Rocket fails, explodes seconds after launch for Japanese startup - Sensationalist Headlines

https://globalnews.ca/news/4306608/rocket-explodes-japan-start-up/ The video is in the source, just so you guys know.

https://giant.gfycat.com/UnhealthyGenerousKomododragon.webm This is probably one of the best reaction shots of the failed launch.

Oh god that news thumbnail haha https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/215547/51287e8b-86db-44a5-9b32-77a3dc5482f7/Momo2.png

Remember kids, the only difference between a rocket and a bomb is the direction of the force coming out of it!

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/159354/0da418fb-01fd-4460-8aac-3e0ada84af4d/Screen Shot 2018-07-02 at 12.10.49 PM.png HEWWO MISTEW OBAMA. DIDN'T EXPEWKT ME BACK HUH.

Not surprising. How many times did NASA have to test launch their rockets before they could even hope that Project Mercury was a possibility? Hell even SpaceX had massive troubles getting their rockets to not explode as soon as they got off the ground. Turns out rocketry isn't as easy as "attach engine and fuel and go".

I don't think anyone ever made it on their first attempt

Definitely an engine issue, given the loss of thrust and fire coming out multiple places out the side. Could have been the turbines, gas generators, pumps...any of those.

Im no expert, but I am pretty certain the issue is that it exploded

*Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly*

The problem seems internal to the engine, one of the components seems to have stopped flowing properly into the combustion chamber. Considering it's a new rocket, I'd point to turbopump failing. Maybe some contamination/debris went down from the fuel tank and entered the pump.

i mean there's a reason the phrase "it's not rocket science" exists. It aint fuckin easy coincidentally my uncle who happens to be a rocket propulsion engineer always says that baking "is not rocket science" because it's actually harder

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/220592/af91b289-6ee3-4e18-bac4-af08820ffd61/91FC1C1F-B3FF-4A77-A95C-65B27617248A.jpeg In all seriousness, not a good second showing by the folks at Interstellar Technologies. At least no one got hurt!

eh, failure's to be expected early on. a lot of it. spacex has shat themselves more times than I can count, but that's how they learned and got as far as they did. no helping in PR, but people are generally oblivious to how these things usually play out at the start.

Is that fuel or smoke that started coming out of the bottom ?

Looks like liquid oxygen boiling off, to me. I'm guessing either a LOX line got severed and it started venting it to atmosphere, or a fuel line got severed, and it was pumping LOX into a preburner or combustion chamber with no fuel to burn with, so it just went out the back as boiling oxygen. Whether that was the root cause, or a secondary effect of something else blowing up, I can't say. I managed to dig up some info on the actual rocket. Apparently it's running LOX oxidizer, ethanol fuel. That's basically easy mode for liquid rocketry - ethanol burns cooler, pumps easier, and is far less likely to soot up, compared to kerosene, but your efficiency is pretty garbage. Ethanol can be thought of as ethane that's been partially burned - it was used in the early days before we'd figured out regenerative cooling, but this is the first new rocket I've seen using it. Of course, it's only suborbital so bleeding-edge rocketry isn't exactly needed, but I'm seriously wondering what the point of this all is.

"Heh?!"