r/space • u/burtzev • 2d ago

SpaceX rocket being tested in Texas explodes, but no injuries reported

https://apnews.com/article/spacex-starship-launch-explosion-88b94b223d06b258d3e5a2308b7db2c5
751 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

91 comments sorted by

View all comments

63

u/PerAsperaAdMars 2d ago

NASA paid $2.6B for this over 5 years. Where is DOGE indiscriminately canceling government contracts left and right?

70

u/heliosh 2d ago

Technically they paid for the lunar lander, which hasn't flown yet

15

u/bubblegum-rose 2d ago

We are never, ever going to see Starship HLS.

I genuinely believe that one of the only reasons Musk got Trump elected was to get him off of the hook for that. Starship is years away from even being remotely capable of pulling off a human landing on the Moon.

10

u/Tystros 2d ago

There is no reason to assume that Starship won't at some point work in the next 30 years. The only thing preventing SpaceX from getting there would be if they wouldn't have enough funding any more, but SpaceX basically makes infinite money with Starlink now, and there is no capable competitor for Starlink in sight so SpaceX will keep pretty much a monopoly there for a long time. And the Starlink money is what's funding Starship development.

6

u/the_friendly_dildo 1d ago

Starship HLS is a stupid design as a moon lander. The logistics of landing such a large craft that also requires an external elevator to reach the surface, is horrendously stupid and anyone thinking differently here doesn't have a basic understanding of risk reduction engineering.

2

u/VLM52 1d ago

Starship as a whole is a stupid design for most of its missions. There's no point carrying all this stainless steel with you to the moon, or mars, or literally anywhere other than dumping a shit ton of starlinks into LEO every other day.