SpaceX
Passing bytwiceoffailureLater, today SpaceX tried again with the Starship SN10 at a height of 10 kilometers. From lift-off, reaching 10 kilometers, turning to a horizontal flight, and finally turning back to a vertical landing, everything is the same as the previous SN8 / SN9. The main difference is to avoid repeating the failure of the previous SN9 when the two engines were ignited. This time, all three engines were ignited during the landing phase, and then two of them were turned off in sequence. In this way, even if the engine fails to ignite, the SN10 has enough power to land.
The first half of the SN10 test was as smooth as the SN8 / SN9, and there was no problem in the final ignition stage, which was stressful. When the smoke and dust finally dissipated, it was clear that SN10 was still standing on the launch pad, but it was obviously tilted to one side . In SpaceX’s live broadcast, this is called a “soft landing”. Although it is not a perfect success, it is not a fragment at all. However, not long after the SpaceX live broadcast ended, a fire broke out in the fuel tank of the SN10, and then the SN10 exploded on the landing platform, becoming a fireball and being thrown into the air, and finally became a piece of debris on the ground.
The question now is, is this a successful landing? Although the SN10 did not explode at the moment of landing, it is obvious that the landing impact of SN10 must be greater than SpaceX expected. Its inclination means that the landing foot did not evenly absorb the impact of the landing, and perhaps the impact was too large, which caused the fuel. Damage to the box. Investigating its root cause, this may be a problem of engine control (insufficient deceleration), but it may also be the lack of landing foot design. After all, the previous crashes of SN8 and SN9 did not have the chance of landing foot. This is actually the problem. Put into use for the first time. If it is the latter, it may be considered good news, because the current landing script is a temporary substitute, and SpaceX is still designing the final landing foot plan, which should be much more durable in the future.
After SN10, SN11 is ready to be on the launch pad next, and I hope SpaceX can achieve an undoubtedly perfect success this time.
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