SpaceX issues 1st statement regarding Superheavy test explosion
Click for original image.
SpaceX yesterday issued its first update regarding the explosion in the lower half of the Superheavy booster that it had planned to fly on the next orbital test flight.
Booster 18 suffered an anomaly during gas system pressure testing that we were conducting in advance of structural proof testing. No propellant was on the vehicle, and engines were not yet installed. The teams need time to investigate before we are confident of the cause. No one was injured as we maintain a safe distance for personnel during this type of testing. The site remains clear and we are working plans to safely reenter the site.
That no propellant was involved explains why the booster and test pad experienced relatively little damage. They were likely pumping nitrogen through the system to test it, and while something exploded, the gases were not volatile.
The picture to the right is a screen capture from aerial drone flights performed by RGV Aerial Photography and posted on nasaspaceflight.com. I have enhanced it to bring out the details. Note the lack of damage on all sides of the booster at its base. The explosion was clearly confined to the booster, and appears to have occurred from within.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Click for original image.
SpaceX yesterday issued its first update regarding the explosion in the lower half of the Superheavy booster that it had planned to fly on the next orbital test flight.
Booster 18 suffered an anomaly during gas system pressure testing that we were conducting in advance of structural proof testing. No propellant was on the vehicle, and engines were not yet installed. The teams need time to investigate before we are confident of the cause. No one was injured as we maintain a safe distance for personnel during this type of testing. The site remains clear and we are working plans to safely reenter the site.
That no propellant was involved explains why the booster and test pad experienced relatively little damage. They were likely pumping nitrogen through the system to test it, and while something exploded, the gases were not volatile.
The picture to the right is a screen capture from aerial drone flights performed by RGV Aerial Photography and posted on nasaspaceflight.com. I have enhanced it to bring out the details. Note the lack of damage on all sides of the booster at its base. The explosion was clearly confined to the booster, and appears to have occurred from within.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
An ugly photo.
Lots of people in the usual places are panicking — or simply indulging whatever pre-existing dislike of Elon Musk or Starship or SpaceX generally — over this incident.
No doubt it is a setback; it obviously was not a “test to destruction test,” and it was something SpaceX’s Starship team would rather not have happened. But I think it should be clear that it’s not as big a setback as the S36 explosion this summer. The booster is a write-off, and that hurts because B19 has not even begun stacking yet. But it’s also clear that very little damage was done to Massey’s. No Raptors were lost. It could have been much worse.
One would wish that this sort of hiccup was something they;d be past now, but it was after all the very first flight booster of the V3 Starship. So there is bound to be a learning curve. Whereas S36 was well into the V2 series program, a version that the Starship team had more experience with.
I’m hoping this was a process, not a design, failure. But if it was the latter, better to learn about that *now* than at a later part of the Flight 19 schedule.
By the way, as for what the timeline looks like going forward, SpaceX just posted a tweet on X about ten minutes ago:
“The Starbase team plans to have the next Super Heavy booster stacked in December, which puts it on pace with the test schedule planned for the first Starship V3 vehicle and associated ground systems. Starship’s twelfth flight test remains targeted for the first quarter of 2026.”
https://x.com/spacex/status/1992287913036648577
We’ll see if they can make that schedule stick. It would make my 6-8 week delay prediction not too far off the mark….
Richard M: As usual, the naysayers are likely missing the whole point of this. SpaceX is still in the development phase for both Starship and Superheavy. Problems like this are expected to occur.
In this case, it is so much better that it happened during a test on the ground, not involving propellants, than during a launch. It will make it much easier pinpointing the issue and fixing it so it never happens again.
I emphasize that last phrase because this has been SpaceX’s engineering approach from the get-go, an approach it has proven it achieves with unmatched success.
Hi Bob,
Indeed. And it’s worth reflecting on the relentless 24/7 video coverage from streamers all around Boca Chica (including even overflight photography!!) which makes it difficult to hide things like this, no matter how little SpaceX “officially” says. We have nothing like that level of scrutiny on any other launch provider or space systems developer.
SpaceX is not perfect. They make mistakes, too. But when something does go wrong, whether through avoidable error or not, they learn from it, adapt, and overcome, with astonishing speed.
“The chrome chest-burster was unavailable for comment”
—Elon/Yutani spokesman ;)
Robert wrote: “””pinpointing the issue and fixing it so it never happens again. This has been SpaceX’s engineering approach from the get-go, an approach it has proven it achieves with unmatched success.”””
And, while they correct the problem, they continue movie forward, upgrading, testing constantly. They do not just fix one issue and test only for that. Imagine the guts to LEAVE OFF some heat tiles to see how the stainless steel takes it during reentry.
Once again, Robert Heinlein is smiling.
Re: my typo above
they continue movie forward,
they continue MOVING forward,
Although most of the SpaceX “movies”
(launch, recovery, return, or ocean platform landing videos) are very cool also.
It looks like a lot of the welds let loose. As you can see by all the separated panels which should be fully welded together.
Maybe they changed the welding technique for some reason and they did not weld as strong as they should have.