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raverbashing01/17/20256 repliesview on HN

I'm not sure there's fire suppression effective enough for this type of leak (especially given rocket constraints)


Replies

echelon01/17/2025

Replying to this comment so people can see the incredible video of the breakup taken from a diverting aircraft:

https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1i34dki/starship_...

psunavy0301/17/2025

Aerospace fire suppression is generally Halon, which would purge the cavity with inert gas.

m4rtink01/17/2025

Actually the Super Heavy (first stage) already uses heavy CO2 based fire suppression. Hopefully not that necessary in the long term, but should make it possible to get on with the testing in the short term.

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metalman01/17/2025

just increased venting to keep any vapor concentrations of fuel and oxidiser below that capable of igniting, even simple baffling could suffice as the leaks may be trasitory and flowing out of blowoff valves, so possibly a known risk. Space x is also forgoeing much of the full system vibriatory tests, done on traditiinal 1 shot launches, and failure in presurised systems due to unknown resonance is common. Big question is did it just blow up, or did the automated abort, take it out, likely the latter or there would be a hold on the next launch.

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spandrew01/17/2025

It might not even be about fire suppression. Oxygen and different gases can pool oddly in different types of gravity. If oxygen was leaking, it may be as simple as making sure a vacuum de-gases a chamber before going full throttle.

We know nothing, but the test having good data on what went wrong is a great starting point.

varjag01/17/2025

If you can displace the oxidizer/air remaining in the volume why not.

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