The booster failure was just a result of intentionally pushing to the limit. Doesn't say anything about the broader program. The ship failures are concerning, b

The booster failure was just a result of intentionally pushing to the limit. Doesn't say anything about the broader program. The ship failures are concerning, but SpaceX can afford the retries given the runaway revenue of Starlink. The failures have different root causes, so progress is being made. My biggest problem with the Starship program is the heat shield. It isn't proven that a fully reusable heat shield is feasible without refurbishment after each flight, and they have barely been able to test it at all thus far. These ship failures are temporary (albeit very expensive) setbacks and will be worked through, but heat shield issues are what could cause the whole program to miss its performance targets. > Nearly all of Starship’s paid contracts are for human spaceflight This is misleading, because Starship neither launches nor lands humans on Earth for Artemis. Starship can fulfill the Artemis contract even if it is not safe enough to put humans on during Earth launch or reentry. And Dear Moon was canceled, so I don't think there's any human spaceflight planning to launch from Earth on Starship right now besides Elon's Mars aspirations. Starlink is the customer that will actually fund Starship. SpaceX becoming their own customer was brilliant.