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I think some people are having wrong expectations heading in to this. If it explodes 30 seconds after leaving the launch pad it's still a huge success. Anything

I think some people are having wrong expectations heading in to this. If it explodes 30 seconds after leaving the launch pad it's still a huge success. Anything beyond exploding on the launch site is a success. They have a bunch more vehicles lined up behind this one as failure is highly expected, almost to the point of intention. I'll be legitimately happy if it doesn't explode on the launch pad and at least gets any debris into the ocean instead of on land. This is just the beginning.

b33j0r 4y ago
You are right, and expecting the first launch of a rocket platform to be anything but a bomb is a little unrealistic. But wouldn’t it be amazing if it did make max Q, then coast, then ORBIT on the first try? It’s never happened before. But imagining the possibility gives my imagination a little bit of awe. Starship would be the first system to run purely on our optimism! ;p
- SyzygistSix 4y ago
  It won't go into orbit, just achieve orbital velocity. Going into orbit would require it going over land that they don't want to go over on the initial flight out of a abundance of caution.