Learning the hard way

"Space the hard way. Expensive and dirty. But - once Starship lifts off, with all Raptors burning, and the launch pad intact - it will all be worth it. If I were a betting man, I would still bet the house on Elon."

Wow! That first launch of Starship was a lallapaloosa! It lifted off for sure, but just about ripped Texas a new one! Kind of reminded me when the Soviets detonated the Tsar bomb over the Artic Sea in 1961. It was almost 4,000 times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb. And the power of the Tsar explosion shocked even the Soviets who built it. Some thought it could have destroyed part of Russia, it was so powerful. So that was the end of the 50 Megaton bomb development in the Soviet Union.

Back to Starship. In those agonizing seconds, after the Raptor engines lit off, and before the Starship started moving upwards, all hell was breaking loose (literally) on the launchpad. The very stout launchpad for Starship seems was not that stout at all. And - eight of the thirty-three powerful Raptor engines, failed either on launch, of shortly thereafter. 

The post mortem has already started. Much more to come. But right now, some theories are being put forward. One is very troubling. The heat generated by the Raptors is so intense, it might be stressing the metal on other Raptors which are close by. Or - smaller chunks of the concrete from the launch pad might have compromised some of the engines. In any event, Elon has a big problem to fix in a very short time.

But the aftermath of the launch area, is simply awesome. It looks like it had been bombed. In fact, one commentator said it looked like the surface of Mars. Nearby storage tanks took a beating, there is a crater in the Earth, and dirt, sand and dust spread for miles around the area.

Elon thinks he can rebuild the launch site in a month or two, and be ready for another launch. Some NASA experts are thinking we need to learn much more from what happened last week, and take some time in rebuilding. Like maybe a year. We will see. The way Elon thinks and works, a year is like an eternity.

Space the hard way. Expensive and dirty. But - once Starship lifts off, with all Raptors burning, and the launch pad intact - it will all be worth it. If I were a betting man, I would still bet the house on Elon. Within a few years, we will see Starships on the Moon as well as Mars. And what happened last week - will just be a blimp on the radar.