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Earlier this year some jamoke was telling Congress about how they're going to launch thousands of these things... Just to build an orbital refueling station for some hypothetical future Other spaceship that's not built yet. Can't even get one of them up and you're going to launch " thousands"?

Jabroni reference for the win.

Looking at it, i don't see any frost on the side walls, but the failure itself looks like a pressure vessel rupture, so i'm thinking maybe it was just the header tank blowing up and then taking the rest of the LOX tank with it? IIRC the header tank was one of the new big parts on the V3.

Ouch...

And it wasn't an intentional overpressure test?

Love it!

That will set em back quite a while….. Elon deserves every failure. We and the environment do not.

Have we checked on Elmo since this happened? 🤓

I wonder how long they push at it before quietly putting it out to pasture like the cyber truck.

The initial payload assumptions on 100 tons was stretching it but they've since reduced by 60% + so it's not quite that dumb But the mass to orbit assumptions for profitability/cost were and still are really stupid using the same gravitational constraints

I mean, it goes to space, it's more an issue of using a very complex new engine that has not yet reached thrust hoped for + rocket being too heavy because of design decisions based on thrust assumptions. They may yet 'succeed', but the thing may never be economically viable as a launch system.

Beginning to think that SpaceX and Tesla products function in inverse proportion to how much input Elon had to their design.

They're not getting Apollo's budget. Apollo cost about $260 billion in today's dollars. Starship is around $10 billion spent so far. Unless you're saying they should be getting even more money--in this case direct subsidies for R&D, not contracts--not sure what the point is

Lol and this thing is supposed to somehow refuel in orbit to be viable, this will definitely never happen

So not so much "fuel tank failed due to stress" as "failed to be a fuel tank at all"

Wait that can’t be unless the metal just failed from embrittlement. This looks like an outward failure so they must have had a pressure event. Either way, I always assumed they had some sort of relief equipment to protect against this kind of thing for vehicles on the ground.

Was there a gentle breeze? If so that's ok, because in space, no one can feel a breeze

The competition was less reliable and they offered less for more. It would have been criminal to pay more for less. Like paying 30+billion for SLS+Orion for one test flight (so far)....

My expert says it was a rapid unscheduled disassembly. And that proves the program is on pace to get us to Mars in two years.

Thank you! It seems obvious looking at it now, but I just could NOT understand what I was looking at before I read your comment.

Some daytime pics from another angle. bsky.app/profile/ragi...

So what you're saying is that they need duct tape.

"To shreds, you say?"

But Starship 3.0 is going to Mars, you guys! 🤣

Really wish we hadn't tied the Artemis Moon lander to this dumb company

It is quite possible that move fast and break things for maximum profit is not a model lending itself to space travel.

First principles, you see.

Hang on. They've called their rocket a V3?

Glad we dismantled NASA for this. Next Dem president better cancel every federal contract with Musk

The cybertruck of spaceX rocketry.

ha ha

more #Elmo the #SpaceNazi burning junk

Plotting out all his Tesla predictions that have utterly not come true would be fun as well 😂

The "has plans for how to sustain a civilization out there" subhed is completely unmentioned in the article.

But there’s still a chance. There’s 39 days left in the year.

@grok who is better at blowing up rockets Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or NASA?

Damn, even given how much I despise Elon I was rooting for Starship to work. Even the originally relatively competent parts of his empire are starting to fall apart in the face of his increasing craziness I guess

I think it achieved his goals of shoveling a lot of government and investor money into his pockets while giving him a chance to play with toys on a grand scale while not really being accountable to anyone

Be sympathetic. Send bagels. 🤣

They just need more of the hot glue that holds Cybertucks together. That seems good.

Breaking news in a literal sense.