Some slight corrections here, the damage done to the launchpad here is largely not because of the fire, it’s because of the sound.
Flame trenches are absolutely an important part of making a rocket launch safely, but they’re only half the equation, if that. The other thing they’re missing is the one that would’ve prevented all of this damage, and that’s the water deluge system.
See those tall water towers next to the launchpads? Those are for the water deluge system. They’ve been an essential part of launching large rockets since basically forever, and they serve a twofold purpose: Fire suppression, and more importantly, sound suppression.
Here’s NASA testing the brand-new water deluge system built for the SLS launches in 2018.
That sucker’s pumping out roughly half a million gallons of water over the course of a minute. Here it is in action during the launch of Artemis 1 last year.
The reason they’re basically flooding the launchpad right before they light the booster is that rocket launches are incredibly loud. Seems obvious, I know, but apparently not that obvious to Musky.
The amount of noise produced is so great that the sound waves from it would actually damage both the launch complex and the vehicle itself if they weren’t muted. Dumping a huge amount of water into the pit where the rocket’s engines are deadens the noise to merely louder than anything else on Earth rather than harmful to the vehicle itself.
Musky apparently made the call to not have a water deluge system or a flame trench for the Starship launches because they wouldn’t have those things on the Moon or Mars, where Starship will be lifting off from to make its return flights. This is, of course, ignoring that the Starship itself is powered by six engines, while the Superheavy, which will be launching from Earth, but won’t be launching from either the Moon or Mars, on account of it being a launch vehicle that doesn’t even break atmosphere, is powered by 33 of those same engines.
The Superheavy booster that SpaceX launched yesterday is now the most powerful rocket ever flown, and as such, it’s also the loudest. The pad it was seated on had to endure the full volume of that for roughly seven seconds before clamp release, and as we can see, it didn’t take it all that well. The damage done to the pad here is basically the result of the noise shattering the ground and the concrete structure holding the vehicle up.
It’s also almost certainly what caused the damage to the booster. Either by throwing material up into itself (likely the cause of three of the engines immediately flaming out) or by just being too loud for the vehicle itself to handle.
