Comment by stephc_int13
2 days ago
The takeoff looked almost normal but I noticed a slight drift from vertical, likely because one of the engines was dead or dying. Overall the V3 is supposed to be an upgrade but actual progress is more or less stalling compared V2.
I have a hard time saying that its stalled. For one we don't really have the hard data to quantify the V3s vs V2s actual performance. On their first flight we lost one on the booster and one on the ship. I don't know that the boostback burn problems are related to the engine themselves given that they had multiple failures and a premature cutoff. That feels like thats a problem upstream of the Raptor.
It is supposed to tilt away from the launch tower immediately, you can see this on previous flights. This keeps the engine plume away from the chopsticks and top of the launch tower.
Also an additional goal is to get the booster as far away from the pad as immediately possible in the event it falls back down.
The payload (100t) is at least double that of previous flights. It’s largest spacecraft ever flew. That’s some stalling
There is a slight tilt normally, but I agree it was more than usual.
Flight 12 flew a different flight path than previous test flights.