SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket test is the start of a race to Mars
https://www.newscientist.com/article/spacex-falcon-heavy-rocket-test-start-race-mars/
Its control system, and the complex plumbing that fuelled its motors, failed. Engine after engine shut down, causing severe vibrations, rupturing fuel lines and starting fires. The N1 crashed into the snow-covered steppe after just 3 minutes in the air. Three more test launches up to 1972 also failed, killing the dream of a cosmonaut on the moon.
You might be forgiven for thinking this would also spell the end for rockets brimming with unfeasible numbers of engines – after all, NASA’s Saturn V had a much more manageable five. But far from it:
SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket test is the start of a race to Mars
Jan 4, 2018, 1:15pm UTC
https://www.newscientist.com/article/spacex-falcon-heavy-rocket-test-start-race-mars/
> Its control system, and the complex plumbing that fuelled its motors, failed. Engine after engine shut down, causing severe vibrations, rupturing fuel lines and starting fires. The N1 crashed into the snow-covered steppe after just 3 minutes in the air. Three more test launches up to 1972 also failed, killing the dream of a cosmonaut on the moon.
> You might be forgiven for thinking this would also spell the end for rockets brimming with unfeasible numbers of engines – after all, NASA’s Saturn V had a much more manageable five. But far from it: