Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by asdfadsfgfdda 2018 days ago
I think it was purging leftover hypergolic fuel, which is used to ignite the engines. Or, maybe the engine sensed the engine was abnormal (because of low fuel), so it tried to re-ignite.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triethylborane

3 comments

TEA-TEB is not used on Starship. What you saw was an oxygen rich burn due to the low pressures in the header tank, the engine was eating itself and burning copper in the process. Copper burns green.
> TEA-TEB is not used on Starship

This is correct. The Raptor uses an electric spark igniter.

Its spark ignited. No hyperglos
Yo what's going on here? Is this some sort of misinformation campaign? To what end?? There's been a number of comments making this claim even though there's no reason to suggest this was the case.
Definitely not misinformation, just misinformed armchair enthusiasts. SpaceX did the hard thing using spark ignition which goes against the industry norms. Even the everyday astronaut YouTube guy said tea tab on his stream and he’s a space nerd.
He just made a video pointing out how they don't use it. But as a SpaceX fan for 10+ years, green flame is just totally associated with TEA-TEB.
I don't think it's malicious, it's just a lot of amateur speculation in the absence of an official report.