Please vote on your forecast for Starship:

1) Kaboum
2) Goes to Hawaii
3) Scrubbed
4) Other

If you vote for other, please specify. Such as:
Other - Starship reaches Indian Ocean.

I am an optimist. I vote 2.

Alain Fournier

Alain Fournier noted that:
> Please vote on your forecast for Starship:
>
> 1) Kaboum
> 2) Goes to Hawaii
> 3) Scrubbed
> 4) Other
>
> If you vote for other, please specify. Such as:
> Other - Starship reaches Indian Ocean.
>
> I am an optimist. I vote 2.
>
>
> Alain Fournier

Not today, Alain. Raptor 2s kept flaming out, and steering control was
lost. FTS fired before stage separation.

/dps

--
Who, me? And what lacuna?

On Thursday, Snidely exclaimed wildly:
> Alain Fournier noted that:
>> Please vote on your forecast for Starship:
>>
>> 1) Kaboum
>> 2) Goes to Hawaii
>> 3) Scrubbed
>> 4) Other
>>
>> If you vote for other, please specify. Such as:
>> Other - Starship reaches Indian Ocean.
>>
>> I am an optimist. I vote 2.
>>
>>
>> Alain Fournier
>
> Not today, Alain. Raptor 2s kept flaming out, and steering control was lost.
> FTS fired before stage separation.
>
> /dps

I wonder how much the youtube datacenter power consumption spiked
during launch?

-d

--
And the Raiders and the Broncos have life now in the West. I thought
they were both nearly dead if not quite really most sincerely dead. --
Mike Salfino, fivethirtyeight.com

On 2023-04-20 09:45, Snidely wrote:

> Not today, Alain. Raptor 2s kept flaming out, and steering control was
> lost. FTS fired before stage separation.

The talking mouths on the SPaceX broadcast (why can't they just put on
the real internal loop of controlers) said that MECO was coming up and
that separation would follow, so when it started to flip around, I
though it was part of their fancy way to separate. Then the announcer
continued with separation pending message before it became apparent
speration wasn't happening and then not even fireworks, more like
popping water filled ballons.

Since there were engines out, I have to assume stage 1 would have fired
for longer before MECO and stage separation, right? would the talking
heads have this info, or woudl they stick to script of MECO + separation
happening at specific time?

For as much as we complained about NASA TV, they had far less "talking
heads" than SpaceX, and expecially the very annoying constant applause
and cheering (shoudln't they be serious and listenin to every word?) by
staff in Los Angeles.

I am very curious to on how close to actual adjusted MECO and stage
separation it got to or whether it started to spin out and require
somone press the big red button well before reaching MECO?

At that poit some 39km in air, would "range safety" become a factor in
triggering the explosives or would the rocket have been safely away from
any land that it spinning out of control was no longer a concern for
"range safety" ?

On Friday, JF Mezei yelped out that:
> On 2023-04-20 09:45, Snidely wrote:
>
>> Not today, Alain. Raptor 2s kept flaming out, and steering control was
>> lost. FTS fired before stage separation.
>
> The talking mouths

your maturity is slipping

> on the SPaceX broadcast (why can't they just put on
> the real internal loop of controlers)

that was supposed to be available on a seperate ewtoob channel, but the
controllers do a lot of the polling via computer input rather than the
voice loop.

> said that MECO was coming up and
> that separation would follow, so when it started to flip around, I
> though it was part of their fancy way to separate. Then the announcer
> continued with separation pending message before it became apparent
> speration wasn't happening and then not even fireworks, more like
> popping water filled ballons.
>
>
> Since there were engines out, I have to assume stage 1 would have fired
> for longer before MECO and stage separation, right?

yes

> would the talking
> heads have this info, or woudl they stick to script of MECO + separation
> happening at specific time?

Unclear. Compare NASA coverage of the last flight of Challenger and of
the last landing of Columbia.

They would have had at least as much of the telemetry as SpaceX
displayed to us, and in the past John Innsbruck has obviously had
updates that weren't on the overlay. I was focused on the NSF cameras
for most of the launch, and haven't finished replaying the official
channel.

NSF had some very good tracking, both manual remote control and
automated. Everyday Astronaut's team had a very good manual track as
well.

> For as much as we complained about NASA TV, they had far less "talking
> heads" than SpaceX,

Really? Have you listened to the NASA coverage of the Crew launches?

> and expecially the very annoying constant applause
> and cheering (shoudln't they be serious and listenin to every word?) by
> staff in Los Angeles.

If they weren't excited about working on rockets and seeing them go,
perhaps they shouldn't be working on rockets.

Did you see the cheering and applause on both sides of the Atlantic
when ESA launched JUICE?

> I am very curious to on how close to actual adjusted MECO and stage
> separation it got to or whether it started to spin out and require
> somone press the big red button well before reaching MECO?

Not close. Yes.

> At that poit some 39km in air, would "range safety" become a factor in
> triggering the explosives or would the rocket have been safely away from
> any land that it spinning out of control was no longer a concern for
> "range safety" ?

The FTS produced a flash that GOES West's lightning track picked up,
well out over the gulf. If loss of control had happened earlier, there
would have been a quicker trigger, rather than allowing structural data
to be collected. Scott Manley notes that at the time of termination,
the rocket had stopped continuing upwards and was starting to descend.

/dps

--
https://xkcd.com/2704