Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Beijing, May 1 (Xinhua) it has been more than a week since the first flight of the SpaceX Starship exploded, but its CEO Elon Musk (Elon Musk) seems to have revealed more unknown secrets this weekend.

The starship exploded in the air. Musk analyzed the starship explosion in detail in a Twitter voice chat on Saturday night local time. He said the starship created an unexpected "rock tornado" during launch, in which multiple engine failures caused the rocket to fly sideways as it rose and then tumbled out of control.

He said SpaceX had trouble seeking to stop rocket flights and the atmosphere was more tense than it seemed at the time. The automated self-destruct order did not destroy the starship immediately, and it took 40 seconds for the rocket to explode.

Despite all the problems, Musk thought the Starship launch was a success. "obviously it wasn't a complete success," he said, "but it was still a success." He said that the goal of the test flight is to "learn a lot of things, and we do learn a lot of things," and more test flights are planned this year.

Musk's voice chat on Twitter lasted nearly an hour. He answered some esoteric technical questions raised by netizens and analyzed in detail the problems during the four-minute flight of the starship in chronological order.

Even before the rocket left the launch pad, three of the 33 engines of the starship booster (super heavy rocket) had been turned off. "the system thought they were not healthy enough to push them at full speed," Musk said, "so they were shut down."

The lack of power in the three engines caused the starship to tilt to one side as it flew upward. "We don't usually think it's going to tilt," Musk said. "it's actually supposed to rise in a straight line."

Twenty-seven seconds after launch, one of the engines went wrong and damaged several other engines nearby. Musk called the problem "some kind of energy event".

"however, the rocket continues to fly," Musk said. At 85 seconds of liftoff, he said, "the real trouble came" when the rocket lost its ability to control direction by pointing at the engine nozzle.

The starship flew for only four minutes. From then on, the rocket began to lose control and continued to fly even after receiving the termination order.

"the rupture of the fuel tank took too long," Musk said of the flight termination system, which is designed to destroy runaway rockets. The delay proved the resilience of the rocket, which was intact when it fell.

"the structural safety margin of the starship seems to be better than we expected." Musk said.

Musk said more explosives may be added to the next launch to ensure that "if it is necessary to stop the flight, the rocket will explode immediately."

Another accident of this launch was that the rocket launch shattered the concrete below. The thrust of 30 engines accidentally produced a "rock tornado", causing debris to be scattered over hundreds of acres and creating huge dust clouds.

"it's basically a man-made sandstorm," Musk said, "but we don't want to do it anymore."

He revealed that SpaceX was supposed to install a large water-cooled steel plate under the launch pad so that the flames of 33 engines would not be sprayed directly into the concrete, but it was not ready when it was launched last week.

Can it be successful the second time? Repairs to the next starship and launch pad will be ready in six to eight weeks, he said. However, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which oversees rocket launches, is investigating the explosion of the first launch and must be satisfied with the adjustments and improvements to the SpaceX before allowing the next starship flight.

The next launch of the starship will attempt to achieve the goal of the first test flight, that is, the starship will successfully separate from the booster and reach space, then orbit most of the earth and land in the waters near Hawaii.

Musk did not promise that the second attempt would be a complete success. He said he expected four to five more starships to be launched this year. "We have an 80% chance of going into orbit this year," Musk said. "I don't want to risk it, but I think there's a close to 100% chance of getting into orbit within 12 months."

Musk also said that SpaceX will spend "about $2 billion" on starships this year and that no additional investment is needed to develop the rocket.

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