As a child of the space race...

As a child of the space race, I can't help but watch (when I can) all the private rockets being shot off.

So I *had* to watch the initial launch of Starship.

During the event I was too caught up in the event to catch certain things but there were several parts of the launch where I was thinking, "That doesn't look right."

When the rocket started tumbling I *knew* something wasn't right - and watched the big boom at the end. SpaceX - just like NASCAR, you watch the race for the wreaks.

Boom today.

So I've been catching up on the commentary and oh boy it looks like things with pear shaped and went pear shaped *really fast*.

Starting with that huge ball of smoke and dust and chunks of concrete that was once the launch pad. Debris everywhere - most likely bouncing back up to strike some of the engines. As the vehicle rose, more and more engines self-destructed. One analysis suggests the launch failure system failed and the rocket blew itself to pieces.

A proper launch pad with flame diverters and water systems (like NASA and the Russians and the Chinese have) might have prevented that but no, Elon wanted to skimp on building that. Idiot. To have a space port you need *reusable launch pads*.

I hope the FAA pulls SpaceX's flight permissions until they build proper launch pads.