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Comment by panki27 | Hacker News Reader

It looked just like a regular launch in Kerbal Space Program at the end.

Pretty much, I'm sure most of us have at least once had a tumble at or above max-Q.

I'm intrigued as per cause. Lots of Engine failures and spewed parts. It had a real slide on liftoff. An engine violently flashed and went pop about +25s.

I do have to say, the thing requiring FTS after a violent flip well above supersonic speaks orders about structural work.

I wonder if, after seeing that performance, they'll decide to weaken (or more accurately, remove extra weight from) structure they don't need.

Is there a technical name for the "tumbling" phenomenon? When your first stage is almost out of fuel mass, so the CoG is not where it was when you launched and it's like you're pushing a bowling ball with a fishing pole instead of a giant steel beam, so you tip over.

(Low Quality Comment Here) I, for one, have never had a tumble in KSP. Nope, every single launch, exactly as planned, all the way to orbit, and even the Mun. I have never once strapped a bazzilion first-stage engines in a row just to see what happens. Never once stacked them as high as I can. Nope - totally responsible game player over here.

Note: Trying to fly Jeb directly into the Sun was a real lesson in Angular Momentum.

My guess is that losing too many engines meant that they were too low, in too thick atmosphere for the speed they were reaching and with the reduced control authority form a missing gimbaling engine they couldn't maintain stability with those fins in the front. But we'll learn more later.

Yup, if they hadn't terminated it, surely they'd have just waited until they entered a less dense part of the atmosphere, stabilized, and continued the flight. Just with some delta-v lost. And if that wouldn't have worked, they could have just throttled the engine up when pointy end up, and down when pointy end down, waited until exiting the atmosphere, and then time warp to stabilize.

I thought the same thing, as did many other rocket geeks including Scott Manley. I've lost track of the number of Kerbins I've uh... lost...

I was so surprised it held for so long! Every time something similar happened in KSP I got a little angry at the game for obviously wrong simulation: no way the rocket would hold together under such stresses. And then I see real-life rocket of biggest proportions do just that. I owe KSP an apology I guess

KSP is so realistic unless you run into the kraken.

I made rockets that would do the same thing (flipping) when the fins where on the top due to aerodynamics... going to be interesting to see how SpaceX is going to solve that.

Complete with "Why the hell are you tiling over I'm holding down the turn key as hard as I can", yeah. :)

Some day I want a keyboard with pressure sensitive keys :)

Truly! RIP brave Kerbins.

Jeb will be back.

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