[the_third_wave]

This was mostly a success as far as test flights of experimental rockets go: it left the platform (which remained intact), it cleared the tower, continued on the set course, made it past stage separation and the second stage made it close to orbital speed and as such gave proof of the validity of the concept once the wrinkles have been ironed out.

As predictable the news media - most of which seem to have an antipathy against anything related to Musk, most likely due to ideological differences between their staff and Musk himself - present the launch as "a failure", "a flop", "a disaster", "a fiasco" and more of the like. This goes for nearly all of the ones I sampled ranging from the likes of CNN to places like Sweden's "Dagens Nyheter". As to whether this misrepresentation is due to them not understanding the expectations of test launches like these or in an(other) attempt to tar-and feather another Musk enterprise is unclear but I find it hard to believe that these institutions do not have the facts at hand to honestly report on such tests.

[the_third_wave]

Again to the downvoters: instead of trying to get an opinion counter to your own greyed out tell us why you do not agree. Let's hear it, what did I get wrong? Certainly not the twisted media reporting on this launch as that is plain as daylight, visible for anyone who cares to look. What, then?

[ apparently click that down-arrow again... ]

[alphabettsy]

Maybe it’s your own biases at work as well. The major publications I frequent including the NYT talk about it as being progress even with the explosion and seem very neutral if not hopeful and positive.

NYT: “The journeys of Starship’s two parts ended in separate explosions. But the engineers at Elon Musk’s spaceflight company overcame problems that marred the rocket’s first flight in April.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/18/science/spacex-starship-l...

[38321003thrw]

Compare:

Successful test of Starship’s two stages ended in explosions, making progress over the initial test flight in April.

[alphabettsy]

What am I supposed to be seeing?

[the_third_wave]

The thing is called "progress" and is the reason for doing these tests. If you really care about this I suggest looking back in the development history of SpaceX' current cash cow, the Falcon 9. Look for similar explosive events and compare that to the current ease with which they seem to launch and land and relaunch these things now. Now fast-forward another 10 years and imagine the same happening with this new rocket which is poised to bring down the price of launching mass to orbit by another large factor.

[alphabettsy]

Yea I already know that and I’ve been following. The articles also say the same thing about progress so what’s the issue?

[38321003thrw]

I did say “compare”.