Why Super Heavy EXPLODE Just After Stage Separation?
The Starship team learned a huge amount from data collected during the April 20 flight — which ended with the rocket self-destructing after stage separation failed to occur — and used that information to improve the Starship-Super Heavy used for the second flight, she said. The second-stage, six-engine Starship atop the first-stage, 33-engine Super Heavy (producing 16 million pounds of thrust) stands nearly 400 feet tall.
As with SpaceX’s earlier rockets, the Starship team continues to “improve and assess and push the envelope and learn from the vehicles.”
The Nov. 18 flight likewise ended with the booster and Starship self-destructing, but only after a successful “hot stage” separation that the SpaceX team met with jubilation.
The flip maneuver initiation is a fascinating indication as it suggests that the booster might possess the capability to deactivate the outer 20 boost engines while keeping the ones in the center operational. However, it is difficult to determine whether this system remains active beyond this point. Moving forward, the Boost back burn marks the beginning of troubles for booster 9, following an otherwise flawless hot staging event. After reducing to three engines and detaching from ship 25, booster 9 started reigniting the 10 Center engines that had shut down during the hot staging event. Remarkably, all but one of them were successfully restarted. We won't delve into the reasons behind this at the moment; instead, we will focus on the Lessons Learned From ift 1. During the actual flip maneuver, booster 9 experienced the loss of three engines. Once the flip was complete, it appeared to coast for a few seconds before rapidly losing all remaining engines. Since the top of the booster was now facing downwards, we couldn't observe the engines shutting down. Nevertheless, even from this angle, it was evident that at least three engines suffered catastrophic explosions. The third and final engine failure was notably more violent than the first two. Shortly after, two shiny objects were ejected from the back of the booster. Although it is uncertain, it is likely that these objects are two halves of the cylindrical shielding that surrounds the power head of the center engines. It seems that the shielding was able to contain 2/3 of the exploding engines, but one of them was unsuccessful. Considering this failure, it will be intriguing to see if SpaceX deems it necessary to reinforce the center engine shielding further or if they perceive it as an acceptable performance. Moving on, the final major issue will be discussed.
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