That was a successful test ![]()
Maybe a little bit too ‘kerbal’ ![]()
It didn’t blow up the pad, all is good ![]()
Love their acronym, RUD (Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly)
I think this was technically a success, but Elon did not look too happy ![]()

Holy moly that was cool.
And yes, pretty successful, the moment they cleared the pad they reached most of the flight’s goals.
Man, they need a proper flame diverter. There is too much damage on the pad.
That was intensely incredible ![]()
To the uninitiated, self included, that beast flew like a giant bottle rocket!
looks like it was based on the vikhr ![]()
They should have went with one of these. ![]()
RAD
- Rapid Anomalous Disassembly
- Rapid Aberrant Disassembly
- Rapid Atypical Disassembly
For me the first one works the best but the other two meet the acronym conditions.
Wheels
I think you are right… Holy ****!
With that amount of material ejected with such force (there were splashes of debris out in the ocean), I think it is probable that the booster getting blasted was a major contributor to the cascade of failures. Multiple engines failing/blowing up and both hydraulic power units blowing up on ascent, leading to a loss of trust vector control.
It seems that SpaceX actually was extremely lucky that the flight did not end with a pad explosion. The resilience of the booster to progressive failure was actually quite impressive.
Spectacular launch ![]()
So kerbal. I love it. I’ll admit it, I’m a spaceX fan.
There’s a reason the pads at the Cape and Vandenberg are all concrete and get FOD walkdowns before launch.
“We’re going to need a bigger pad.”
I wonder if it was bits of the concrete pad being blown about that caused some of the engines either to not work or be damaged
I love hearing the SpaceX employees cheer when their rocket blows up. I used to think that the Howard Hughes of our generation was mad for his method of space flight development. But one grows used to rockets that meet a violent end. The events become almost gleefully anticipated, knowing that progress is being made.
The mc said, “We’re flying at twice the thrust of the Saturn V that put man into space.”
I reckon that is highly likely. In fact with all that debris… and there were some huge chunks getting thrown out, I’m surprised it made it off the pad at all?
