Did I See What I Think I Saw?
I thought I saw a rocket blow up on Saturday. But I can’t find any news articles about this. Nor can I find anything about this on social media.
All I find is wonderment and praise at the great success of Elon Musk and his company. “Well done! A flawless performance for Space X. A brilliant success.”
Am I in Soviet Russia? “The great and glorious Red Army salutes its brilliant success in Afghanistan!”
by Anonymous | reply 15 | November 20, 2023 7:21 PM
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OP, how dare you question the brilliance of our inspired leader? He needs to blow up many, many rockets on his relentless path to perfecting them. You'll be grateful when you're farming lichens on Mars, far away from Earth's sad turmoils.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | November 20, 2023 3:34 PM
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Yes, you did see that, but nobody died, so it's OK.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | November 20, 2023 3:36 PM
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Yeah there was coverage of it. You're not seeing things. Everything Elon touches turns to shit.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | November 20, 2023 4:12 PM
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I saw the clip. When the booster separated there were loud cheers.
But then, the detached booster blew up.
That wasn't supposed to happen.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | November 20, 2023 4:18 PM
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There were a lot of impressive successes, even if they didn't achieve all their goals. It was successful at fixing things that failed on the first test flight. The launchpad wasn't destroyed (it was hardened and the new fantastic water deluge system worked well). The first stage flight was flawless (no failed engines this time). The stages separated flawlessly (last time it spun out of contol). The 2nd stage burn was flawless (first fully-fueled flight in space), etc. Musk is an asshole, but SpaceX is unquestionably the most impressive company flying.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | November 20, 2023 4:29 PM
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That’s because he’s basically let Gwynne Shotwell run SpaceX r6. SpaceX hired a ton of people who were laid off during the 90s and 2000s when the shuttle and other space programs were winding down.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | November 20, 2023 4:43 PM
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ArsTechnica is arguing the test achieved what it set out to do.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 8 | November 20, 2023 4:58 PM
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Agreed, R7. Its success is becoming more and more in spite of Elon than because of him.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | November 20, 2023 5:03 PM
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The operation was a success, but the patient died, r8.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | November 20, 2023 5:08 PM
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I think the author's point is that these Starship test rockets are expendable so that future Starships won't be. They need to nail the launch and they did manage to achieve that. Now onto landing, then actually breaking orbit.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | November 20, 2023 5:12 PM
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This is the same process they used in developing the Falcon 9, which is now the most reliable, least wasteful, and cheapest launch system in the world. It works.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | November 20, 2023 5:21 PM
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OP
First: you missed it because the entire world stopped and there is no longer any news since Israel went to war.
2. Elon said the rocket did exactly what it was supposed to do (because he would never tell us otherwise) so it was no big deal.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | November 20, 2023 5:27 PM
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I believe they described the explosion as an “unintentional detonation.”
Sort of like when the Russian lunar lander crashed after it “successfully intercepted” the moon.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | November 20, 2023 7:16 PM
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Exactly r9, I worked in the industry, we were potential customers of the rocket back then. Met Elon once years and years ago, never thinking he was really impressive. But met Gwynne many times, she’s the real deal.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | November 20, 2023 7:21 PM
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