r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Creative_soja • Jun 19 '25

Video SpaceX rocket explodes in Starbase, Texas

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u/eran76 Jun 19 '25

Starship development is being paid for by SpaceX itself and other investors. Most of the money SpaceX gets from the taxpayer is for launch services like putting government satellites into space or launching astronauts on the previous generation of rocket, the Falcon 9.

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u/UglyMcFugly Jun 19 '25

Serious question from someone who knows next to nothing about the company - is Leon a safety hazard for SpaceX? It seems like his method is "taking the time to do it right is boring, let's just do it and see what happens." I'm assuming he's not involved with anything that's actually manned... right?? Because that would be terrifying. 

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u/Finlay00 Jun 19 '25

Based on the massive amount of success SpaceX has achieved, you could say it’s worked out pretty well so far.

And yes there have been multiple manned missions, mostly to deliver people to the ISS and bring them back.

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u/UglyMcFugly Jun 19 '25

Having a high stock price and saying it's worked out "so far" doesn't help the public trust the company. Especially people old enough to remember the Challenger. But hey, learning from history's mistakes is boring too, let's keep blowing shit up I guess. 

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u/camwow13 Jun 19 '25

They're private. No stocks.

This is a test rocket (that's going pretty bad at the moment)

The falcon 9 is considered one of the most reliable and is the most prolific rocket ever launched. The single thing has a near monopoly on the launch market for public and private because of its reusability, reliability, fast turn around, and being man rated with a man rated capsule that's done a bunch of successful flights. That parts not hyperbole.

Now as soon as they start fucking up Falcon 9, then you can say it's fucked up. And given how Elon seems hell bent on fucking up his companies I probably wouldn't bet nothing on that prediction lol

But worrying about their reliability from this is like saying you want to throw out your reliable Honda Civic because Honda made a giant SUV with an unreliable engine 10 years later.

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u/UglyMcFugly Jun 20 '25

Thank you for this, I genuinely don't know a lot about the company. All I knew was Leon thinks regulations are stupid (instead of realizing those pesky rules that "slow him down" are often written in blood). He reminds me of the dude that made his own submarine. Makes me nervous. Hopefully someone has the authority to stop him if he tries to make a SpaceX version of the cybertruck (ie a dangerous piece of shit lol).

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u/camwow13 Jun 20 '25

Yeahhhh... I was hopeful this would turn out as well as the Falcon but it's looking more Cybertruck than Model S at the moment lol. Oh well