Yes, fuck Elon Musk. That doesn't mean Starship isn't still the most exciting topic in rocketry/spaceflight, and 100x more ambitious than what any other rocket manufacturer is attempting.

The Starship development cycle is hardware-rich, they have a literal conveyor belt full of rockets in various stages of completion for testing.

Their immediate goal isn't to go to orbit, they could have done that a long time ago. They're simultaneously testing hundreds of little to big changes to the vehicles with every launch. Stuff will go wrong along the way.

[–] hybridep@lemmy.wtf 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

They're simultaneously testing hundreds of little to big changes to the vehicles with every launch. Stuff will go wrong along the way.

If that results in their rockets exploding, perhaps they should not be allowed to do this? That’s not how science is performed.

Exploding rockets are not exactly friendly to nature or people.

[–] facepainter@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

It has nothing to do with science, it's Engineering.

The upper stage exploding is of course not ideal, but it does so on a suborbital trajectory, meaning everything will fall back down to Earth, into the ocean. (these still being test-launches with certain risks is the whole reason they're choosing not to go fully orbital yet)

In terms of materials, it's mostly just stainless steel, there is no pollution from it.

load more comments (2 replies)

load more comments (9 replies)