Photos of Starchaser exploding at XP Cup

Well, not exploding exactly, now that I see it close up:

http://flickr.com/photos/robfuel/sets/1136827/

Rob Fuel is the only reporter who managed to get up close to the Starchaser rocket firing that closed the X Prize Cup last Sunday, and he got some amazing photos.

He told me in an email just now that rather than the engine simply blowing up on ignition, as the rest of us reported, the rivets blew off of the engine's backing. The engine actually fired normally for a second or two before flames erupted in all the wrong places.