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A comment on SpaceX's Starship didn't immediately respond to a self-destruct command. Parent comment

Re:SpaceX's Starship didn't immediately respond to a self-de... by HarHarVeryFunny on Monday May 01, 2023 @09:55AM (#35772807)
I read that the destruction mechanism is explosives that rips open the fuel tank, internal to the rocket, but apparently then requires atmospheric pressure to collapse the rocket shell, and at the altitude it was initially at the pressure was insufficient to do that.

If this is really the mechanism then I suppose tough to test (at least expensive to have large enough low-pressure test chamber to blow stuff up in), but it does seem odd they wouldn't just have explosive charges to destroy the rocket shell as well.

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Re:SpaceX's Starship didn't immediately respond to a self-de... by jccooper on Monday May 01, 2023 @12:24PM (#35775095)
The "rocket shell" is the "fuel tank". They blew a big hole in the side of thing, which usually is sufficient to destroy any rocket in seconds. Turns out this one it took a while for the damage to cause complete failure.
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Re:SpaceX's Starship didn't immediately respond to a self-de... by HarHarVeryFunny on Monday May 01, 2023 @01:15PM (#35775952)
Interesting! Do we know how soon after it started tumbling they fired the self-destruct ?
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Re:SpaceX's Starship didn't immediately respond to a self-de... by jccooper on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @11:07AM (#35788640)
Here's a video of the flight, where you can see the charges activate and venting start at about 15:12, the linked time: https://youtu.be/NCYSVmSPM7E?t=663

You can decide how long that is before and after, though I'll note that it may be complicated to determine what's not nominal: Starship has an unconventional staging maneuver that's basically a spin.

I'll also note that "they" didn't send anything; the FTS is autonomous, and will trigger on violation of its conditions, which is probably (1) departure of the instantaneous impact point (where the rocket will hit if all thrust stops now) from a safe ground corridor or (2) indications of disintegration of the vehicle. "The vehicle is doing something weird" is not a condition for flight termination.

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