Musk's starship exploded again during a test flight, but SpaceX believed it had not failed. Humanity is one step closer to the dream of colonizing Mars.
At 8:03 Eastern Time on November 18th, the SpaceX spacecraft took off from Texas, USA, on its second orbital level test flight mission. After the separation of the rocket stages, the booster rocket exploded, but the starship entered space for the first time, and cheers still came from the command room.
If a starship can be successfully launched, it will have revolutionary significance for human space history. It is the largest and most powerful carrier rocket in human history, capable of sending over 100 tons of items into space at once. At the same time, it is also a reusable rocket, which greatly reduces the cost of space activities and helps Musk achieve his grand dream of colonizing Mars.
Unfortunately, things went against my wishes. According to the plan, the starship was supposed to reach orbital speed after separating from the booster rocket, then enter space for a 90 minute test flight journey, and finally splash down in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. After the booster exploded, the starship failed to reach its orbital speed as planned. A few minutes later, SpaceX confirmed that the company had lost contact with the starship, and its self destruct system had been forced to trigger. This critical test still ended in a self destruct.
This is not a failure
Neither the SpaceX team nor Musk considered this a failed attempt. Compared to the first test flight seven months ago, when the starship did not even successfully separate from the booster rocket and exploded within three minutes of liftoff, the second test flight has made significant progress. 33 Raptor engines made no mistakes, and the starship successfully completed interstage separation.
After the starship explosion, SpaceX stated on social media X that success comes from the knowledge we can learn. Today's testing will help us improve the reliability of the starship and continue to move towards the goal of "making life a multi planet species".
Musk also expressed congratulations to the SpaceX team on X and released multiple photos and videos of the ship after liftoff, calling it "an amazing machine".
In the development model of SpaceX, it is already difficult to define what failure is and what success is. "Aerospace technology expert Huang Zhicheng told Times Financial Analysis, because this test flight of SpaceX was not expected to be able to reach its goal and successfully enter orbit at once. From the current situation, the launch of its first rocket was successful, and the separation was also successful. Even if there were problems in the final stage of entry, their phased goals had already been achieved.
In fact, during an ignition test in August, Musk had previously stated to the public that the probability of the second flight successfully entering orbit was only 50%. He suggested that the outside world should not expect too much, as long as the interstage separation was completed, it would be considered a victory.
This may be Musk's background color. This once the world's richest man is known worldwide for his irritable temper and "jerk" performance, but at the same time, he never fails. Musk has long been accustomed to constantly breaking down his goals and slowly moving forward amidst repeated failures.
Therefore, in Huang Zhicheng's view, compared to traditional aerospace companies that strive to avoid explosions, SpaceX is more like a high-flying internet startup. Musk and his Silicon Valley billionaire friends share the same entrepreneurial motto: "Fail fast, but learn fast
Whether this method is good or bad still needs to be tested in practice. However, even if this launch fails, I still believe that Musk's plan is feasible overall. However, from the current situation, there is still a long way to go before the final goal of colonizing Mars, and the path for human exploration into deep space is still extremely arduous
According to Times Finance statistics, starting from July 2019, SpaceX conducted its first test flight of the starship prototype "Starhopper", and this crazy company built a large number of starship prototypes, conducting more than 10 test flights. If we include the SN7 and SN7.1 that exploded during the limit testing process of replacing materials, as well as a large number of prototypes, this is already the 12th explosion of a starship, and its probability of explosion is much higher than its probability of successful landing.
In contrast, another explosion is nothing, and Musk will still firmly approach his grand dream of colonizing Mars step by step.
Accumulated financing exceeding 70 billion yuan
Moreover, there is nothing that can stop Musk from advancing now, even the financial problems that have trapped him several times have gradually been resolved.
In May, Musk revealed that SpaceX is expected to spend approximately $2 billion this year developing a starship. Previously, SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen also stated in a statement that since July 2014, the company has invested over $3 billion to develop starship base facilities and systems. In total, SpaceX's investment in starships will exceed $5 billion, equivalent to approximately RMB 36 billion.
Such crazy money burning forced SpaceX to rely on massive financing to continue its journey. According to IT Orange data, SpaceX has received over 19 rounds of financing since its establishment in 2002, with a total financing of over 9.762 billion US dollars, equivalent to approximately 70 billion RMB.
But as the "star chain" of SpaceX satellite internet business gradually matures, this continuously losing company can finally start to generate its own profits. In July, Pengpai News quoted foreign media reports that SpaceX expected to double its revenue to $8 billion this year. Calculated based on standards that do not include costs related to manufacturing rockets and satellites, it is expected to generate an operating profit of approximately $3 billion this year.
Musk also publicly stated in a voice live broadcast that despite spending on the Starship project, SpaceX may not need to raise more external capital.
This undoubtedly provides more certainty for the development of SpaceX. In the past decade or so, the former world's richest man has successfully transformed the new energy vehicle industry. Now, similar stories may be repeated in the human aerospace industry.