SpaceX's Latest Starship Exploding on Launch Is a Grim Setback for the Company

NASA's Space Shuttle successfully reached orbit during its first attempt in April 1981. The Saturn V rocket that launched the first humans to the Moon also didn't explode during liftoff in July 1969. Even NASA's ultra-expensive and expendable Space Launch System didn't erupt into a giant fireball during its maiden voyage in late 2022. But SpaceX has taken a strikingly different approach for its reusable, two-stage rockets. Instead of lining up an orbital-ready vehicle on the launch pad, the company has picked an iterative design methodology — with varying degrees of success, and a string of explosions that are starting to look less like learning from failure and more like a sustained failure. The pros and cons of the approach have never been more apparent when it comes to its heavy lift vehicle, dubbed Starship, the "world's most powerful launch vehicle" ever developed. SpaceX has run into serious issues trying to get a prototype upper stage launched into orbit, then reenter the atmo ... Read full article.