Starhopper’s 1st test hop aborts

To read this post please scroll down.

Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five ways of doing so:

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. Takes about a 10% cut.

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it to

Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.

July 24, 2019 11:40 pm Robert Zimmerman

Capitalism in space: SpaceX’s first attempt to fly Starhopper untethered in a short vertical flight was aborted only a few seconds after engine ignition.

Video of the test is below the fold. The vehicle never leaves the ground, and there are flames visible near its top, something one should not see. Obviously this is a development program, so failures like this are to be expected. More significant is the speed in which the company is moving. It is only a week since their last StarHopper test, which also had issues. Rather than take years to move forward (like NASA), they are pushing forward aggressively.

8 comments

Chris
July 25, 2019 at 4:20 am
Fail quickly
Scott M.
July 25, 2019 at 4:28 am
To my untrained eye, it looks like the flames are from the cryogenic vent at the top of the Hopper. That must be the methane, right? I’m assuming venting LOX wouldn’t burn, but instead cause other things to burn.

I wonder if they burn the methane off deliberately to avoid accumulation near the ship. It looks like it was extinguished pretty quickly.
Anthony
July 25, 2019 at 7:22 am
I’m not convinced the flame originating at the top of the rocket is evidence of a failure. I think the flame is due to depressurizing the fuel system in a safe and controlled fashion. This is speculation on my part, but if it was due to a failure significant enough to cause unwanted flames I don’t think they would contemplate a follow up attempt so quickly after.

I watched the test live on Tim Dodd’s channel “Everyday Astronaut” and you could hear SpaceX sent up a drone to record the event for their livestream. After they aborted the test the drone landed. Then a bit later it took off again leading me to believe they were attempting another test flight.

I don’t see this as a failure.
Diane Wilson
July 25, 2019 at 12:33 pm
Word today is that the abort was due to fuel being chilled to a lower temperature than expected. They did fuel up for a second attempt, but did not resolve the problem in time. They will try again tonight.

The flame was from venting, so it’s not a failure of any type. They’re still learning how to handle methane as a fuel.

Also, in their livestream, SpaceX referred to the hopper as the “Starship Launch System” – SLS. Nice trolling.
Robert Zimmerman
July 25, 2019 at 12:55 pm
Diane Wilson: Do you have a url to their live stream for tonight’s test?
Diane Wilson
July 25, 2019 at 2:08 pm
Bob, I don’t know that they publicly post a URL for that. It will be in YouTube, but a quick check there didn’t find it as listed as a video, or in their subscriber channel. (I don’t do YouTube subscriptions, so it might be available to subscribers only.)

I found it last night in a NASASpaceFlight.com forum, https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=47729.0
. The YouTube link got posted there shortly before the test, maybe five minutes or so. Keep refreshing the last page of the forum. There are other livestreams, one from Everyday Astronaut – he chatters too much for me, but he’ll have the stream running all evening, and that is available in YouTube.
Diane Wilson
July 25, 2019 at 2:11 pm
Last night’s livestream, if that helps pin down where to look in YouTube…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqUSRBJPYUE#action=share
Gent
July 25, 2019 at 8:02 pm
The flames were from a vent stack off to the side of the launch pad. The angle of the camera makes it appear as it is coming from the top.

Starhopper’s 1st test hop aborts

8 comments

Leave a Reply