I do not consider it viable as a final design solution.

ROFL, you need an asterisk and a long list of “ifs” after that exclamation point.

To be fair, the two catastrophic events were entirely management failures.

To be fair, the two catastrophic events were entirely management failures.

What do you suppose the average MTBFs of pumps or other LRUs were?

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What do you suppose the average MTBFs of pumps or other LRUs were?[/quote]

No sure where you're going with that, but there were 0 inflight failures of turbopumps

Scott Manley just dropped a really cool video on the history and mechanics of FTS.

TJ

I’m saving it to watch tomorrow on the big screen. My question is why the FTS on Starship seemed to be less than effective, at least in the immediate sense. Maybe he will go into that, but when I hear FTS I don’t expect it to just punch a couple of holes that vent fuel, I expect a prompt boom. I imagine this might be one of the punch list items for the next flight license.

You mean, like this recent Starship launch where known consequences are being ignored?

Mike C.

This sure looked like something just above the engine, where the turbopumps are, gave out rather dramatically:

Parts were shed in this event.

There's another event shortly after where parts come flying off the other side and the engine right under that event clearly goes off mixture severely, like it lost supply of either oxygen or fuel. That sounds like a turbopump going out, no?

Mike C.

This sure looked like something just above the engine, where the turbopumps are, gave out rather dramatically:

Parts were shed in this event.

There's another event shortly after where parts come flying off the other side and the engine right under that event clearly goes off mixture severely, like it lost supply of either oxygen or fuel. That sounds like a turbopump going out, no?

Mike C.

"135 missions with two catastrophic events."

"To be fair, the two catastrophic events were entirely management failures"

"What do you suppose the average MTBFs of pumps or other LRUs were?"

The comment followed these three and was in reference to Shuttle turbopump MTBF.

You mean, like this recent Starship launch where known consequences are being ignored?

The turbo pumps on the Raptor are located on the “top” of the engine, above the combustion chamber and nozzle. They aren’t sticking out. What I think we’re looking at there is a HPU. I think the HPU was FOD’d and began puking hydraulic fluid into the exhaust stream, which caused the off color flame. That may have affected the nearby engine or maybe the engine was also damaged by the same debris that damaged the HPU and just took a little time to fail.

My theory is that flying concrete damaged one or more HPU, after which that hydraulic system gradually lost pressure, causing the center engines to lose their ability to gimbal and the vehicle went out of control.

The turbo pumps on the Raptor are located on the “top” of the engine, above the combustion chamber and nozzle. They aren’t sticking out. What I think we’re looking at there is a HPU. I think the HPU was FOD’d and began puking hydraulic fluid into the exhaust stream, which caused the off color flame. That may have affected the nearby engine or maybe the engine was also damaged by the same debris that damaged the HPU and just took a little time to fail.

My theory is that flying concrete damaged one or more HPU, after which that hydraulic system gradually lost pressure, causing the center engines to lose their ability to gimbal and the vehicle went out of control.