SpaceX SN8 Prototype had substantial damage during its third static fire. They lost vehicle pneumatics and a safety disc burst. The burst disc saved the vehicle. However, one or more engines will need to be replaced.
We lost vehicle pneumatics. Reason unknown at present. Liquid oxygen header tank pressure is rising. Hopefully triggers burst disk to relieve pressure, otherwise it’s going to pop the cork.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2020
Burst disk worked, so vehicle appears to be ok. We’ll have to swap out at least one of the engines.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2020
SOURCES- SpaceX, Twitter, Elon Musk
Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
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Someone on twitter mentioned the pulled engine (SN38?) appeared to be missing it's methane manifold… but that might have been pulled separately. The going theories are that, or something melting on the inside and dripping down…
The guys of the forum at NASA Spaceflight dot com have perhaps the best resources of related engineering people, connected by exchanges with Elon. Interesting back & forth of the merits of the evidence.
Multiple engines in close proximity often find new failure modes that never occur when they are operated in isolation. The energy coupled into the support structure reverberates throughout vehicle and engines to build standing waves of material stress. Things tend to break at those focal zones.
Elon says will engineer a solution based upon what the investigation warrants.
“SpaceX Starship : Texas Prototype(s) Thread”
From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOyIJVUaoeg&ab_channel=WolfGirl04
Murphy says everything can't go well the first time.
Might take a quick look first to see if it had to do with having three engines together.
And, more importantly, learn and live!
Will be interesting to see cause of engine failure. I wonder if they will install new Raptor Engine and resume static fires to proceed with test flight.
Live and learn