https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2121648438144024943
replybooster was low on fuel, plus no mood of risking tower with boom, boosters are cheaper than towers.
Cool. And people thought he wrote this himself!
replySuch Elon rage! I love the downvotes. Always worth it.
replySlight underperformance in the engines resulted in the the booster not reaching where it was supposed to be and the GNC systems automatically aborted to the gulf for safety.
replyTwo reasons floating around. 1.)They lost communication with tower 2.)They ran out of fuel for safe land.
replysource: Scott Manley https://youtube.com/shorts/m2oGDCvDmdE?si=0AlX8sgHDihXCED6
Do we know what sea life just died as the booster exploded? What are the impacts to the Texas Gulf when a booster detonates into the ocean?
replyProbably next to nothing compared to what we fish out of the ocean constantly.
replyidk, i'll take a look after i finish eating my steak dinner
reply"Slightly low on fuel."
replyIf I understand correctly, the margin was tight enough not to take the risk of damaging the tower.
They need another cheaper tower just for catching. Much less mass when landing.
replyThe existing towers can only handle empty ships & boosters. The tower stacks them, then they’re fueled. A catch-only tower would avoid some cladding and the propellant loading lines, but it would still need a deluge system and a QD arm to replace any remaining propellant with inert gas. At that point you might as well pay a little more and get a fully capable tower.
replyAnd if the landing footage is any indication, it sure looks like they would have made the catch anyway if they'd gone for it.
replylanding footage shows exactly why they didn't attempt the tower catch - the final braking burn was engine rich (green tint), it didn't blow up, but there was a respectable chance of it just crashing into the tower running on less than fumes
replyI'm not sure thats the case. the booster hovered for what seemed a lot longer than prior booster landing attempts. Almost like they were purposely running out the fuel.
replyThe goal, as I understand it, is to return the booster with as little fuel as possible at time of catch -- and not run short.
replyThe booster footage indicated to me that its engines turned off, and then the body of the booster imploded, before it touched the ground and then became the expected fireball.
I'm definitely not a rocket scientist, but this series of events leads me to believe that the fuel was absolutely exhausted.
Sounds like the final boom was intentional from control
replyPerhaps it was, and if so: It occurred subsequent to the implosion.
reply(In case that distinction is missed, I do mean "implode" as the antonym of "explode".)
Their risk tolerance would probably be greater if both towers were fully operational. But any damage to the only functional tower during booster catch = an automatic abort to the ship catch one day later, and the ship catch is what was really interesting at this point of development.
replyThe previz imagery of their plans for the Louisiana coast showed pairs of towers dotting the coast. At first I thought they were for alternating the cadence of launches, but now I wonder if one is to catch the booster and the other to catch ship.
replyApparently the booster signaled it didn't have enough fuel to risk it. Either because it consumed more then expected on the way up, or a measurement error potentially.
replyAt the last moment the exhaust turned green. That's consistent with the fuel running out, the engines running oxygen rich, and subsequently "engine rich". So I would put my money on actually running out vs a measurement error.
replyI heard somewhere the engine efficiency is still somewhat variable so they burned more fuel than anticipated.
replyThat's basically what Musk said, yes: that they need to work on both engine performance and performance consistency. He said they'd be cutting off the main engines one second sooner to provide more margin for boost-back.
replyAmazing that a one-second difference can matter, but those things go through tons of fuel every one of those seconds!