THIS IS FROM LAST WEEK, but I wanted to share these thoughts from a longtime space-community friend (who doesn’t work for SpaceX).

I was surprised at how far the first Starship test got. I was then utterly shocked at how tough the thing is. It is by far the sturdiest rocket, let alone spaceship, ever built. It blew up some engines. It kept going. It lost its hydraulic system and steering. It kept going. It spun (think of the Statue of Liberty at 39km altitude). but did not break up like every other rocket in human history would have. Then they blew explosive charges and put *holes* in the fuel tanks. It did not break up.

Finally it spun down into some thicker air and finally exceeded its design limits.
I do not think the media folks (who are exceedingly ignorant when it comes to engineering and probably cannot define the word ‘test’ let alone understand what it means) have a clue of how utterly, gobsmackingly incredible this test was.

I simply would not have believed you if you had told me a rocket could go through that list of insults and remain intact. Impossible! And yet… si move!

I look forward with anticipation to the next flight, and that may come sooner than I’d believed possible if I weren’t watching how fast the cleanup of the pad and infrastructure is moving at Boca Chica.

The only thing that might slow it is a bunch of backwards looking environuts who want to live in the Paleolithic rather than in a world where humanity is a space-faring species spread far and wide across the universe.

Too many of those, I’m afraid.