Comment by os2warpman
10 hours ago
The payload on that flight was a single stuffed toy banana, for scale.
On all test flights with a payload exceeding the mass (~300 grams) of a single stuffed toy banana (for scale), the flight has failed.
Flight 7: 20,000 kg payload (starlink mass simulators) - engines fail after 7m39s
Flight 8: 8,000 kg payload (starlink mass simulators) - engines fail after 8m04s
Flight 9 is not currently planned to carry a payload.
None of this is a technicality. It is technicreality.
Agree there are obviously still issues, but you've just made the case yourself. We are discussing Flight 9 for Starship ~5 years into development. 10 years into the development of SLS we won't even see launch 2.
They just operate in different universes no matter how much you dislike the CEO.
You are misunderstanding me.
I am on two embryonic programs that are not viable without starship or an equivalent.
If starship exists I will be able to cash out, buy a 54-foot catamaran and spend the rest of my life sailing around the world scuba diving and spear fishing.
I want starship to exist and do not care who builds it.
It does not exist and I know this because I am currently on the third floor of a boring cookie cutter business park building right now staring at computer screens and not off the coast of Gili T doing mushrooms after a dive.