Scott Manley examines Super Heavy's tower abort and green flare

His fast-starting Short separates the reported reason for abandoning the tower catch from what happened just above the water.

Channel: Scott Manley Story of November 15, 2026Trari Newsroom

No. 5 on the Science chart

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 955,272 views a day, 27 times a normal first day on this channel (35,719).

Why Did SpaceX's Superheavy Booster Not Return To Tower?

Next story: Moon-base plans meet air-show spectacle on Scott Manley's Florida trip

The upper stage reached orbit, but the booster's return ended with crumpling metal and an explosion above the Gulf. Scott Manley's breakdown looks closely at that split outcome, asking why Super Heavy headed for the water rather than back to its launch tower.

"Why Did SpaceX's Superheavy Booster Not Return To Tower?" drew about 920,000 views in its first 22 hours, far beyond the usual start for one of his Shorts. It follows his explainer on Starship's "flip and burn" maneuver, moving from how a landing should work to the clues left when one does not.

Manley describes reported communications trouble between the tower and booster as the reason for the wave-off. That is a separate question from why the booster subsequently collapsed. Wider ground footage shows the descent over water, followed by what he identifies as activation of the flight termination system.

For the final moments of engine operation, he directs attention to a brief green flare after the orange exhaust. He interprets it as a sign of oxygen-rich burning and possible fuel depletion, rather than presenting it as a confirmed diagnosis. His conclusion is that the booster appears to have exhausted its fuel to the point where its engines could no longer fire.

The comments pick up on the tank crumpling and the changing exhaust, alongside a distinctly earthbound joke: perhaps the rocket only needed a car-style diagnostic scan and its fault codes cleared.

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More from Scott ManleyThis week on the channel +1.6M views this weekMoon-base plans meet air-show spectacle on Scott Manley's Florida tripJared Isaacman's interview shares the MAX POWER visit with Apollo astronauts, a repurposed rover and an eVTOL simulator.Channel: Scott Manley · Story of November 13, 2026 Also in Science and experimentsVideo taking off 53x its usual first daySpaceX catches Starship's upper stage after its return from orbitVideoFromSpace's footage follows Ship 42 from glowing reentry plasma to the launch tower's mechanical arms at Starbase.Channel: VideoFromSpace · Story of November 15, 2026 A different discovery todayVideo taking off 5x its usual first dayCaptain Steeeve traces the FAA ground stop to a system called ERAMFilmed at Detroit Metro Airport, his explainer runs from a failed network update to what pilots do when the radio goes quiet.Channel: Captain Steeeve · Story of November 15, 2026

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Scott Manley examines Super Heavy's tower abort and green flare The full story on Trari: https://trari.com/en/story/scottmanley-37367/

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The numbers

The Short's views and comment count both climbed far beyond Scott Manley's usual first-day levels for this format.

the video's first day

usual first day here

35,719

this video

955,272

subscribers

1,870,000

no significant change in the last 7 days

total views

792,082,980

views per day

236,732

typical day: 266,306

the video

views

922,633

likes

20,511

comments

925

days online

1

subscribers: this channel and similar channels

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2,010,000

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1,940,000

Scott Manley

1,870,000

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1,830,000

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1,810,000

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1,810,000

As of November 15, 2026 · Data source: Trari Social News, Trari Traffic Trends and Ranking Platform, Google YouTube

Subscriber, view, like and comment counts are YouTube's. Rates, usual days, rankings, comparisons and categories are Trari's own calculations.