SpaceX is treating the latest Starship rocket launch, which ended in failure, as something of a success — and for good reason. Despite the fact that the rocket did not have time to reach space and was blown up on command from the Earth in the 4th minute of its flight, its launch itself is already considered positive news. If only because no one has ever been able to do anything like this.
If you call a spade a spade, then SpaceX is already happy that an unprecedented device with 33 Raptor engines with a total thrust of 7.5 thousand tons managed to take off. The rocket left the launch pad, made room for new launches – everything else was initially estimated as a bonus to the base achievement. And the fact that an uncontrolled spin began before the separation of the first stage will simply give engineers and scientists important information for improving the rocket.
It is impossible not to mention politics, without it there is no way – the Starship project was supposed to confirm that the United States had the competence to launch especially large cargoes into orbit. But there is also a flip side to the coin: other countries from the participants in the space race received a clear example of what such launches of super-large rockets are fraught with. This will not stop them, but it is likely that it will make them think and reconsider their own projects. And thus give odds to NASA and SpaceX in the development of their programs.
