Musk's Hype On Starship Rocket A Bust

The explosion of SpaceX's new Starship rocket minutes after it soared off its launch pad on its first flight test is the latest illustration of a "successful failure" business formula that serves Elon Musk's company well, experts said, Steve Gorman, Joey Roulette and Arlene Eiras reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: The SpaceX Starship was a sight to behold it exploded.

Rather than seeing the disintegration of Musk's colossal Starship system as a setback, Musk’s personnel said the loss of the rocket ship would hasten the development of the vehicle.

Yet, SpaceX cannot explain why several of the Super Heavy's 33 Raptor engines malfunctioned on ascent and why the booster rocket and Starship failed to separate as designed before the ill-fated flight was terminated.

Musk - the founder, CEO and chief engineer of the California-based rocket company - hailed the test flight for achieving the major objective of getting the vehicle off the ground while providing a wealth of data that will advance Starship's development.

"This is a classical SpaceX successful failure," said Garrett Reisman, an astronautical engineering professor at the University of Southern California who is a former NASA astronaut and is also a senior adviser to SpaceX.

"Even though that rocket costs a lot of money, what really costs a lot of money are people's salaries," Reisman told Reuters in an interview hours after Thursday's launch.

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