I got interesting in Starship mainly because, like Cybertruck but much much bigger, it's a chaotic project driven by an idiosyncratic leader. That's a common an

I got interesting in Starship mainly because, like Cybertruck but much much bigger, it's a chaotic project driven by an idiosyncratic leader. That's a common and usually unpleasant experience in tech It often leads to the pathology of fake Agile in which the leader treats an iterative approach as a license to make it up as he goes. So, an agile-ish rocket project? Cool. The chopsticks catch was a big gamble that paid off. Had it failed, it would have taken multiple iterations and tests to overcome that failure, much as the upper stage fins are still iterating toward, they hope, a design that survives and eventually becomes robust enough for rapid reusability. Failing the catch would have been a bigger problem than the burnt fins. It would probably have damaged the launch tower which does not yet have a finished companion tower. The devil is in a thousand details as usual. Are there any less-visible structural failures in the booster or the tower? Is re-entry proofing the fins on the upper stage on the critical path to trying an upper stage catch? Will Elon set a crazy goal for the next launch?