This, to Elon and NASA, is a total success.
I prefer rockets that don’t go off course and explode.

LETS GO! Now that's a rocket.

"Was Starship’s launch a failure or a success?"
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/04/so-what-was-that-was-starships-launch-a-failure-or-a-success/

If they learned anything then it would be a success. I think some of the engines didn't ignite which made it climb slowly and forced it to go off course.

It was said that the nose cone was added just for looks, it really didn't serve any purpose.

The launch pad and surrounding area was a mess with debris and a car was damaged some distance away from the launch pad.

The way everyone cheered I'm thinking nobody expected too much from this flight and it did better than expected.

Shit fails all the time when testing. Particularly when things have never been tried before. Chris Hatfield seems to think it was an 'enormously successful' first flight.

IF they really learned enough to justify the enormous cost, good for them and it is a “success”. That remains to be seen, I think even they won’t know until their next shot. If it has 6 motor failures, that’s advancement, but enough?

It’s not a great sign that near 1/4 of the motors failed in 4 minutes…that’s a whole lot of failures to figure out. It’s unlikely one thing caused them to fail, and they need to solve every single issue before they can put people on board. I hope they got enough data. I do want this to work.

This is a different mindset/methodology to designing a vehicle for getting to space, one we aren’t used to. Edit: Rapid Advancement through intentional failure. It will be interesting to see how this gamble pays off. Great risk can bring great rewards…or great failures.

I would say to Hatfield, yes, many airplanes failed their first test flights…but none were 1/10 as expensive or complicated as this rocket. Failures here are many orders of magnitude more expensive, so really NEED to produce major advancements quickly to be a viable method for designing rockets. The Wright bros only lost some cloth and wood when they failed.

The sad crime is that Virgin Orbit has to be lay off 85% of staff due to its "failure" while SpaceX's "failure" is deemed a "MASSIVE SUCCESS!" It's BS.

The damage was so massive that they have to rebuild entire portions of the Texas Launch Site. It's quite possible that the immediate failure of several engines on one side was caused by debris from the launch pad.

How build launch durable pads, especially when using powerful engines, isnt something we have to learn first by making mistakes. This is basic engineering 101 at NASA.

While i still cant get enough from vertically landing rocket stages and i deeply respect the work of Space-X engineers ... this ongoing, absolute reckless launch safety strategy (or should i say the lack of) does not bode well for manned missions.

Launch pad destruction aftermath photo https://i.redd.it/k3lgspx9qava1.jpg

...and a video of debris flying around from nearby parking lot

Moving this video to BSR's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.

You understand the underlying reason exactly, as alluded by Branson.

If there's real justice, SpaceX, Twitter, Tesla should be branded "Government funded Media/Company" according to Elon's own logic.

Sweet zombie Jebus…I just read WHY there was such catastrophic damage at the launch pad…NO FLAME TRENCH, NO WATER CURTAIN!!!
It seems Elon, on a guesstimate, decided the most powerful rocket ever built didn’t need any method of deflecting the thrust away from the plain concrete launch pad. He did plan to eventually try a huge steel plate under the rocket, but couldn’t get it done so just launched anyway with NOTHING.
NASA has been using both for over 50 years with success. A flame trench is a reinforced trench designed to redirect thrust horizontally away from ground infrastructure. A water curtain is exactly what it sounds like, a huge curtain of water dropped at ignition that absorbs the initial pressure/heat wave, also minimizing damage to ground infrastructure and lowering initial sound levels.

Why Elon decided he needed neither for the most powerful launch system ever is unfathomable. His launch pad is destroyed and this launch never even came close to 100% thrust. How many times does Elon have to totally screw the pooch as an engineer before they take his drafting table away? He’s playing with public money, somebody stop this insanely poorly implemented boondoggle please.

Today it was revealed that Elon has cut/refused access to Starlink for Ukraine in the Black Sea in order to intentionally hobble their major counter offensive in the Black Sea and cripple their communication ability and suddenly Elon is calling for an immediate truce (ostensibly with both sides (Russia) retaining any territory taken previously)…so his plan is handing Russia 1/3 of Ukraine and allowing them to keep Ukrainian Crimea…and quick before Ukraine retakes their country.
He has previously said he would not do any such thing ever after offering Ukraine open access to Starlink, but suddenly changed course in the middle of a major military offensive by Ukraine he said would be like Pearl Harbor (meaning the Ukrainians caught a huge number of Russian ships in port vulnerable to attack and could turn the tide of war in one action), but Elon wanted to stop the Ukrainians from achieving such a significant victory so he cut their communications to help Russia! He has admitted this publicly, it’s not supposition.

I hope sanctions are forthcoming…major multiple business ending sanctions.

If you still support Elon, you are the problem. He’s anti American and pro fascist.
Quit X, trade in your Tesla, and tell NASA to quit handing him billions in no bid, no competition, non performance based contracts using tax payer money for failures and global communication projects he capriciously withdraws from our allies when they’re needed most, and uses to prop up and control information for multiple fascist governments to the detriment of the populace but to the benefit of his pockets.