I don’t know how frequent it is, but the important point is the attitude that test failures can be ok. I don’t know if this one is, but yes there’s a pattern ….
Instead of being so risk averse that you take years and billions extra doing your best to create one of a kind hardware trying be perfect (NASA/Boeing), build many copies, iterate, test frequently, learn from failures. This approach seemed to have worked extremely well for previous rockets, so I’m still cheering them on
Weekly explosions on a test pad? No. None of the integrated tests have exploded on the pad. (Edit: like this one, which did)
The last starship on the pad was mid March. It made it up, but fell apart during reentry. Before that, IFT 2 was in Nov 23, and the exploded 8 min up. IFT 1 was over a year ago, and that only made it 4 min after lift off.
No, it was a test stand at the McGregor rocket testing facility, it wasn’t even at Boca chica (the place where all the finished rockets are launched from). This is not a big deal and won’t affect their schedule at all.
Okay? It was on a test stand. That’s what test stands are for. Isn’t stuff like this almost a weekly occurrence for them?
I don’t know how frequent it is, but the important point is the attitude that test failures can be ok. I don’t know if this one is, but yes there’s a pattern ….
Instead of being so risk averse that you take years and billions extra doing your best to create one of a kind hardware trying be perfect (NASA/Boeing), build many copies, iterate, test frequently, learn from failures. This approach seemed to have worked extremely well for previous rockets, so I’m still cheering them on
I imagine they don’t necessarily always fail explosively. I don’t know how often this stuff actually happens.
A year or two they were blowing one up every month or so. They’ve become more rare recently as they’ve dialed in the engines.
Weekly explosions on a test pad? No. None of the integrated tests have exploded on the pad. (Edit: like this one, which did)
The last starship on the pad was mid March. It made it up, but fell apart during reentry. Before that, IFT 2 was in Nov 23, and the exploded 8 min up. IFT 1 was over a year ago, and that only made it 4 min after lift off.
Test Pad, it was on a test pad.
The reason they use test pads is that iPads are too expensive.
No, it was a test stand at the McGregor rocket testing facility, it wasn’t even at Boca chica (the place where all the finished rockets are launched from). This is not a big deal and won’t affect their schedule at all.