"For years, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been stridently glib when his rockets explode during tests, quipping that the blasts were " just a scratch," a " minor setback," or a " rapid unscheduled disassembly." He's still deploying these jokey ripostes, but there's reason to believe the walls may be starting to close in for SpaceX's efforts on Starship, as more and more of the ultra-expensive spacecraft fail in spectacular public view."
"Back in 2021, Musk warned employees that "we face a genuine risk of bankruptcy if we can't achieve a Starship flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year.""
""As we have dug into the issues following the exiting of prior senior management, they have unfortunately turned out to be far more severe than was reported," he fumed at the time. "There is no way to sugarcoat this.""
Elon Musk often deflects rocket failures with humorous phrases while Starship prototypes continue to fail publicly and expensively. Starship represents the core of SpaceX's ambitions for Mars settlement, large-scale Starlink deployment, and a NASA lunar lander for Artemis III. Repeated high-profile failures place existential pressure on SpaceX's commercial and programmatic commitments. Internal reviews revealed deeper issues than previously reported, and company warnings in 2021 cited bankruptcy risk without a dramatically higher Starship flight cadence. Technical, managerial, and schedule risks now intersect with national space program dependencies and commercial revenue plans.
Read at Futurism
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