{"id":147600,"date":"2025-05-31T19:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T19:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/147600\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T19:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T19:47:09","slug":"why-do-spacex-rockets-keep-exploding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/147600\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do SpaceX rockets keep exploding?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With yet another failed Starship test<\/a> this week, in which the ambitious heavy rocket exploded once again, you might reasonably suspect that luck has finally run out for SpaceX. <\/p>\n

But this degree of failure during a development process isn\u2019t actually unusual, according to Wendy Whitman Cobb, a space policy expert with the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, especially when you\u2019re testing new space technology as complex as a large rocket. However, the Starship tests are meaningfully different from the slow, steady pace of development that we\u2019ve come to expect from the space sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason a lot of people perceive this to be unusual is that this is not the typical way that we have historically tested rockets,\u201d Whitman Cobb says.<\/p>\n

Historically speaking, space agencies like NASA or legacy aerospace companies like United Launch Alliance (ULA) have taken their time with rocket development and have not tested until they were confident in a successful outcome. That\u2019s still the case today with major NASA projects like the development of the Space Launch System (SLS), which has now dragged on for over a decade. \u201cThey will take as long as they need to to make sure that the rocket is going to work and that a launch is going to be successful,\u201d Whitman Cobb says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not the typical way that we have historically tested rockets.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX has chosen a different path, in which it tests, fails, and iterates frequently. That process has been at the heart of its success, allowing the company to make developments like the reusable Falcon 9 rocket at a rapid pace. However, it also means frequent and very public failures, which have generated complaints about environmental damage<\/a> in the local area around the launch site and have caused the company to butt heads with regulatory agencies<\/a>. There are also significant concerns about the political ties of CEO Elon Musk to the Trump administration and his undemocratic influence<\/a> over federal regulation of SpaceX\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

Even within the context of SpaceX\u2019s move-fast-and-break-things approach, though, the development of the Starship has appeared chaotic. Compared to the development of the Falcon 9 rocket, which had plenty of failures but a generally clear forward path from failing often to failing less and less as time went on, Starship has a much more spotty record.<\/p>\n

Previous development was more incremental, first demonstrating that the rocket was sound before moving onto more complex issues like reusability of the booster or first stage. The company didn\u2019t even attempt to save the booster of a Falcon 9 and reuse it until several years into testing.<\/p>\n

Starship isn\u2019t like that. \u201cThey are trying to do everything at once with Starship,\u201d Whitman Cobb says, as the company is trying to debut an entirely new rocket with new engines and make it reusable all at once. \u201cIt really is a very difficult engineering challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are trying to do everything at once with Starship.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Raptor engines that power the Starship are a particularly tough engineering nut to crack, as there are a lot of them \u2014 33 per Starship, all clustered together \u2014 and they need to be able to perform the tricky feat of reigniting in space. The relighting of engines has been successful on some of the previous Starship test flights, but it has also been a point of failure.<\/p>\n

Why, then, is SpaceX pushing for so much, so fast? It\u2019s because Musk is laser-focused on getting to Mars. And while it would theoretically be possible to send a mission to Mars using existing rockets like the Falcon 9, the sheer volume of equipment, supplies, and people needed for a Mars mission has a very large mass. To make Mars missions even remotely affordable, you need to be able to move a lot of mass in one launch \u2014 hence the need for a much larger rocket like the Starship or NASA\u2019s SLS.<\/p>\n

NASA has previously been hedging its bets by developing its own heavy launch rocket as well as supporting the development of Starship. But with recent funding cuts, it\u2019s looking more and more likely that the SLS will get axed \u2014 leaving SpaceX as the only player in town to facilitate NASA\u2019s Mars plans. <\/p>\n

But there\u2019s still an awful lot of work to do to get Starship to a place where serious plans for crewed missions can even be made. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way that they\u2019re putting people on that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will a Starship test to Mars happen by 2026, with a crewed test to follow as soon as 2028, as Musk said this week he\u2019s aiming for? \u201cI think it\u2019s completely delusional,\u201d Whitman Cobb says, pointing out that SpaceX has not appeared to be seriously considering issues like adding life support to the Starship or making concrete plans for Mars habitats, launch and landing pads, or infrastructure. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see SpaceX as putting its money where its mouth is,\u201d Whitman Cobb says. \u201cIf they do make the launch window next year, it\u2019s going to be uncrewed. There\u2019s no way that they\u2019re putting people on that right now. And I seriously doubt whether they will make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean Starship will never make it to Mars, of course. \u201cI believe SpaceX will engineer their way out of it. I believe their engineering is good enough that they will make Starship work,\u201d Whitman Cobb says. But getting an uncrewed rocket to Mars within the next decade is a lot more realistic than next year. <\/p>\n

Putting people on the rocket, though, is another matter entirely. \u201cIf they\u2019re looking to build a large-scale human settlement? That\u2019s decades,\u201d Whitman Cobb says. \u201cI don\u2019t know that I will live to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With yet another failed Starship test this week, in which the ambitious heavy rocket exploded once again, you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51,874,70,413,1603,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-147600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-nasa","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space","12":"tag-spacex","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114604175750574295","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}