I knew Elon would have had something to do with what happened to the #Starship on 4/20.
His macho disregard for the Environment and Safety meant he dismissed calls for a 'firing trench', subsequently the firing of Starship's rockets kicked up a load of debris which took out some of the engines and caused the irregularity in flight that necessitated self destruct.
The guy is a fucking liability and #SpaceX needs to drop him.
That's your story Media.

@Lazarou @kcarruthers And I'll give you exactly one guess at who, at SpaceX, decided to make 4/20 the launch date.

Get it? 420?

Seriously, what kind of CEO at a major rocket firm would insist on a 20th April launch, ready or not, to make a juvenile "420" joke?!

@ajsadauskas @Lazarou Not to defend Musk, but he personally didn't choose the launch date.

The timing of the launch is based on weather conditions and the orbit of the Earth.

@MugsysRapSheet @ajsadauskas @Lazarou yes and it was after a wet launch on Monday.
@honyell @MugsysRapSheet @ajsadauskas @Lazarou And the launch itself was still a success because it gave them a ton of data on which to work out the issues with the vehicle.

@Milnoc @honyell @ajsadauskas @Lazarou

"The launch [that we had to blow up] was a success b/c of all the data we gathered from it."

That claim has more spin than the rocket itself as it cartwheeled 39KM above the FL coast. 🤦‍♂️

@MugsysRapSheet @Milnoc @ajsadauskas @Lazarou Like where would we be without all the rockets NACA and NASA blew up including Redstone-Mercury? Where would we be without the test pilots lost trying to break the sound barrier or the pilots lost trying to go faster than a Bell X-1? We learned so much after the Apollo 1 fire. We learned so much after all the people who crashed and died just trying to be the first to fly.

@honyell @Milnoc @ajsadauskas @Lazarou The early days are excused b/c the technology was new and we had no experience sending up rockets.

Today, SpaceX uses 60 year old technology to launch their rockets, and has taken us back to "splashdowns" for the "capsule"... a dramatic step backwards after a 20 year Shuttle Program.

@MugsysRapSheet @Milnoc @ajsadauskas @Lazarou This rocket is Methane powered. This rocket is stainless steel. This rocket is the largest rocket ever launched. This rocket will eventually land itself, both booster and ship.
None of this has ever been done before.
SpaceX takes Astronauts to the space station, drops off cargo, lands and reuses the rockets after every launch.

@honyell @Milnoc @ajsadauskas @Lazarou Burning Methane as a propellant in the age of #GlobalWarming is asinine, and hardly the technology of the future.

Bigger also isn't the future of space flight.

"Splashdowns" as the means of return was the FIRST method used when the Mercury program began over 60 years ago.

SpaceX uses primarily 60 year old methods of takeoff & return. Sierra Nevada built a mini-shuttle that landed on a runway, and Branson used a fuel-sipping plane for an air launch.

@MugsysRapSheet @Milnoc @ajsadauskas @Lazarou Methane is cheaper, gives off more energy & takes up less space. They can extract it from Mars and potentially the moon. The raptor engine is so far advanced. Nothing like it has ever been done before. They had to develop their own metal alloy to handle the pressure. It uses what is called full flow stage combustion making it the most fuel efficient rocket engine ever built.
Research it for yourself.

@honyell @Milnoc @ajsadauskas @Lazarou OF COURSE "Methane is cheaper". It's 5x worse than CO2 as a #GlobalWarming gas. The LAST thing we need to be doing is *promoting* it as the "rocket fuel of the future."

We can use Hydrogen as rocket fuel. Separated from water, Hydrogen & Oxygen make the perfect clean rocket fuel. Methane requires Biomass to produce. You won't find a lot of either on the Moon or Mars (but you WILL find water.)

@MugsysRapSheet @Milnoc @ajsadauskas @Lazarou Raptor is the most fuel efficient rocket engine ever built. It burns every drop of fuel. EVERY DROP. NO METHANE LEFT. The byproduct is water and carbon dioxide. For a 7 min ride into space, I'm more worried about that dude who just rolled coal in his gigantic pickup truck.

@honyell @Milnoc @ajsadauskas @Lazarou Unburned liquid methane isn't the danger. *Burning* it is. Methane does not burn clean... even if you burn "every drop".

And where do you plan on getting enough biomass on the Moon to produce enough Methane to fly to Mars? Human waste & trash composing in an oxygen-free vacuum?

@MugsysRapSheet @Milnoc @ajsadauskas @Lazarou here is everything you need to know about why Methane is the better rocket fuel https://youtu.be/yRtx56xl-70
Why SpaceX is Using a New Fuel

YouTube
@honyell @Milnoc @ajsadauskas @Lazarou If you believe Methane... the most environmentally dangerous fuel there is... which can't be produced in sufficient quantities in space... is the fuel of the future, either you have a financial investment in Methane as a fuel, or are so invested "mentally" in a fairytale you've been telling yourself for years, you refuse to believe you've been duped by those who do.
@MugsysRapSheet @Milnoc @ajsadauskas @Lazarou Methane is a component of natural gas. It heats your home and produces electricity. It is one of the cleanest burning fuels there is. It takes up less space than hydrogen and when burned it produces more energy and less carbon than any fuel. It's also on Mars and most major planets in our solar system.

@honyell The myth Natural Gas is "clean" is promoted heavily by the NG/hydrocarbon industry as a "clean alternative to gasoline" b/c we have more of it in the U.S. and don't need to import it.

But it's still a terrible #GreenhouseGas fuel and *definitely* not the future of space travel.

To create #Methane, you need Oxygen. If you *already* have oxygen, there's no need for Methane (it's ALREADY a powerful combustible fuel.) And Hydrogen is the most plentiful element in the universe.

@MugsysRapSheet you can argue with me till you're blue in the face but it is a scientific fact methane is the better rocket fuel. "Because burning hydrogen releases less energy than methane." Forbes

@honyell A "better" fuel based on what? "Availability"? No. Hydrogen is FAR more plentiful. "Powerful"? Hydrazine (current rocket fuel) is FAR more powerful than Methane. Methane is not an element. It must be *created* using *other* forms of energy.. potential rocket fuel such as Oxygen (see "Law of Conservation of Energy".)

There's a reason Hybrid cars don't use a gas engine to generate electricity and then run the car entirely on electricity. Same principle applies to using making methane.

@MugsysRapSheet why do you need to make methane when it's abundant everywhere including Mars and most major planets.
@MugsysRapSheet "hydrogen must be extracted from water, biomass (plant and animal waste), coal, or natural gas before it can be used. About 95% of hydrogen utilised today is obtained from steam reforming hydrogen atoms from carbon atoms in methane. The carbon dioxide released in the process could erode the ozone layer of Earth’s atmosphere and exacerbate global warming." medium.com

@honyell The process of extracting Hydrogen from water (Electrolysis) is FAR less energy-hungry than the process of making Methane.

You say "Methane is more powerful". That is b/c more energy goes into making it.

@MugsysRapSheet "That is what happened with Mars in 2003 and 2004, when three independent groups of scientists announced the discovery of methane in the atmosphere of that planet. Using a high-resolution spectrograph at the Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii and at the Gemini South Telescope in Chile, a team led by Michael Mumma of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center detected methane concentrations in excess of 250 ppbv" scientificamerican.com
@honyell I looked it up. The amount of Methane found on Mars averages around TEN ppbv... a far cry from 250. https://www.space.com/curiosity-mars-rover-tgo-methane-mystery
Mars methane mystery may be starting to clear up

Scientists now seem to understand why the gas has been detected at ground level on Mars but not higher up in the air.

Space
@MugsysRapSheet “There is no other rocket engine capable of producing as much energy out of liquid methane and liquid oxygen as the Raptor engine,” says Tim Dodd, an industry expert who runs the popular Everyday Astronaut YouTube channel. “And making it more reusable with little to no refurbishment is the idea. That’s definitely going to help their business case if they can just fly over and over.” https://www.wired.co.uk/article/spacex-raptor-engine-starship
The wild physics of Raptor: SpaceX's methane-guzzling rocket engine

To get humans to Mars, SpaceX is building the mighty Starship spacecraft, powered by the Raptor engine - one of the first to be powered by methane and designed to be reused 1,000 times

WIRED UK
Methalox race likely to be won in 2022, but winner not yet clear - NASASpaceFlight.com

Right now, several methane-fueled rockets are in a race to orbit. With Starship from SpaceX,…

NASASpaceFlight.com