So this guy says Musk's Starship will never work. Archived Message
Posted by larue33 on March 18, 2025, 10:30:18
Both tests failed when an uncontrollable fire broke out in the aft section, taking out rocket engines, severing communications, and triggering a self-destruct sequence. SpaceX recently announced that the fire in the January launch was caused by vibrations breaking fuel lines, causing a giant leak, which is a pathetic excuse (read more here). In the aftermath of the most recent mishap, SpaceX announced it was caused by “an energetic event in the aft portion of Starship [that] resulted in the loss of several Raptor engines.”
Yeah… It sounds suspiciously like SpaceX failed to fix the weak fuel line issue. So much for “iterative design.”
In fact, I know they didn’t. --- As such, SpaceX is having to make the rockets too light, resulting in them being fragile, meaning that just the vibrations from operation with a fraction of its expected payload would be enough to destroy the rocket.
Indeed, we can see this with the planned Block 3 version of Starship. It is even longer than Block 2 to accommodate even more propellant to help increase its shrinking payload and ensure it can slow down enough to land. But somehow, it weighs significantly less than the smaller Block 2.
Where have these weight savings come from? They aren’t changing any major materials. They aren’t changing any structural designs. They aren’t redesigning the entire engine or fuel tank setup. The only way is if major systems are built with a smaller safety factor, making crucial systems vulnerable and weak.
That is why Starship keeps failing and will continue to fail.