114
SpaceX Has Finally Figured Out Why Starship Exploded, And The Reason Is Utterly Embarrassing
(www.planetearthandbeyond.co)
this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
114 points (77.7% liked)
Space
9933 readers
502 users here now
Share & discuss informative content on: Astrophysics, Cosmology, Space Exploration, Planetary Science and Astrobiology.
Rules
- Be respectful and inclusive.
- No harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
- Engage in constructive discussions.
- Share relevant content.
- Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
- Use appropriate language and tone.
- Report violations.
- Foster a continuous learning environment.
Picture of the Day
The Busy Center of the Lagoon Nebula
Related Communities
π Science
- !astronomy@mander.xyz
- !curiosityrover@lemmy.world
- !earthscience@mander.xyz
- !esa@feddit.nl
- !nasa@lemmy.world
- !perseverancerover@lemmy.world
- !physics@mander.xyz
- !space@beehaw.org
- !space@lemmy.world
π Engineering
π Art and Photography
Other Cool Links
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
If that results in their rockets exploding, perhaps they should not be allowed to do this? Thatβs not how science is performed.
Exploding rockets are not exactly friendly to nature or people.
It has nothing to do with science, it's Engineering.
The upper stage exploding is of course not ideal, but it does so on a suborbital trajectory, meaning everything will fall back down to Earth, into the ocean. (these still being test-launches with certain risks is the whole reason they're choosing not to go fully orbital yet)
In terms of materials, it's mostly just stainless steel, there is no pollution from it.
That's quite literally how it's performed. You make a hypothesis, then you test it. If it fails, you alter the hypothesis and try again. A single rocket exploding once every couple months is absolutely nothing to the planet compared to all the other activities humans do.
They aren't just randomly lobbing these into the sky over populated areas (like China likes to do). The paths they follow are very much planned to account for accidents. That's why they launch them over oceans. And they will deliberate blow them up using what's called a "flight termination system" if it looks like things will get hairy.
Starship is not a science project. No scientific breakthroughs are made or expected. It is an engineering project. And this is exactly how that is performed.
Also, how many people crashed how many planes before the Wright brothers managed to achieve powered flight ?