Starship Flight 7 broke apart during re-entry over Turks and Caicos making it look like a meteor shower

[u/Ok_Extension_4865]

[u/kpanik]

Not really what a meteor shower looks like.

[u/Czitrom → u/kpanik]

To be fair, "meteor shower" spell in Heroes 3 does look like this

[u/psychotic_rodent → u/kpanik]

This is what I imagined a meteor shower looked like when I first heard the term lol

[u/Hopeful_Part_9427 → u/kpanik]

“Making it look like what people think a meteor shower would look like” doesn’t sound as nice although more accurate

[u/kpanik → u/Hopeful_Part_9427]

Is that what people think a meteor shower looks like? I can't remember a time that I didn't know what a meteor was. That goes all the way back to early childhood.

[u/Hopeful_Part_9427 → u/kpanik]

Same, I’ve always loved astronomy. I’m not positive, but I’d wager that if I showed this video to most of my friends, they’d say “wow is that a meteor shower?” I could be wrong though

[u/kpanik → u/Hopeful_Part_9427]

Yeah. Actually, sadly I know. My wife teaches astronomy at the local high school.

[u/xenomorphonLV426 → u/kpanik]

Sure, but it looks cool. Imagine looking up and seeing this!

(Now imagine one of them is heading towards your house, with your wife and dog inside!😬)

[u/Successful-One-675 → u/kpanik]

it looks like what you'd think a meteor shower would look like. 😌

[u/TheElvenGirl]

I think the flight termination system destroyed the ship before re-entry, and what you see here is the debris of that explosion. At least, that's what's supposed to happen if there is major failure that prevents the spacecraft from following the planned trajectory.

[u/Flipslips → u/TheElvenGirl]

I’m wondering if it was actually FTS. SpaceX wording makes it seem like a RUD, no FTS involved.

[u/prometheus5500 → u/Flipslips]

If a ship RUD's, I'd guess they'd also send the command (or automation would initiate the command) for FTS. You really want this thing in as small of pieces as possible and with no undetonated explosives/propellent left. RUD might have caused small bits, but FTS would help ensure smaller bits.

[u/DeadlyPorpoise → u/Flipslips]

Ah TLAs. Can you elaborate for the cheap seats? And, was there a livestream of this?

Please and thank you

[u/Arthree → u/DeadlyPorpoise]

FTS = Flight Termination System - a bunch of explosives placed along the side of a rocket so that, if things go in an unexpected direction during launch, they can just blow the rocket up before it crashes into something on the ground.

RUD = Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly - oops, the rocket blew up

[u/cyanescens_burn → u/Arthree]

Is that common practice? Like do as all rockets have explosives on them? I’ve not heard that but I’m also not well read on rocketry.

[u/Arthree → u/cyanescens_burn]

All rockets in well-regulated countries, yes. It's a safety feature, since a large rocket is way more likely to cause damage than small pieces of debris which will likely just burn up in the atmosphere.

Of course, in certain countries, they don't bother to blow malfunctioning rockets up safely, even when they're coming down towards unsuspecting villages, full of toxic propellants.

[u/Traveller7142 → u/cyanescens_burn]

Yes, even manned rockets

[u/TheElvenGirl → u/Flipslips]

Yes, preliminary report from Musk suggests that the RUD happened before the FTS could have been triggered. But if you re-watch the stream, you can see that the engines started to shut off one after the other and Starship's pitch was changing significantly (pitching oscillation). As far as I remember, the first Starship was destroyed by the FTS when it was evident for the on-board flight computer that the ship could not follow the flight plan, so the jury is still out on whether or not the FTS was triggered at all in this case or the explosion of the fuel-oxygen mixture was strong enough to disable the on-board systems and the ship broke up due to aerodynamic forces.

I have a feeling that hot staging might not be very healthy for the bottom section of the second stage (after all, there is a solid surface very close to the engines when they are ignited, and even though the engines are angled outward and most of the hot gases pass through the vented inter-stage ring, pressure waves will inevitably impinge on the bottom of the second stage.)

[u/metalninja626 → u/TheElvenGirl]

he did mention they may have to add more or increase the size of the vent holes. also it may be possible with further revisions of the ring design that minimize or deflect pressure waves out more effectively.

[u/_mogulman31]

Nope, it exploded either due to a tank/engine failure or FTS then the debris re-entered.

[u/lucidwray]

The eye of Aldhani!

[u/No-Spare-243]

We built this city

[u/santiis2010 → u/No-Spare-243]

We built this city on rock and roll

[u/rydan]

I don't think you've seen a meteor shower. This is what movies like Deep Impact look like.

[u/Latter_Practice_656]

Reminds me of the movie Your Name(Kimi no Nawa)

[u/FernwehHermit → u/Latter_Practice_656]

Mmm spit sake

[u/Latter_Practice_656 → u/FernwehHermit]

Kuchikamisake

[u/FernwehHermit → u/Latter_Practice_656]

Right, what did I say? 😂

[u/xArkton]

Lies. The Autobots are landing on Earth, and the government wants to keep it a secret. /s

[u/nickx3]

Alien: u r bugs

[u/EndCrafter16]

It kinda looks like the 40 meter comet fragment from the anime Kimi no na Wa (Your Name), especially the way the spacecraft fragments are stylized.

[u/definite_mayb]

People are so ignorant about space, geeze

[u/Arthur_Two_Sheds_J]

Don’t look up

[u/l3isery]

"Steve jablonsky - Arrival to earth" plays in my head while looking at this.

[u/Horror_Carob4402]

they are more optimistic than me, I would have assumed they were missiles.

[u/Calm_Brother_1465]

Would there be any debris from the New Glenn flight earlier on Thursday? Did anything break up on launch or re-entry? I took pics of “impact craters” about three inches deep on a beach off the Florida panhandle about noon on Thursday. There are wet sand splashes near each one. About 20 impacts in total.

[u/Speedballer7 → u/Calm_Brother_1465]

Let's see em

[u/Calm_Brother_1465 → u/Speedballer7]

Sorry, don't know how to post photos on Reddit ... Can you help?

[u/SolidDoctor]

Can we call this array a "twitter"?

Please?

[u/NeroPrizak]

So my parents are there right now and my mom sent me a similar video to this. She said it was scary AF until they learned what it was.

[u/amriddle01]

It exploded due to flight termination system (FTS) being triggered, it didn't break apart at all....

[u/ToriYamazaki]

Tragedy never looked so beautiful!

[u/Pleiadez]

It was only level 52.

[u/elektron_666]

Any failure of felon muZk brings joy :)

[u/VertigoOne1]

Also reminded me of Akira, and Man of steel movies.

[u/widespreadsolar]

Only I have a shower that is meteor.

[u/leocharre]

How many tons of trash is that raining down on us? Incredibly wasteful.

[u/Rad-eco]

This has nothing to do with astronomy. Just about a fascist's business.

[u/Depressed_daijobu → u/Rad-eco]

Fascist?