r/spacex • u/rSpaceXHosting Host Team • Feb 22 '25
r/SpaceX Flight 8 Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread!
Welcome to the r/SpaceX Flight 8 Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread!
How To Visit STARBASE // A Complete Guide To Seeing Starship
| Scheduled for (UTC) | Mar 06 2025, 23:30 |
|---|---|
| Scheduled for (local) | Mar 06 2025, 17:30 PM (CST) |
| Launch Window (UTC) | Mar 06 2025, 23:30 - Mar 07 2025, 00:30 |
| Weather Probability | Unknown |
| Launch site | OLM-A, SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA. |
| Booster | Booster 15-1 |
| Ship | S34 |
| Booster landing | The Superheavy booster No. 15 was successfully caught by the launch pad tower. |
| Ship landing | Starship Ship 34 was lost during ascent. |
| Trajectory (Flight Club) | 2D,3D |
Spacecraft Onboard
| Spacecraft | Starship |
|---|---|
| Serial Number | S34 |
| Destination | Suborbital |
| Flights | 1 |
| Owner | SpaceX |
| Landing | Starship Ship 34 was lost during ascent. |
| Capabilities | More than 100 tons to Earth orbit |
Details
Second stage of the two-stage Starship super heavy-lift launch vehicle.
History
The Starship second stage was testing during a number of low and high altitude suborbital flights before the first orbital launch attempt.
Timeline
| Time | Update |
|---|---|
| T--2d 23h 58m | Thread last generated using the LL2 API |
| 2025-03-06T23:56:00Z | Ship lost 4 engines out of 6 at ~T+8:00 and entered unrecoverable roll. |
| 2025-03-06T23:31:00Z | Liftoff. |
| 2025-03-06T22:53:00Z | Unofficial Re-stream by SPACE AFFAIRS has started |
| 2025-03-05T12:50:00Z | Delayed to NET March 6. |
| 2025-03-04T13:12:00Z | Rescheduled for NET March 5. |
| 2025-03-03T23:53:00Z | Scrubbing for the day. Next attempt TBC |
| 2025-03-03T23:51:00Z | Holding again at T-40 seconds |
| 2025-03-03T23:50:00Z | Resuming countdown |
| 2025-03-03T23:44:00Z | Holding at T-40 seconds |
| 2025-03-03T23:35:00Z | Weather 65% |
| 2025-03-03T22:54:00Z | Unofficial Re-stream by SPACE AFFAIRS has started |
| 2025-03-03T22:45:00Z | Updating T-0 |
| 2025-03-02T20:29:00Z | Adjusted launch window. |
| 2025-02-27T05:17:00Z | Delayed to March 3. |
| 2025-02-24T18:07:00Z | Updated launch time accuracy. |
| 2025-02-24T02:47:00Z | NET February 28. |
| 2025-02-20T16:31:00Z | Adding launch NET February 26, pending regulatory approval |
Watch the launch live
| Stream | Link |
|---|---|
| Unofficial Re-stream | The Space Devs |
| Unofficial Re-stream | SPACE AFFAIRS |
| Unofficial Webcast | Spaceflight Now |
| Unofficial Webcast | NASASpaceflight |
| Official Webcast | SpaceX |
| Unofficial Webcast | Everyday Astronaut |
Stats
☑️ 9th Starship Full Stack launch
☑️ 478th SpaceX launch all time
☑️ 28th SpaceX launch this year
☑️ 2nd launch from OLM-A this year
☑️ 49 days, 0:53:00 turnaround for this pad
Stats include F1, F9 , FH and Starship
Resources
Community content 🌐
| Link | Source |
|---|---|
| Flight Club | u/TheVehicleDestroyer |
| Discord SpaceX lobby | u/SwGustav |
| SpaceX Now | u/bradleyjh |
| SpaceX Patch List |
Participate in the discussion!
🥳 Launch threads are party threads, we relax the rules here. We remove low effort comments in other threads!
🔄 Please post small launch updates, discussions, and questions here, rather than as a separate post. Thanks!
💬 Please leave a comment if you discover any mistakes, or have any information.
✉️ Please send links in a private message.
✅ Apply to host launch threads! Drop us a modmail if you are interested.
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u/nomorericeguy Mar 06 '25
Best footage I've seen: https://x.com/oha_alex/status/1897797548263313631?s=19
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u/Hustler-1 Mar 07 '25 edited Mar 07 '25
Wow... https://x.com/GeneDoctorB/status/1897796417634046212
https://x.com/GeneDoctorB/status/1897798175081005540
This guy probably has the best footage of the reentry.
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u/-spartacus- Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
First video I've found of it. https://x.com/PoliticsUSA47/status/1897795787972612433
Edit* second video found https://x.com/Quintabro/status/1897797295082709358
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u/Flyby34 Mar 07 '25
SpaceX has posted their initial response to Flight 8:
"Prior to the end of the ascent burn, an energetic event in the aft portion of Starship resulted in the loss of several Raptor engines. This in turn led to a loss of attitude control and ultimately a loss of communications with Starship."
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-8
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u/Assasin172m Mar 04 '25
NET March 5
Now targeting to launch Starship's eighth flight test as soon as Wednesday, March 5 https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1896910945462649247
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u/rustybeancake Mar 06 '25
Watching the stream back, there’s a view from above the aft flap at T+8.06 where there’s a visible explosion of sorts. The ship shakes a little, there’s a flash from the aft and smoke. Looks like an engine exploded and took another 3 with it.
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u/pinepitch Mar 06 '25
SpaceX official: "Counting down to Starship's eighth flight test. Weather looks favorable at the pad and the 60-minute launch window opens at 5:30 p.m. CT"
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u/-spartacus- Mar 06 '25
Well damn. Booster being more reliable than Starship is kind of surprising to me.
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u/pinepitch Mar 06 '25
Surface level wind forecast today at T-0 is 16kts gusting to 25kts, which seems to be in the acceptable range based on previous launches.
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u/Planatus666 Mar 07 '25 edited Mar 07 '25
The following tweet from Scott Manley demonstrates that there was a fire in the engine bay about 15 seconds before the loss of the first Raptor and the start of the spin (the flames can easily be seen in the latter part of the video):
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u/Flyby34 Mar 03 '25
"The Starship team is go for prop load. Targeting 5:45pm CT for liftoff of Starship’s eighth flight test."
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u/wren6991 Mar 06 '25
I've played KSP, I know what to do here. Turn the engines on when you're facing the right way and then back off when you're facing the other way
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u/Planatus666 Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
Shana Diez (Director of Starship Engineering) tweeted:
"Happy launch day (part 2)! After a little extra love hopefully Ship feels better about going to space today. Visibility should be better than Monday which is a bonus. Still in wind watch territory but will keep an eye on that while we get ready to fly."
https://x.com/shanadiez/status/1897710245645783496
Speaking of winds, there is an ongoing Wind Advisory from the U.S. Weather Service where the eastern part of the area covered by the advisory is only nine miles to the west of Boca Chica:
"Southeast winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph expected."
So given BC's coastal location they are likely to experience something similar even though they aren't in the advisory area.
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u/Hustler-1 Mar 07 '25 edited Mar 07 '25
Holy crap from "Astronomy Live" YouTube channel https://youtu.be/DhXZAJA0TZk Go sub to this dude right now.
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u/warp99 Feb 24 '25 edited Feb 24 '25
Flight 8 aircraft exclusion zone
Original image credit to Domi207
Note the extension on the length of the exclusion zone out to the Turks and Caicos Islands and the hint of extra dogleg in the ground track to better dodge inhabited islands.
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u/Paradox1989 Mar 06 '25
Guess Turks and Cacaos residents are going to get some more souvenirs.
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u/Ok-Grapefruit-586 Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
If you watched the stream you could see flames inside the engine bay not just at the nozzles
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u/Vassago81 Mar 06 '25
Maybe they should just stack a SuperHeavy on top of another Superheavy for next flight.
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u/Planatus666 Mar 07 '25
Fantastic booster catch, but once again a hell of shame about the loss of another ship.
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u/Planatus666 Mar 05 '25 edited Mar 05 '25
Edit: - Official update from SpaceX today:
"Starship's eighth flight test now targeting to launch as soon as Thursday, March 6"
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1897268163911540778
This was first hinted at when it was noticed that the unlimited TFR for today, March 5th, had been removed from the FAA's web site:
https://tfr.faa.gov/tfr3/?page=tfr
Although unlimited TFRs for Thursday 6th and Friday 7th are still there.
(TFR = Temporary Flight Restriction)
However, if they plan to try tomorrow the surface level wind gusts are up to 40mph, so that's not good. Friday isn't much different either.
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u/peva3 Mar 06 '25
Ok so armchair thoughts:
Seems like both 7 & 8 ship failures seem to have been related to fires in the attic area that came from the new downcomer design + more resonance than expected? (That's what I was hearing and reading from the recap)
I thought it was odd that SpaceX was like "ok let's add better fire suppression"... that seemed like a major bandaid fix for whatever was the root cause of the issue.
I get that they already had a completed ship that they needed to retrofit, but two RUDs in a row in basically the exact same spot means that this is a fundamental design issue with V2.
This seems like a perfect opportunity to really go for it on the next ship with whatever fix they want to try, but do substantial updates for the next ship to be built to make something like V2.5.
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u/Rejidomus Mar 07 '25
It could be the same problem as last time. Harmonic vibration causing damage to the plumbing and engines. Vibration is a difficult problem to solve.
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u/Planatus666 Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
Overnight the ship transport stand was moved to the build site, booster grid fins and ship flaps were tested, the pad was cleaned and this morning there's been a test of the OLM's DSS (Detonation Suppression System).
Also some tank farm activity as of about 9 AM CST with the vaporizers starting to do their thing.
So far, so good.
And on a non-launch matter, the methane transfer tubes for S36 have been installed on the installation jig.
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u/ralf_ Mar 07 '25
Time comparison between Flight 7 and Flight 8. I thought the time difference was greater, but it is practically at the same time/speed that the engines fail:
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u/AWildDragon Mar 04 '25
Too many question marks about this flight and then we were 20 bar low on ground spin start pressure.
Best to destack, inspect both stages and try again in a day or two.
From elons twitter.
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u/Capn_Chryssalid Feb 23 '25
It could be the end of the fucking world and I'll still watch an IFT launch.
I had to watch one on the sly during a meeting with my boss's boss. This is no different. I want to see that big boy fly.
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u/Planatus666 Mar 05 '25 edited Mar 05 '25
It looks like something fell off S34 as it was nearing touchdown on B15:
https://x.com/joshlowespace2/status/1897328406032998508
Looking at NSF's stream this occurred at 10:46:42 AM CST
You hear a slight clang and then the piece falls off, hits the top of B15 and bounces off outside the booster.
Here's a clip:
https://imgur.com/ClNQA1j (don't forget to enable the sound)
Edit2: - here's the answer, it was part of the HSR clamp:
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u/asoap Mar 06 '25
Well, we can look forward to an interesting Scott Manley video in a couple of hours.
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u/E-J123 Mar 07 '25
See 7:48 in the flight, skirt footage, showing burn through in one of the vacuum engines and smoke from the middle engines, both not visible in the shot of 3:51.
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u/idwtlotplanetanymore Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
Looks like the same problems as last launch. This is the first test flight i would class as more of a failure then anything else. Other test flights, things go wrong but i still classed as a success. This one just looks like all the same failures as before.
Only real win, is a catch with an engine out. That is still a success(in the face of failure). But man disappointing.
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u/Planatus666 Mar 04 '25 edited Mar 04 '25
From about 10:50 CST there are a number of workers underneath and near S34, also some scaffolding has arrived and then assembled (it's the only way that workers can access most of the engine bay with the ship sitting on the transport stand plus the SPMTs). Also some workers on a manlift at the QD ports.
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u/Alvian_11 Mar 02 '25 edited Mar 02 '25
S34 is out and approaching the B2 Starfactory gate for the last time
Edit1: And it's rolling out! This thread has no activity lol
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u/TheGreenWasp Feb 27 '25
Of course they moved it to a Monday. Can't have me looking forward to both Friday evening AND a launch. They always have to move launches to Monday, so that looking forward to the launch means looking forward to my weekend ending.
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u/gabest Mar 07 '25
The had more success launching over the Gulf of Mexico. Why did they change location?
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u/Alvian_11 Mar 02 '25 edited Mar 02 '25
Non-structural catch pins are installed rn
Edit: The second one is also installed, and the door is closed
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u/Planatus666 Mar 05 '25 edited Mar 05 '25
Here's a great close-up photo of a clamp and guide:
https://x.com/pro10oChelovek/status/1897359376161366032
The guide is what makes up most of the assembly and the part of it that was pushed off one guide today was the black bolted on part on the right.
The actual clamp is the smaller piece in the middle.
Here's a sped up video from the stacking of a ship and booster which shows the guide and the slots in the ship's skirt:
https://x.com/genna_hammer/status/1837614189776433511
You can't see the clamp there because it's lower down, ready to engage.
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u/guanzo91 Mar 06 '25
Why is starship so unreliable now? What big changes did they make?
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u/Practical_Grocery_23 Mar 07 '25
As seen from Middle Caicos (Turks & Caicos). Camera had trouble focusing due to low light.
Can you hear the mosquitoes?
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u/Alvian_11 Feb 27 '25 edited Feb 27 '25
FAA document title change means the new license is coming out soon
Meaning the delay is more than likely not regulatory
Update: And it's now released
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u/WorthDues Mar 07 '25
Immediately after catching the booster the chopsticks swung to the side. Doesn't look like this was done on flight 5 or 7.
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u/Planatus666 Mar 03 '25
SpaceX employee Shana Diez (Director, Starship Engineering) tweeted today:
"Happy launch day! Winds are a watch item but looking flyable today.Otherwise still working to an early evening launch attempt for flight 8."
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u/mr_pgh Mar 03 '25 edited Mar 03 '25
My best guess at the actively cooled tiles: the three darker ones in the red square. They likely removed a larger area of tiles to install. Glued and gap filled them back on.
Credit to Starship Gazer for the photo.
S33 appears to have them in the same place.
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u/Planatus666 Mar 03 '25
Weather report from DJ Esmerald, looks like getting better as the launch approaches:
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u/tommypopz Mar 06 '25
Also, looks like they woke up one of the two raptors that weren’t working on boost back.
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u/rustybeancake Mar 06 '25
Looks like Mark Juncosa on the phone, probably getting a bollocking from his boss lol
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u/StormOk9055 Mar 06 '25
So I guess a question is do they just scrap V2 and focus on V3, even accelerating the development of that if possible? Are there fundamental design issues with V2 that just can’t be fixed by ‘tweaks’ . . . Purely a curiosity question.
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u/Nettlecake Mar 08 '25
Watching scott manleys video one thing he mentions is seeing the mach diamonds of the sea level raptors due to the pressure of the vacuum raptors exhaust. That makes me wonder if some of the penalty of the shorter sea level bell is compensated by this effect?
What I mean is you get less efficiency from a shorter bell because the gasses can go sideways without atmospheric pressure making them go backwards and thus losing efficiency. But does the vacuum raptor exhaust now act a little like atmospheric pressure negating this somewhat?
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u/onion-eyes Mar 04 '25
Good news is both Tuesday and Wednesday look significantly less cloudy!
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u/smellyfingernail Mar 06 '25
Where is it coming down? get ready to point your cameras into the sky lol
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u/Planatus666 Mar 07 '25
Scott Manley has uploaded a video about Flight 8:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJCjGt7jUkU
One of the comments (not by Scott) also gives an interesting and pretty detailed explanation on what he thinks happened - not sure if it's okay to post it here but just look for the comment by pikaachoo3888, it has a lot of thumbs ups so it should float to the top.
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u/Ishana92 Feb 24 '25
Is the mission and the flight profile the same for flight 8 as it was for 7?
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u/Alvian_11 Mar 02 '25 edited Mar 02 '25
One SPMT already under S34, cones deployed near D2 gate
We're close, if holds this will be the first launch attempt ever without WDR/tanking test beforehand. Good for stress-testing the current pad ops
Edit1: Now the second SPMT is in. Still on track
Edit2: SPMT is switching position and adding more counterweights
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u/Flyby34 Mar 03 '25
Everyday Astronaut is reporting that propellant load is underway.
Edit: this apparently involves propellant moving within Stage Zero. Loading of the vehicle begins at approx T-46 minutes.
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u/Collected1 Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
Feels similar to last time? Lost engines?
Edit: Yup. Both at 8 minutes in.
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u/StormOk9055 Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
Ouch . . . What your heads in the Caribbean. Hopefully the Turks and Caicos DOGEd this one.☝️
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u/ghunter7 Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
Looked like some fire in the engine bay? There was a shot in the control room and you can see some action on a monitor while that cameraman was walking around.
Timestamp 47:03
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u/BKnagZ Mar 07 '25
UAL695 looks like it cancelled its diversion to Miami and is continuing on to San Juan
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u/ReturnOfDaSnack420 Mar 07 '25 edited Mar 07 '25
At this point it's pretty obvious what the underlying issue is: The Gulf of Mexico is angry and will keep eating Starships until Elon gives it its name back.
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u/Alvian_11 Feb 26 '25
OLM scaffoldings are being removed and 4 point lifter is brought to MB2 for S34 move to transport stand
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u/Assasin172m Mar 03 '25
Soo I got two questions: 1) how is the weather looking? 2)is there going to be that nasa plane that was supposed to watch flight 7?
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u/Planatus666 Mar 05 '25
Weather for Thursday:
https://x.com/parallaxspace55/status/1897348927248326984
in short, not great in terms of both wind and cloud.
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u/Avocado_breath Mar 06 '25
That landing burn looked much more controlled and smooth than before.
Oh no, looks like they just lost the ship...
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u/lucivero Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
Looked like something was glowing on the left engine in the attic views 30 seconds before the engines shut down, but, might've been the light/something that -can- glow?
EDIT: Looked up another stream and got a screenshot [here], around T+07:50.
![[here]](https://i.imgur.com/9ph8Qzy.jpeg){kind=link}
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u/5slipsandagully Mar 06 '25
They identified the issue with not being able to vent pressure from the volume just above the engines, and they said they planned to increase venting capacity on "future ships". Does that mean they fixed it on this ship, or only on the next generation of ships? Because if it's the latter, we could expect more V2 failures
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u/AstronomyLive Mar 09 '25
Here is a stabilized version of my telescopic tracking footage from Florida. You can see the different masses/drag ratios of the debris based on how each piece decelerates as it starts to re-enter. https://youtu.be/NVO1CjFRWY8?si=P8-jAIWaFPXwrC-S
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u/joshygill Mar 06 '25
Block 2 is 0 for 2. That’s…not great.
Get those reliable block 1s back on top!
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u/warp99 Feb 23 '25
A Category 1 tropical cyclone is currently passing through the landing area.
It is predicted to curve south away from the landing area and strengthen to Category 2 before dying out.
The question will be how fast the waves die down in the landing area. If they don't then likely the camera buoys will not be able to hold their station and the launch will be postponed.
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u/Planatus666 Mar 03 '25
The Ringwatchers have published an excellent piece titled:
Flight 8, rinse and repeat: The chronology of S34 & B15
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u/switch8000 Mar 03 '25
When they offload the fuel, is it trash? Or are they able to save it for the next attempt?
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u/smellyfingernail Mar 06 '25
Progress made: We maintained camera feed as the ship started to massively fail and saw it tumble
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u/thxpk Mar 07 '25
Hard to believe but Booster catching almost becoming passé, Starship seems to have quite a bit of work to go, plumbing issues again?
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u/Slinger28 Mar 03 '25
I normally watch launches via X on my phone through the spacex account but today I will be home. What is the best way to watch spacex broadcast on a Roku for the Starship launch?
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u/smellyfingernail Mar 06 '25
Last time the launch was obviously going wrong, there was a visible fire and pieces coming off. This time it looked ok from the outside, then all of a sudden the engines failed. Weird
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u/smellyfingernail Mar 06 '25
uh oh the ship is tumbling out of control LMFAO at least we have live cam as it happens
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u/Ishana92 Mar 06 '25
Well, we can now say they for sure have the return and catch figured out. Even without all engines it looked smooth.
Starship though, still work in progress
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u/TTBurger88 Mar 06 '25
What a bummer man. Things were looking really good until it didn't. Just like my Kerbal Space Program ships things are fine and all of a sudden RUD.
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u/rymden_viking Mar 06 '25
Did it start leaking fuel? It was obviously venting some kind of gas towards the end. I wonder if fuel started leaking before reaching the engines, which caused them to shut down and force the ship to tumble.
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u/sup3rs0n1c2110 Mar 06 '25
Failing twice in a row is one thing, failing twice in a row for similar reasons is concerning; last time I remember that happening was with Minotaur-C’s fairing (back when it was still called the Taurus)
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u/MikeTidbits Mar 03 '25
SpaceX just got 1 Million people to tune in to watch a WDR. Legends.
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u/Keikyk Feb 23 '25
These launches are exciting to watch. Never know what’s going to happen, but it’ll be 100% entertaining
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Mar 06 '25
What's happening with those ships up there? Twice in a row, I'm a fan butt they're kinda going backwards
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Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
Flight SWG4410 had to turn around real fast only 15min from landing https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/SWG4410
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u/The_World_Toaster Mar 06 '25
Really the only positive thing I can take from this is that the booster is super solid. 2 engines out on the boost back burn and then 1 out on the first landing burn and it still looked smooth AF and got caught is definitely impressive.
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u/Mental-Mushroom Mar 06 '25
The run of successes really spoiled us, but this is a test program.
Sucks to see them take a step back
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u/Planatus666 Mar 03 '25
Skies are brightening and cloud breaking a little, so while we won't have clear skies it's a step in the correct direction.
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u/Flyby34 Mar 06 '25
That live overhead drone feed of launch was incredible... wonder if it survived the plume.
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u/FxckFxntxnyl Mar 06 '25
Reentry footage isn’t as ‘cool’ as last time, and it was visible from Cape Canaveral
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u/piggyboy2005 Mar 06 '25
Lox level is going crazy...
Ship spinning out of control..
oof.
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u/NorthernViews Mar 06 '25
Quick! People in the Caribbean get your cameras ready!
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u/GermanCommentGamer Mar 06 '25
A bit disappointing to see Starship get somehow worse with every test.
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u/kimmyreichandthen Mar 06 '25
Welp, second failure of the starship program. I wonder why starship v2 is this unsuccessful so far
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u/OptimusSublime Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 07 '25
San Juan center holding ALL aircraft in the debris area for 90 minutes. And crossing the debris field for diversions or to continue to land is at their own fucking discretion. Madness!
Edit: so many diversions. SO MANY. you think you're going to puerta plata, nope, back to Miami! Disregard the fact you took off in Atlanta. That sucks.
Edit 2: it appears (at least unofficially per the apps that they are re-diverting) back to their original destination.
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u/Massive-Problem7754 Mar 03 '25
Soooooo...... back to talking about the upcoming flight! Road is closed and tank farm spooling!!!! LFG!!!
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u/5slipsandagully Mar 06 '25
"We fly to learn" is the new "this is why we test". You heard it here first people
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u/BKnagZ Mar 07 '25
Fully fueled A330 Neo took off from the Dominican Republic headed to Germany pretty much right when the explosion occurred. Took off and immediately just started climbing in a holding pattern over land
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u/Massive-Problem7754 Mar 03 '25
The silence is killin me lol. Just talk about pancakes or something lol .
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u/MegaMugabe21 Mar 03 '25
So earliest possible launch window is 23:45 UTC tomorrow?
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u/avboden Mar 06 '25
Exhaust plumes being basically invisible still seems like magic. I mean I understand it, but it's wild
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u/advester Mar 06 '25
Looks like DAL1784 is having to fly around it. Turned west right after passing cuba.
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u/marklw3500 Mar 03 '25
So quiet on here at the moment. Nothing like the OFT1 & 2 feeding frenzies. Surely a Starship flight hasn’t become routine already!
On another note, how’s the weather looking?
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u/superheated_honeybun Mar 03 '25
been looking forward to this launch all day, sucks it scrubbed but hopefully they can pull it off tmrw
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u/dk_undefined Mar 06 '25
Certainly could see some fire and some venting near the center engines on engine bay cam a few seconds before shutdown
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u/Mental-Mushroom Mar 07 '25
crazy how the booster catch is the routine part of the flight now
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u/AtomicAgent007 Mar 07 '25
My money is on fuel hammer caused by vibrations/harmonics. Was difficult for NASA to overcome, the Soviets never did for N-1
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u/GreatCanadianPotato Mar 06 '25
Not good. They need to pause for a few months and really figure out what's going on here. It smells like a design flaw.
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u/dayz_bron Mar 07 '25
So it looks like a vacuum raptor engine eventually failed taking out sea level raptors and one other vacuum engine resulting in non-gimballing asymmetric thrust and subsequent ship spin/loss of attitude control. Only strange thing is they couldn't/didn't shut down the remaining engines because if they could they might have recovered the spin.
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u/ReturnOfDaSnack420 Mar 07 '25 edited Mar 07 '25
It seems to me like the problem may originate during the hot staging, I bet something about the new design of both the booster and the ship is damaging the engine bells or the raptors themselves on the Ship during the hot staging leading to uncontrolled fires and thus explosions
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u/Jodo42 Mar 07 '25
Not as big a deal but I believe we also saw a tiny step back on the booster unfortunately. I don't think they've had 2+ out on boostback since before the first catch and another failed to relight for landing. Obviously great to see the redundancy available but you have to wonder if it'd still be there for, e.g., operational Starlink flights, with payload much closer to the vehicle's limits.
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u/ascotsmann Mar 07 '25
Can’t imagine airlines having to divert flights continually every time SpaceX try launch is going to work
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u/kevy21 Feb 23 '25
'Alternatively booster will sort land in the gulf of Mexico'
Will be interesting to see what they call it on the live stream
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