Wed, Feb 03, 2021
One Raptor Engine Appears To Have Failed In The Final Descent
After days of turmoil with our old friends at the FAA, Elon Musk's SpaceX has apparently learned to play nice with the feds and got the clearance to fly Starship SN9 in the second such test of a higher altitude flight -- this time to 10 KM, with a re-entry transition and final reorientation for landing... and again, SN9 got almost all of it right.
Almost.
This time, it appears that in the final transition to the landing attitude and reignition of two Raptor engines, that one not only didn't fire up properly but video suggests it may have come apart, as debris was clearly seen near the descending machine right after reignition. SN9 hit the deck at a high rate of speed and inclined some 45 degrees off axis and offered the usual fiery explosion, post-impact.
Keep in mind that not only is the Starship vehicle still VERY experimental, but so are the Raptor engines that power it... and that future versions of the Starship will use dozens of the things to (hopefully) loft some folks to Mars. But... it still needs some tweaking...
In the meantime; SN10 is already on the pad and was close by as SN9 demonstrated it's RUD (Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly) abilities some 6 minutes and 26 seconds after roaring to an all-too brief life. One SpaceX spokesperson indicated that SN10 might fly before the end of the month but a lot will depend on what happened to the errant Raptor (if that is actually what occurred) and what fixes may be required. More info to follow.
More News
Have A Story That NEEDS To Be Featured On Aero-News? Here’s How To Submit A Story To Our Team Some of the greatest new stories ANN has ever covered have been submitted by our>[...]
“The legislation now includes a task force with industry representation ensuring that we have a seat at the table and our voice will be heard as conversations about the futur>[...]
Aero Linx: Waco Museum The WACO Historical Society, in addition to preserving aviation's past, is also dedicated and actively works to nurture aviation's future through its Learnin>[...]
Adcock Range National low-frequency radio navigation system (c.1930-c.1950) replaced by an omnirange (VOR) system. It consisted of four segmented quadrants broadcasting Morse Code >[...]
Also: uAvionix AV-Link, Does Simming Make Better Pilots?, World Games, AMA National Fun Fly Czech sportplane manufacturer Direct Fly has finished delivering its 200th ALTO NG, the >[...]