re: #83 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

I don’t think that’s quite apples to apples. SpaceX has really focused on the rocket factory side of things. They already have a few newer more advanced rockets ready to go as well as a hundred new engines. They had this old, outdated rocket that appeared ready to go, and when they tested it at ~%50 power, the pad held up very well. In retrospect they should have waited for the pad shielding to be installed, but they had an opportunity to get rid of an old rocket and finally get some real test data and they took it.

Of course, they would have liked all mission goals achieved, and had it not ripped up all that concrete, they might have succeeded. Though it looks bad, the damage to the pad wasn’t catastrophic and the rocket did pretty damn well for losing 6-7 engines. The biggest public issue was the sand cloud that reached 5 miles away, you can bet the FAA will make sure that is mitigated before the next launch, but that was the plan anyway.

Elon is definitely a toxic person and CEO, but hearing things on the inside, SpaceX is really happy with the test.