[ExI] musk catches one

[Brent Allsop]

Dumping the extra methane is what I've assumed it was.  IFT4 had something
that looked very similar, right?  They just dump the LOX overboard, but
can't do that with the liquid methane.  The only way to dump that is with a
flame stack to keep it from becoming explosive.  It also looks very
similar to the way the Delta 4 "lights itself on fire" at launch, to
dispose of any dangerous fuel where it shouldn't be.
I've heard people say it was venting from the quick disconnect port, which
seems to be consistent with this.
And most people in the know probably know this, so don't ask and
people don't talk about it much?
Seems I've heard/seen other evidence confirming this, but don't recall the
specifics.










On Sun, Oct 20, 2024 at 10:41 AM BillK via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> 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
> -------------------------------
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20241020/c7fb557b/attachment.htm>