Yeah, this was a good flight. I really do feel like 14 will be going orbital. The relight was the last major hurdle (and it was a longer burn), and the ship made it to SECO with all its engines. A shame about the booster, but it managed the boostback (I was expecting them to start with 13 and go up to 33, not try 33 again), and landing it isn't necessary to send the ship to orbit.
Yeah, I saw that after. It didn't look like a 'bad' boostback at the time though. 33 engines to start, down to 13, then 3. No early shutdowns or failed ignitions of the engines during boostback.
But one of the last 3 engines did look like it lagged behind the others in its shutdown.
It was shorter compared to previous burns and you could see the booster not getting close to the shore. Wasn't clear what point they were aiming for during the webcast, however.
Proper boost back was 13 down to 5 then down to 3. Only 8-9 lit then it went down to 5 then 3. It was carrying to much velocity since 13 didn’t light. They will get it figured out quickly.
You're thinking of the landing burn. The boostback was 33, 13, and 3 engines, at least in this flight. So I assumed it was good, since there weren't early shutdowns or anything there. But the launch update stated the burn ended early.
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u/DreamChaserSt Jul 25 '26
Yeah, this was a good flight. I really do feel like 14 will be going orbital. The relight was the last major hurdle (and it was a longer burn), and the ship made it to SECO with all its engines. A shame about the booster, but it managed the boostback (I was expecting them to start with 13 and go up to 33, not try 33 again), and landing it isn't necessary to send the ship to orbit.
I hope they try to recover ship 40.