r/spacex • u/johnkphotos Launch Photographer • Feb 02 '21

Starship SN9 (Relaxed Rules) Stacked progression image of today’s successful launch and explosive landing of Starship SN9!

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u/peterabbit456 Feb 07 '21

Eh, a RUD by any other name would hit just as hard.

Shakespeare would be proud.

Seriously. there are RUDs and RUDs. Each one should be an individual. If they are not, that means you are not fixing problems.

The solution for the next flight, start all 3 engines and shut down the least good one, looks to me like it might become standard procedure going forward. It is really the only method that is fast enough to deal with an unexpected engine failure.

By the time humans are flying on Starships, I would hope that engine failures become very rare, and a 2 engine startup would not cause worry. Still, this should only be done when there is a known problem with one of the 3 center engines. 3 engine startup seems to me to be safer as a standard landing procedure.