the big bucks.) I expect that SpaceX will bring in top structural and civil engineers from Houston to examine what's there and suggest possible courses of action.

There are also Twitter rumors going around that SpaceX is talking to a heavy transportation company about transporting the new Cape Canaveral launch mount from Hanger M to Brownsville by barge. (It's 70+ feet across and weighs 1000 tons.) That's probably a plan B option in case the Boca Chica OLM proves to be fatally compromised, which isn't determined yet. Certainly they wouldn't want to install it at Kennedy Space Center if the design proves to be flawed. Starbase is for experiments and for trying things out, while Cape Canaveral gets the evolved and finished designs for operational missions and for human spaceflight.

There's also speculation about the impact of these events, which might delay the next launch until next year, on Artemis' HLS, which is supposed to be ready by 2025.

Photo on the left, by Mauricio, shows wooden framing and rebar for the foundation of the OLM, ready for a concrete pour during construction. On right is what's left after instant excavation by rocket blast.


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Yazata Online
This is kind of touching - an impromptu memorial to the memory of a Uruguayan space-nut who had a space Youtube channel and who always wanted to see Starship launch, but didn't live to witness it. Some of his friends who made the trip did this, and the little memorial survived the launch.


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Yazata Online
Here's a preprint of a Chinese analysis of the Starship Integrated Test Flight, from the Chinese Society of Astronautics, to be published in Acta Astronautica later in the year.

(It's in Chinese, I read it by using Google Translate.) It's actually pretty objective and reasonable.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/0_6N7KiLArQ8zuyEOs0Wgw
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Yazata Online
There was a fire at Massey's last night. They got it undercontrol quickly. There's no word on what was burning or about damage or possible injuries.

https://twitter.com/VickiCocks15/status/...5872006145

Edit - Mauricio's drone photographs show a couple of charred forklifts and several burnt light towers where the fire was. The fire was right next to the nosecone structural test cage, which looks undamaged. It doesn't look like the fire was a big deal.


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