** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

[Penfold101]

Thats true of a Nasa launch too the chances of getting out on launch to orbit are pretty much zero and even when they suspect the vehicle is damaged in orbit theres no clear way to bring them back safely look at the Shuttle disasters they strongly suspected something was wrong with the heat shield but they went for reentry anyway

Not exactly true - at any point during the launch sequence (after SRB SEP) they can detach and come back the Earth. There were designated shuttle landing strips around the planet and depending on what stage they were at or how many engines they had would determine the course of action:

Space Shuttle abort modes - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

You could also Abort to Orbit if you were that far downrange, as STS-51 did:

STS-51-F - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

I know these are quite what you’re on about, but they’re interesting nonetheless. There us a certain amount of risk accepted for spaceflight I’d say, but if they want to even consider civilians or non-astronauts for Starship it’ll need something like an escape system.

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

Thats true of a Nasa launch too the chances of getting out on launch to orbit are pretty much zero and even when they suspect the vehicle is damaged in orbit theres no clear way to bring them back safely look at the Shuttle disasters they strongly suspected something was wrong with the heat shield but they went for reentry anyway

Without a heatshield nothing is coming back from orbit in one piece. They didn't really have any other choice but to try and make it back The shuttle did have an option of gliding to the UK and other airstrips if something happened and it couldn't make it to orbit. Obviously the chances of something happening that prevented it making it to orbit and it not going catastrophic were likely very low.

 

[PlacidCasual]

I'm going to make a wild guess here and suggest that the FAA and Space will move to night launches to reduce the risk of airline flights from debris until Starship is a more mature vehicle. I know there will still be flights but far fewer. .

 

[Penfold101]

I'm going to make a wild guess here and suggest that the FAA and Space will move to night launches to reduce the risk of airline flights from debris until Starship is a more mature vehicle. I know there will still be flights but far fewer. .

Scott Manley had an interesting take - they may have made the situation worse if the FTS was activated and it made the debris cloud we saw flying across the sky. Leaving it to re-enter in one piece may have been a better idea!

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

Scott Manley had an interesting take - they may have made the situation worse if the FTS was activated and it made the debris cloud we saw flying across the sky. Leaving it to re-enter in one piece may have been a better idea!

A guy posted this in the comments

@siciloliveri​

1 day ago (edited)
Hi Scott! European Space Engineer here! As part of the French space law we have the requirement to fragment any rocket stage falling back to earth if there is still any (solid or liquid) propellant in them. The goals are 2: (1) to avoid any propellant detonation during impact on ground, and (2) smaller debris have smaller kinetic energy hence are less dangerous.Regarding the risk of collision with aircrafts, the flight safety corridor is determined considering many many degraded scenarios. Also, the neutralisation is performed as low as possible to avoid spreading debris over a large area.

EDIT: (3) neutralising also allows to ensure that all propulsion is stopped (in case you still have a doubt), thus ensuring that rest of the flight is ballistic. If there is some propulsion left, the stage could deviate a bit still and the final debris could be even further from the flight path, increasing the risk of falling on some aircraft. With a ballistic trajectory, it’s easier to identify where debris will fall and which aircraft to divert (I.e. the one in vicinity of the flight path).

 

[timbob]

Not exactly true - at any point during the launch sequence (after SRB SEP) they can detach and come back the Earth. There were designated shuttle landing strips around the planet and depending on what stage they were at or how many engines they had would determine the course of action:

Space Shuttle abort modes - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

You could also Abort to Orbit if you were that far downrange, as STS-51 did:

STS-51-F - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

I know these are quite what you’re on about, but they’re interesting nonetheless. There us a certain amount of risk accepted for spaceflight I’d say, but if they want to even consider civilians or non-astronauts for Starship it’ll need something like an escape system.

Jet airliners don’t have an escape system?

 

[Penfold101]

Jet airliners don’t have an escape system?

Jet airliners have 100 years and millions of individual flights worth of experience with a much lower risk level than a literal controlled explosion going 20 times the speed of sound.