YouTube analyst Scott Manley put up a pretty interesting YouTube short on the explosion that happened to Booster 18 early Friday morning. The short is extracted from a 31 minute video that covers the New Glenn launch and this Booster 18 RUD.
Scott shows some pretty impressive photos in that short video, but leaves us with a pretty familiar conclusion. It looks like a COPV (Composite Overlaid Pressure Vessel) was either the root cause or else a major contributor to the incident, much like last June's accident that destroyed Booster 36 and the test stand.
In the video, Scott shows this photo from Jordan Guidry at What About It? The area on the right where the worst damage is would have been where the COPVs were mounted. As the transcribed text in the upper middle says, "No covers and no pressure vessels are visible." Did the pressure vessels disassemble themselves?
If you look near the bottom of the downcomer tube, essentially in the middle of blown out area, you'll see a hole and can see that metal from the tube is pushed and bent into the tube. Scott posits that a COPV exploded and debris shot through the downcomer, causing the RUD.
What About It also has a video on this incident.
At this point, if it really is a recurrent problem with COPVs, it's either the tanks they're buying or SpaceX's own procedures for handling them. Either way, the sooner they get back to testing SuperHeavy boosters and flying Starships, the better.
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