Elon Musk promises more risky launches after sixth Starship failure

[Admin]

Is this setting a new precedent for the future of spaceflight?

Elon Musk promises more risky launches after sixth Starship failure : Read more

 

[Unclear Engineer]

Seems like a very biased article.

"[W]hat are the limits of our tolerance as a society to the pollution of Earth in the pursuit of the goal to space?"

A better question would be "What are our tolerances for human pollution of Earth in the pursuit of our desires?" Just the housing industry in the U.S. is far more polluting than SpaceX's rocket development program. More habitat loss, more chemical pollution, more junk, litter, etc. Global warming from CO2 emissions, holes in the ozone layer from refrigerant leakage.

What SpaceX is doing is a drop in the bucket. Even with the misrepresentation about discharging "contaminated" water, etc. If you want to see discharges of contaminated water, take a look at our sewage treatment plants - even the ones in compliance - and compare that to the discharge of cooling water from SpaceX launch pads - both for volume and mass of contaminants.

Maybe we could "Save the Earth" if we all left for Mars.

 

[Harry Costas]

Success can only be reached by failures, used as stepping stones to succeed.
GO GO MUSK unstoppable.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

I would not go so far as claiming that Musk is "unstoppable".

The last 3 flights plus the RUD on the test pad are very concerning. They are steps backward, not forward. Things that worked on previous iterations of the spacecraft are now failing catastrophically.

It concerns me that what had previously been "test fast - fail fast - learn fast" seems to not be getting carried through to the final "learn" step in a manner that is "fast" at all.

Failure of a big, envelope-pushing program like SuperHeavy+StarShip is always a possibility.

 

[G_x0a]

It can't get any better than the grand goal that starship is aiming for, that kind of spirit is very good.

 

[Harry Costas]

Elon is out of this world.
He is looking at going to Mars