Flying chunks of concrete, twisted metal sheets, craters blasted deep into the ground: the thunderous power of SpaceX’s first test flight of Starship—the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built—inflicted serious damage on its Texas launch site.
Repairing the damage from Thursday’s unmanned test flight is expected to take months, potentially delaying further launch attempts and slowing the development of a rocket NASA plans to use on its upcoming Moon missions.
De Weck said that Starship’s launch site, unlike others used for such large rockets, lacked a “water deluge system”.
Those are used to flood the pad with water, cooling it and absorbing shock and sound waves.
The Texas site also lacks what is known as a flame trench—tunnels which channel hot exhaust away from the pad.
Such features come at a high price though, particularly when they have to stand up to the earth-shaking power of Starship.
Patrick Fallon & Lucie Aubourg
Absent from this reporting: how is was Elon Musk’s decision 3 years ago not to install flame diverters on the Starship launchpad, leading to this failure. Meanwhile, the FAA grounded the Starship Super Heavy launch program pending a “mishap investigation”, further delaying their testing schedule by at least several months if not more than a year – and NASA’s Artemis mission to the Moon in the process. Regardless of when SpaceX will receive clearance for another test, they will need to rebuild and possibly redesign the launch site as well; after all, you can’t reuse the rocket if its launchpad is disposable…
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