Press enter or click to view image in full sizePhoto by nader saremi on UnsplashYes, kind of…?
I have a bit of a reputation as a “Musk hater”. And that is true — I hate any egotistical, maniacal oligarch who has an obvious problem with kleptomania. You would need to be a little delusional not to at this point. But I’m not inherently against Musk’s products, because they aren’t really “his”. Falcon 9 and the Model 3 were brilliant, even if they aren’t anything like the technological advancements Musk claims they are. However, calling these “Musk’s” projects is doing a disservice to the small army of engineers and technicians that actually did the grunt work to bring them to life. So, with Starship’s latest test flight, let’s try to do the impossible and separate the art from the artist and maybe give these engineers their own fair appraisal. Was this a success? Has it moved the needle forward on this arduous project?
Well, this test flight seems to have gone really well.
Firstly, the Super Heavy Booster (SHB) they used, B15, was previously used in Test Flight 8. B15 underwent extensive refurbishment after its first flight, from March 8 to September 5 of this year, before conducting this test flight. During the flight, it performed impeccably, launching Starship up and away, separating correctly, and then conducting a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. It tested new landing manoeuvres…