The Easy Part is Making it Look Hard

Happening to go a bit further afield at work this morning, I overheard some coworkers I know tuning into a live stream and thought “wait, the SpaceX ‘Starship’ rocket turned around already after that scrubbed launch a few days ago?” When I looked at the screen, the rocket was high in the sky, but I hope it’s not “rewriting memories” to recall a sense of something not being quite right. Then, the rocket exploded in mid-air.

I have to admit my reactions weren’t overdone one way or another as my coworkers, who didn’t seem “shocked” or “horrified” themselves, scrolled back in the livestream to the moment of launch. It did seem obvious several of the many engines in the first stage were shutting down in the midst of flight; I just recalled what I’d heard about the Soviet N1 rocket and supposed it was fortunate everything hadn’t cut out at once. The more obvious problem seemed that the second stage didn’t separate, although the rocket turning end over end appeared to have started properly but then gone awry.

What I kept thinking was that had the first Space Launch System launch gone wrong in a similar way there’d have been calls for blood. That rocket might have taken a long time to get put together for the sake of being expended, but it had flown the first time. I can recall preliminary comments that “if the first Falcon Heavy doesn’t destroy its historic repurposed launch pad, it’ll be a success,” but it had pulled off its stunt. I suppose it’s just a matter of things only related to SpaceX that has me thinking “I have no problems indeed with this company not being successful at everything compared to government agency efforts.”