
In his ruthless pursuit of efficiency, Mr Musk has streamlined Starship to an unbelievable level. It no longer has to be launched into space to explode in a giant fireball or even fire up its engines on the launchpad. That was all just fraud and waste. Starship now explodes during fueling while on the static test fire pad. This simple change significantly reduces costs and saves a substantial amount of time. The launch pad doesn’t receive catastrophic damage, the giant Super Heavy booster isn’t needed, and the FAA doesn’t have to evacuate thousands of square miles of airspace or ground Starhip. With costs spiralling out of control and the Starship program lightyears behind its targets, hopefully, this genius move will keep SpaceX’s investors happy…
Okay, that was fun, but what actually happened?
At 11 PM Central Time on Wednesday, June 18th, Starship 36 was being loaded with its liquid methane and liquid oxygen propellant for an upcoming static fire of its rockets at the SpaceX facility in Massey when something went horribly wrong. The rocket had already test-fired one of its engines on the 16th, but this was for a full-bore fire of all six engines. These tests are to prepare Starship 37 for the upcoming tenth test flight, which some expect to be as soon as June 29th. But that date will now have to be pushed back because, during this refuelling, a catastrophic explosion destroyed Starship 37.
To say this was unexpected would be an understatement. The liquid methane fuel used by the Starship is widely considered one of the easiest to manage and safest rocket fuels available. This fuel is so damn safe that I have it pumped into my house, and I have driven cars powered by it. Yes, liquid oxygen is a totally different animal; that stuff is wildly dangerous in this setting. But SpaceX has been handling liquid oxygen for decades across more than 400 launches without an accident like this. SpaceX should be able to refuel a Starship easily, without mishap. In short, this is highly embarrassing for SpaceX, as it makes them appear incompetent, particularly when their rivals are using the far more challenging liquid hydrogen fuel without issue.
But it gets worse. Optimistic estimates suggest it costs SpaceX $100 million to build a Starship; other rough estimates place the cost at more like $177 million (read more here). Yes, SpaceX would almost certainly have lost this Starship during launch, but they would have gained valuable flight data, media coverage and investor satisfaction from it. Explosions before a full static fire like this mean SpaceX gets nothing for this enormous outlay. Which, as you will see in a minute, is a massive problem.
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