SpaceX Just Revealed Why Booster 20 Failed to Light 8 Raptor Engines After Starship Flight 13...
SpaceX Just Revealed Why Booster 20 Failed to Light 8 Raptor Engines After Starship Flight 13...
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SpaceX Just Revealed Why Booster 20 Failed to Light 8 Raptor Engines After Starship Flight 13...
This is insane! For the first time ever, a giant Starship survived that deadly splashdown.
Even Elon couldn't believe it. That’s a genuine milestone in SpaceX's history.
But there's a catch — one problem that just won't die. The engine fault is still here... and this time, it nearly killed Booster 20 and turned the whole flight into a disaster.
So what exactly went wrong? And what did SpaceX reveal about it?
Let's find out.
SpaceX Just Revealed Why Booster 20 Failed to Light 8 Raptor Engines After Starship Flight 13...
To be honest, there has never been a flight this dramatic — this emotional. And I mean that. This one made grown adults cry actual tears of joy. Because for the first time, millions of people — you and me included — watched a giant, hollow steel ship... that's Ship 40... hit the ocean and NOT immediately explode. Okay, yes — it was venting fire from the nosecone. But it did not blow up. Which left us with this absolutely surreal image: a steel whale, breathing fire, bobbing in the Indian Ocean. Even Elon couldn't help himself, posting on X: "Starship is intact, floating in the ocean and transmitting telemetry!"
But that raises questions. Why was fire coming out of the nose? Why didn't it explode this time — when every ship before it did? And is SpaceX actually going to tow Ship 40 home? Those are the exact questions flooding in from you guys after the flight.
Even my grandma demanded I explain this one to everyone today. So don't hesitate to hit subscribe to support me.
But that juicy answer? I'm saving it for a few minutes from now. Because if you clicked on this video, I know what you're actually dying to know first. What on Earth happened to Booster 20?
SpaceX Just Revealed Why Booster 20 Failed to Light 8 Raptor Engines After Starship Flight 13...
Okay — Booster 20. Let's talk about what actually happened.
T-plus two minutes, six seconds. The engine bay is glowing. Not warning-light glowing — visibly red, plumbing lit up like the inside of a forge. Hold onto that image. It matters later.
T-plus two twenty-nine. Hot staging. Six engines on Ship 40 slam to life while it's still bolted to the booster — a fireball punching straight down into the top of B20, and the vehicle just takes it. That's the design. Light the ship first, shove off, never stop thrusting.
Then the booster starts its trip home. All thirty-three engines flare for the flip — then the outer ring drops away, then most of the middle, and by T-plus two fifty, just three center engines are still burning. That step-down is deliberate: the booster is burning off weight every second, so it needs less and less muscle — and those center engines are the ones that can pivot. The steering engines. Cut everything at once and you smear your trajectory. Step it down and you land the burn on a dime.
And this boostback? Flawless. Say it plainly, because two months ago this exact maneuver killed Booster 19. The investigation found two culprits: heat — hot gas during ascent cooking components in the propulsion system — and the engine alarm settings misreading which engines were healthy. Sick engines, and a watchdog making bad calls. SpaceX changed the hardware, rewrote the alarm logic, built a new startup sequence. Tonight, that fix passed its exam start to finish. When they deliver, you say so.
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