SpaceX's Starship Rocket Ends in Explosion After Launch

[vanamonde]

24. I had something similar happen to me

As a young nerd in the 60's I built and flew Estes model rockets. Many of them. The flagship of my fleet was their 4 engine cluster powered Saturn 1B model.

Those who shared this hobby with me will remember that in order to ignite the solid fuel engines you stuck a high resistance wire up into the engine, securing it there with a wad of tissue (they later improved on this technique).

Failure to ignite was a common problem even with one engine, for many reasons. Getting four to ignite simultaneously was a real trick.

On the maiden launch only two of the four engines ignited. The now underpowered rocket rose about 6 feet off the ground then fell back to earth, suffering serious but repairable damage.

At least it didn't blow up.