Why the SpaceX Starship launch was a success despite the explosion: NPR

Spectators watch from South Padre Island, Texas, as the SpaceX Starship is launched Thursday. It exploded several minutes later.

Veronica J. Cárdenas/AFP via Getty Images

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Veronica J. Cárdenas/AFP via Getty Images

Spectators watch from South Padre Island, Texas, as the SpaceX Starship is launched Thursday. It exploded several minutes later.

Veronica J. Cárdenas/AFP via Getty Images

SpaceX’s Starship rocket — which could one day carry humans to the moon and Mars — made it a bit Four minutes and 24 miles in the sky before it exploded during its inaugural test flight on Thursday.

However, even as they watched the world’s largest rocket explode in a fireball, SpaceX employees still burst into cheers and applause.

That’s because the whole point of testing is to find out what works and what doesn’t, experts say.

Thursday The launch was welcomed as a “real feat” and “very successful” by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and retired ISS Commander Chris Hadfield, respectively. SpaceX agreed.

“With testing like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s testing will help us improve Starship reliability as SpaceX strives to make life multiplanetary.” he tweeted later.

WMFE’s Brendan Byrne said it exemplifies the company’s philosophy of designing for failure morning edition Thursday. He added that SpaceX had said before the mission that any data it yielded would be valuable as long as the rocket removed the launch pad – which it did.

Carissa Bryce Christensen, CEO and founder of analytics and engineering firm BryceTech, says SpaceX’s visibility and transparency in the testing process is a good thing.

“This test is consistent with the planned test program,” said the space industry analyst. “Now, it’s always great in testing if everything works flawlessly. That’s an unrealistic expectation with a car this complex.”

The stakes are high, in part because NASA is paying SpaceX to develop a version of the rocket that would send astronauts to the Moon as early as 2025.

Christensen spoke with morning editionis Martinez About how the test flight went and how it fits into that broader mission.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Interview highlights:

On what worked fine

This was not a mature operational vehicle flight. The launch of the spacecraft we saw yesterday was a planned step in an ongoing, multi-year development and testing program for…arguably the most powerful launch vehicle ever.

This launch achieved its goals. It provided the data needed to drive development of the vehicle.

About what the test says about SpaceX’s approach

Interestingly, the loss of this test article is entirely consistent with SpaceX’s approach to developing the Starship system. In designing, developing, and testing complex devices, you can use analysis and computer simulations to see what will work and what won’t, and you can use physical tests in the real world. And SpaceX has been very hardware-intensive in its development program, running many physical tests, as we’ve seen very significantly.

About what else SpaceX is doing

SpaceX talks about this rocket in the context of looking to change what humanity does in space. SpaceX has already dominated current space activity launches with its reusable Falcon 9 launch vehicle. And reuse there was a huge accomplishment — so you’re not throwing the rocket away on every launch, you’re reusing it. Thus, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 vehicle brought lower prices, a faster launch cadence, and helped attract investment in space projects that use satellites and serve other existing space markets.

about what will happen next

I expect that we will see the next step in the car’s performance and functionality. But I certainly will not say that we will not see a test article in an interesting and exciting way.dismantling. “

His Majesty Mai produced the audio version of this interview and Majd Al-Wahidi edited the digital version.