After a 48-hour delay because SpaceX’s newest, and world’s biggest rocket ship named “Starship” wasn’t quite ready to go, it took off from Boca Chica Beach in south Texas. As hundreds of onlookers soaked it all in from South Padre Island, their cheers filled the air as these devoted fans took in the moment.
Unfortunately, Starship wasn’t quite up for the challenge of circling the globe before plunging into the ocean just outside Hawaii. Standing just under 400 ft tall, and featuring a 33-rocket engine, the hype was huge for the record-setter. After getting as deep into space as 24 miles from the surface of the earth and pounding away at the atmosphere at 1,300 MPH the rocket just couldn’t hold it. Suddenly the rocket began going sideways, and its human-free payload blew all over the ocean.
SpaceX livestream commentator and engineer John Insprucker did his best to make up for the explosion, telling the livestream watchers “You never know exactly what’s going to happen, but as we promised, excitement is guaranteed, and Starship gave us a rather spectacular end.” He wasn’t wrong about that either.
Roughly 10 miles away in Port Isabel, there were numerous reports of dust and particles coating windows and cars from the latest launch. Only one business in the company reported a damaged window from the launch. The Federal Aviation Administration has already declared that they will be the ones conducting the investigation. While no property or bodily damage has been reported to them, Starship shall remain grounded until the investigation is done.
Designed as a spacecraft that can land and take off from the ground multiple times per day, the goal is to make interplanetary travel as easy as grabbing a cross-country flight. While we are still decades off from this being a reality for everyday people, Musk’s determination to fire them off quickly is unprecedented. Even with his wildly successful but smaller Falcon rockets, he didn’t give that rocket the kind of tempo he has planned for Starship.
Thankfully, SpaceX had no plans for Starship coming back from its inaugural flight. While the boosters would return to the earth when they separated, the rocket itself would have plunged into the ocean just outside of Hawaii. As such, there was already another stainless-steel Starship and booster packet being assembled after the first one successfully pulled out from the launch pad.
With the short-term goal of getting clearance to deliver low-orbit satellites to space and a mid-term goal of getting people onboard to ride through space, they are progressing towards their big-picture goals. Along the way, they’ll be sending people and cargo to the moon and at the peak to Mars. As it stands, NASA already has contracts to use the Starship for the next moon mission, and people with deep pockets are lining up to buy tickets for flybys in space.
As it stands, Musk is ready to face the challenges with SpaceX, and this level of dedication is spread out across his other companies. With each of them achieving something new for society on an almost daily basis, he has proven himself to be a titan of mankind, and not just industry. A truly interesting spectacle is how the left has paraded him as the reason the country should just dive into being green, even though he is ready to admit we are not ready for a complete changeover as a country. Looking out for the long-term best for the consumer puts him in a class all his own.
Doing business the right way has people willing to easily hand over control of their lives to Musk, and they are quickly proving to the planet just what can happen with just a little bit of opportunity here in the US. While he originally hails from South Africa and certainly didn’t grow up poor, he’s still had his struggles and persevered. Maybe that’s why America is more than happy to give him their trust and their love as he takes us on an increasingly green trip through the cosmos.
