SpaceX Starship explodes again, this time on the ground
SpaceX Starship explodes again, this time on the ground
www.theverge.com
SpaceX Starship explodes again, this time on the ground
39 comments
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SpaceX, ginormous fireworks for the wealthy anti-science bros.
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More like “science for me but not for thee.” Privately they’ll use any experimental medical tech to stay alive. They want technological innovation to allow them to survive climate change or a world war. They’ll yell about measles vaccines causing autism while privately vaccinating their kids. The spectacle is for those keeping them in power so they can take advantage of their power to stay ahead.
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Why is the article thumbnail clearly an unrelated Falcon 9 launch from LC-39A in Florida?
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Probably because that one went up a bit and looks more glamorous than a big pile of wreckage on the ground.
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Independent from views you can have on Elon, but "progress" of the Starship program doesn't exactly instill confidence. I can't help but think of "They're evolving, just backwards".
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They caught a few 1st stages and reflew one. That's huge. If they weren't trying to make a reusable 2nd stage, this program could be done and operational.
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That re-used first stage exploded when it started its final descent burn.
I would not class that as 're-usability achieved'.
No, no the program would not be done already.
Also, the entire concept of Starship does not work if it is not reusable, unless you wanna build about 30 tanker craft to fuel it for a moon landing and return.
And yes, thats about 30, not about 15 refueling flights, because almost a year ago now, Musk admitted his Starship+Booster combo is only actually capable of about 50 tons to orbit, not 100.
Which is why now 'version 2' is being rushed.
What is actually going on is massive quality control problems all across the board, especially the reliability of the plumbing and pumps, as well as the rocket engines themselves.
Not only are the engines just unreliable, prone to failure, not being properly checked/repaired/rebuilt... they just fundamentally seem to be some combination of not as powerful and/or fuel efficient as was previously stated.
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Damn, I keep hoping they drill one into Mar-a-Lago when it is full of MAGAts. Maybe next time?
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I can see people cheering everywhere
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Yub nub!
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eee chop yub nub
ah toe meet toe pee-chee keene
g'noop dock fling oh ah
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Haha
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Elon's going to be looking for a sniper again.
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It would be funny if it wasn't sponsored by taxpayers. Every blown up Starship is that many billions just, poof, gone. And yes, I know they do learn a great deal from failures as well, but the Apollo program didn't have nearly as many issues...
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sponsored by taxpayers.
Eh, only kinda. NASA have agreed to purchase Starship launch services for the Artemis program, but they aren't funding each test individually.
Every blown up Starship is that many billions just, poof
That's money that SpaceX have to pay though, not NASA. The Starship contract for Artemis is fixed-price, not cost-plus. Whether SpaceX blow up one Starship or ten during the testing phase, NASA pay the same amount for the operational flights.
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It wouldnt have benefited taxpayers if it had launched, so that makes no sense.
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Apollo cost about 300 billion in today's money, and spacex has gotten about 20 billion in contracts so far. Less than 10% of the cost.
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Aww, that makes me sad. /s
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Have they considered poisoning a few Texas towns like Tesla does? I mean, it’s free and the Texas state government encourages it, so why not? Maybe it’d help.
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Shouldn't it be called an explodyship? Or a boomship?
For it to be called a starship it'd need to actually be able to get to the stars, and this one couldn't even leave the ground.
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I understand that people are mad at Musk, but despite that I can not really see any other organisations that have a potential of moving space exploration further. It just feels bad to me, I wanted Starship to happen
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I wanted Starship to happen too. Wanted. Not anymore. And I suspect a similar change happened among Musk's engineers. They're gonna bleed him dry and let someone else take the lead.
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It's not even remotely close to what SpaceX accomplished ~10 years ago.
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You mean that the thing NASA was able to do before being defunded cannot be done by anyone but the company sucking all the funding NASA used to have?.... hmmm I wonder how that can be addressed
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If we get Biden back in office, can spaceX start winning the space race again?
39 comments
Have they considered pivoting into explosives manufacturing?
With their current track record, it will be another dud.