top | item 41833603

(no title)

cjbillington | 1 year ago

They've actually been having to dump propellant in order to more accurately test what a Starship in orbit would be like, given they're not flying with a payload that would consume that propellant on ascent, but that they still want to launch with a full tank.

The dumping of this excess propellant actually caused an explosion and loss of vehicle on the second test flight.

discuss

order

pclmulqdq|1 year ago

That's what they said about the second test flight (and the third), but the webcast recordings looked a lot more like fuel leaks to me, and that is in line with Starship and early Falcon's past issues. I'm going to press X to doubt that the dumping narrative is the truth, since a nice face-saving white lie is in every corporation's handbook.