SpaceX launches Starship 4 today.
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SpaceX launched Starship 4 today. Goal was to get it into space, and have it reenter without burning up.
Successful mission with only some heat shield tiles coming off. Made a “soft landing” in the Indian Ocean (and probably sank right after that).
Link to videoI saw a comment that the philosophical difference between NASA and SpaceX is that NASA wants everything to be perfect before a launch attempt, whereas SpaceX is less fussy and considers “failures” valuable to learn from.
NASA designs its spacecraft to work the first time they fly, so they are exquisitely engineered from the beginning. This has the advantage of making a craft that doesn't tend to blow up for all the cameras to see, but also means that they are wildly expensive to develop, can take forever to build, and never meet budget targets.
SpaceX's strategy is vastly different. The design process is iterative--start with a "good enough" design, test and break it, figuring out the strengths and weaknesses. Rinse, repeat.
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SpaceX launched Starship 4 today. Goal was to get it into space, and have it reenter without burning up.
Successful mission with only some heat shield tiles coming off. Made a “soft landing” in the Indian Ocean (and probably sank right after that).
Link to videoI saw a comment that the philosophical difference between NASA and SpaceX is that NASA wants everything to be perfect before a launch attempt, whereas SpaceX is less fussy and considers “failures” valuable to learn from.
NASA designs its spacecraft to work the first time they fly, so they are exquisitely engineered from the beginning. This has the advantage of making a craft that doesn't tend to blow up for all the cameras to see, but also means that they are wildly expensive to develop, can take forever to build, and never meet budget targets.
SpaceX's strategy is vastly different. The design process is iterative--start with a "good enough" design, test and break it, figuring out the strengths and weaknesses. Rinse, repeat.
