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So Elon and company had another fireworks display... I mean, attempted another launch of Starship.
The launch went well but the Starship tumbled out of control and exploded and the Super Heavy blew up in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hardware retrieved: 0. Data retrieved: ??? Estimated cost: 100 million dollars.
Lessons learned? Probably none.
I'm old enough (young enough?) to remember when NASA had disasters of having entire rockets with payload go *BOOM* there were investigations, Senate hearings and people got demoted, fired or disciplined. Elon? Fat chance.
I grew up in the Space Race: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, the Shuttle. I know NASA has its problems. I know that no bucks, no Buck Rogers. Too often NASA has been squeezed between doing Science, government micro management and providing job programs for select congressional districts. Space X has done a great job with Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy but Starship? It's a near total failure.
Look, NASA was working on reusable space craft back in the 1970s but the material science wasn't quite there yet. They were doing successful launch pad to landing pad experiments. Nothing big, just a 100 feet or so. Baby steps. All cancelled by budget cuts by congress. Space is hard. Space costs money. Space needs research. But when you blow through a 100 million per launch and gain nothing? Forget it.
The launch went well but the Starship tumbled out of control and exploded and the Super Heavy blew up in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hardware retrieved: 0. Data retrieved: ??? Estimated cost: 100 million dollars.
Lessons learned? Probably none.
I'm old enough (young enough?) to remember when NASA had disasters of having entire rockets with payload go *BOOM* there were investigations, Senate hearings and people got demoted, fired or disciplined. Elon? Fat chance.
I grew up in the Space Race: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, the Shuttle. I know NASA has its problems. I know that no bucks, no Buck Rogers. Too often NASA has been squeezed between doing Science, government micro management and providing job programs for select congressional districts. Space X has done a great job with Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy but Starship? It's a near total failure.
Look, NASA was working on reusable space craft back in the 1970s but the material science wasn't quite there yet. They were doing successful launch pad to landing pad experiments. Nothing big, just a 100 feet or so. Baby steps. All cancelled by budget cuts by congress. Space is hard. Space costs money. Space needs research. But when you blow through a 100 million per launch and gain nothing? Forget it.
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