SpaceX's Starship Launch: a Success Disguised as a Failure

On April 20, 2023, from a spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas, SpaceX launched the tallest and most powerful rocket that was ever built. The crowd was breathless upon takeoff as it watched the immense rocket fire its engines amidst a plume of smoke and dust. However, after a mere 4 minutes, the rocket exploded 24 miles in the air during the test flight.  Despite the rocket exploding, SpaceX employees roared with applause, and the launch was hailed as a success by many space experts. Why? To answer this question, we must explore the objective of the launch as well as different perspectives on the event. 

The main objective of this launch was to test the prototype of the Starship rocket that NASA plans to use to carry two astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface of the moon during its Artemis III mission. In the future, the enormous rocket will hopefully be mobilized to transport massive amounts of cargo, robots, telescopes, and people into space. The Starship rocket is reusable, which is much more environmentally friendly than previous rockets and will cut down on cost. The initial motivation for SpaceX to start building Starship came from Elon Musk’s dream to send people to live on Mars. “Flying rockets and reusing them has massive potential to change the game and transportation to orbit,” Phil Larson told the New York Times. Larson served as a White House space advisor during the Obama Administration and later worked on communication efforts at SpaceX. “[I]t could enable whole new classes of missions,” he said.

Elon Musk, the chief executive at SpaceX, congratulated the SpaceX team on the launch by tweeting that they had “learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.” Musk’s reaction seems to resemble that of many other space programs and astronauts, most of whom agreed that the launch encapsulated SpaceX’s mantra of “Fail fast, but learn faster.” The launch was hailed as "a real accomplishment" and "so successful" by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and retired International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield, respectively, when speaking to NPR. SpaceX also tweeted that, "With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's test will help us improve Starship's reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary." 

The company’s journey to becoming the dominant company in global spaceflight is largely due to their unique approach to space travel. Their history of learning from mistakes differentiates them from other companies in the sense that they are able to improve their products at a faster pace and have a larger financial cushion to absorb setbacks. As a private company, SpaceX differs from government programs that have many stakeholders who are closely watching their decisions and have the power to “say no” at any time.  

When asked about their thoughts on the launch, Lakeside students voiced a variety of opinions. Albert, in 8th grade, explained that, “I think it’s a pretty good idea to reduce space garbage, but at the same time, I guess it takes a lot of effort to actually get it working, and it can be risky.” 8th-grader Sona stated, “Elon Musk is not prepared for the consequences of space,” and said that Musk’s company does not have enough of a financial buffer to cover for their mistakes. Zen, in 7th grade, believed that “they have a history of trial and error,” as well as “a rough history of failure and explosion with previous spacecraft.”  Zen, who was skeptical of SpaceX’s launch efforts, added that “it’s like the 12th time’s a charm.” Kevin, an 8th grader, also believed that “It was pretty good; I think they got what they wanted.” Meanwhile, Jacob, a 5th grader, explained that, “It was like a science experiment, and they failed. They can fix the mistake.” 

In closing, the launch was a success for SpaceX, because of the company’s unique nature and ability to cope with mistakes. This launch has provided SpaceX with the necessary data to make improvements to the spacecraft, bringing them one step closer to a successful prototype, and bringing us one step closer to living on Mars.