A 124-meter rocket: half blew up, half is still in the sky—is this a success?
At 6:47 this morning Beijing time, Starship took its 15th test flight. The goal was a first in history: a “dual catch,” with the launch tower’s mechanical arms catching both the booster and the spacecraft in midair.
The first hurdle was a bust. The booster ran into trouble after separation, the catch was called off, and six and a half minutes later it fell into the Gulf of Mexico and exploded. But Ship 42 successfully reached orbit, and all 26 Starlink V3 satellites were deployed. They’re still circling up there. Tomorrow morning, it’ll be the spacecraft’s turn to attempt a “midair catch”—another first in history.
So how should we count it? If you judge by the fireworks, it exploded, so it’s a failure. If you judge it as an experiment, 26 satellites made it into orbit and the spacecraft is still sending data back, so the mission wasn’t for nothing. That’s how Musk always does the math: the cost of blowing up a rocket buys a whole set of data you can’t calculate on paper.
Crypto is the same. The difference between losing money and paying tuition comes down to one thing: did you get data?
#TheInterestsBehindTheHeadlines,#SpaceX,#Starship
At 6:47 this morning Beijing time, Starship took its 15th test flight. The goal was a first in history: a “dual catch,” with the launch tower’s mechanical arms catching both the booster and the spacecraft in midair.
The first hurdle was a bust. The booster ran into trouble after separation, the catch was called off, and six and a half minutes later it fell into the Gulf of Mexico and exploded. But Ship 42 successfully reached orbit, and all 26 Starlink V3 satellites were deployed. They’re still circling up there. Tomorrow morning, it’ll be the spacecraft’s turn to attempt a “midair catch”—another first in history.
So how should we count it? If you judge by the fireworks, it exploded, so it’s a failure. If you judge it as an experiment, 26 satellites made it into orbit and the spacecraft is still sending data back, so the mission wasn’t for nothing. That’s how Musk always does the math: the cost of blowing up a rocket buys a whole set of data you can’t calculate on paper.
Crypto is the same. The difference between losing money and paying tuition comes down to one thing: did you get data?
#TheInterestsBehindTheHeadlines,#SpaceX,#Starship