i'm no elon fanboy (fucking hate the guy) but (most of) the exploding spacex rockets really were a success. they were early in development and aimed to reach a certain stage in the ascent/take-off process, anything extra was just a bonus. these objectives were always made public beforehand

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Also wanna preface with I’m definitely not a fanboy, but most of those explosions were caused deliberately by remote. Every rocket, SpaceX or otherwise, has a Flight Termination System. Every launch, there is a Range Safety officer sitting in a bunker, watching a live feed with a ‘big red button’ in front of them. It’s their job to self-destruct the rocket if there’s any chance it will crash down on land, or unrestricted areas at sea, to protect people on the ground. They’re also generally more trigger happy when there aren’t people aboard. Most of the problems rockets have don’t actually cause them to immediately explode from arse to end simultaneously.

Edit: I should add, for completeness, that the flight computer aboard the rocket can also trigger the FTS if it decides a crash is unavoidable.