Breaking: Starship prototype #9 tips over inside assembly building
It appears from the 24-hour live stream provided by LabPadre that the ninth Starship prototype tipped over inside the assembly building to rest against one wall. You can see it happen at about 8 seconds into the video below:
No word on whether anyone was hurt, nor any information about the cause. My guess is that it occurred during the operations to move this prototype to the launchpad.
UPDATE: It appears no one was hurt, but there is damage to the fins, which might also mean damage to the hull. This in turn might make it unsafe to fly this prototype, as the hull forms the walls of the methane/oxygen tanks.
The day has not been good for SpaceX. Earlier they had to scrub the launch of a commercial communications satellite at T-30 seconds for reasons that they did not provide. High altitude winds had delayed the launch an hour or so, but it appears this was not the reason. According to SpaceX’s website, “SpaceX is standing down from Friday’s launch attempt of the SXM-7 mission to perform additional ground system checkouts.” They are targeting Sunday for the next launch attempt.
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It appears from the 24-hour live stream provided by LabPadre that the ninth Starship prototype tipped over inside the assembly building to rest against one wall. You can see it happen at about 8 seconds into the video below:
No word on whether anyone was hurt, nor any information about the cause. My guess is that it occurred during the operations to move this prototype to the launchpad.
UPDATE: It appears no one was hurt, but there is damage to the fins, which might also mean damage to the hull. This in turn might make it unsafe to fly this prototype, as the hull forms the walls of the methane/oxygen tanks.
The day has not been good for SpaceX. Earlier they had to scrub the launch of a commercial communications satellite at T-30 seconds for reasons that they did not provide. High altitude winds had delayed the launch an hour or so, but it appears this was not the reason. According to SpaceX’s website, “SpaceX is standing down from Friday’s launch attempt of the SXM-7 mission to perform additional ground system checkouts.” They are targeting Sunday for the next launch attempt.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors. The ebook can be purchased direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner. Note that the price for the ebook, $3.99, goes up to $5.99 on September 1, 2022.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
Oh my, I hope everyone is OK. That should delay them a day or two. If it was ULA, to would be a year or two.
At least two of the four fins have been damaged. See pictures in the link. Perhaps it prevented further damage to the missile body through their “victim”. At least there does not appear to have been any serious injuries as there was no information on the spot that ambulances were on the way. The event happened some hours ago. The rocket’s attitude or position did not change up to now.
https://twitter.com/Erdayastronaut/status/1337427412590743555/photo/2
Right after personnel safety, I would be concerned about the building. SN9 can be replaced in days if necessary by SN10-SN11-SN12……….
It just wanted to look a bit more like the logo of LabPadre.
Ouch!
Okay, it’s pretty obvious to me SN-9 looked at what happened to SN-8, and took a World Cup-class dive!
Remind me how far along SN 10 is ?
I am still trying to figure out how this happened.’
‘
Did it slide off of its carrier?
Did one or two of the landing legs retract?
I can see at least procedure being updated real soon.
Thanks, Bob. Funny how the the lows come after a great success. I’ve been kinda down ever since the rampant voter fraud allowed the ecosocialists to steal the election from President Trump – it’d be nice have another SpaceX win.
Take a look at the picture at the link below. SpaceX used an old, now obsolete steel roller (originally planned for Starship’s production) as a weight to stabilize the SN9 stand and prevent it from tipping over, which did not seem to work. This is not exactly an ideal technical solution. What do you think? This seems like an unsafe working place to me, but I am not sure about the US rules.
https://twitter.com/ChrisUK27/status/1338062512932216832/photo/1
Some pictures of damage that SN 9 experienced yesterday after it toppled against the building wall. This fin has to be replaced. The dent can certainly be rebulged again. I haven’t found any information about what SN9 looks like at its lower part. It appears that SpaceX or Elon Musk have not yet issued an official statement on the incident.
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=52398.0;attach=1998042;image
Addition: There is obviously also damage to one of the lower or rear fins. I hope that the joints of the fins have not been damaged.
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=52398.0;attach=1998182;image
SpaceX Moves Quickly To Repair Damaged SN9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSt0tqmDwHI