Starship destroyed on second consecutive test flight
Starship destroyed on second consecutive test flight
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Starship destroyed on second consecutive test flight
14 comments
14 comments
Starship destroyed on second consecutive test flight
Starship destroyed on second consecutive test flight
Is it me, or is Starship getting worse with every try?
Eh, there was incremental progress throughout the first six flights, but switching to Ship version 2 has been a definite (though hopefully temporary?) setback.
It's just you. They are trying progressively more difficult tests/missions with Starship.
It is, but if you look at SpaceX's history with Falcon 1, it had 5 flights. 3 failed to reach orbit and of the 2 that succeeded only 1 was a satellite and not a mass simulator. And even then that satellite failed right after orbit (not SpaceX's fault, but still no successes).
I suspect that super heavy and starship may be near the limits for size and weight for rockets leaving earth.
You think? Aside from the initial materials and production costs, it's generally more efficient to operate a large rocket than a small one.
The booster is great, which makes sense, since it's basically Falcon-but-bigger, but Starship is basically conceptart that's being forced to fly WAY before it's anywhere near ready.
I'm 100% convinced they're just sending up Starship mockups to keep the capital coming, and not actually learning anything from the failures. Starlink relies on the future promise of Starship making things cheaper to bring in more capital, and the Falcon program relies on Starlink to maintain an affordable pricepoint through scale. It's a giant circle of mutual propping-up, and it all relies on Starship being the promised-land of LEO-launching.
I can't help but compare it with other programs that all do MUCH better right out of the gate, while starship is firmly rethreading either ground from the 40's and 50's, or the early 80's.
I'm pretty disappointed in the last two, but the failures were both ship v2 that completely redid the plumbing. But yeah, you'd think they'd be doing better by now.