[ExI] musk catches one

[BillK]

On Sun, 20 Oct 2024 at 16:47, Kelly Anderson via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> I've been closely following this the last few days, and nobody has
> said anything about that. Not SpaceX, none of the space nerd
> followers. Except, one of the space channels did say that there was a
> superficial loss of a cover which might have allowed flames cooling
> under the bottom to leak out the sides.
>
> Now, when one looks at the base of the rocket above the engines, it
> was reported that it was half the temperature of the surface of the
> sun... so any lack of covering that allowed that kind of heat to just
> leak out could have produced some interesting effects. Not sure that's
> what we saw.
>
> There must have been a LITTLE bit of fuel left when it landed. Perhaps
> that was just gassing off and ignited by the hotness of the whole
> bottom of the rocket.
>
> The silence on this element is really interesting to me. It's like,
> "nothing to see here, move on"... I suppose we'll know if it happens
> next time as well, or they figure out a way to fix it.
>
> -Kelly
> _______________________________________________


This article suggests that it was mainly fuel venting.
But there might also be a problem that needs checking out before the
next flight.
A lot of detail in the discussion, with slow motion video.

BillK

<https://www.adastraspace.com/p/spacex-super-heavy-catch>
Quote:
Everything to know about SpaceX's mid-air booster "catch"
Was it on fire? Why was there black smoke?? Why a catch instead landing???
Swapna Krishna       October 17, 2024
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