Re: ““Just a Scratch”: Elon Musk Reacts to Massive Explosion of Starship During Launchpad Test”

On 6/22/2025 8:38 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:

Lynn McGuire  <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

Almost an hour and a half later, Musk posted regarding a possible
cause, Preliminary data suggests that a nitrogen COPV in the payload
bay failed below its proof pressure. If further investigation confirms
that this is what happened, it is the first time ever for this design.

 Strong oxidizers are scary no matter what.  Cold strong oxidizers have
even more to be scared about.
 The problem here is that this is now a production system and is no longer
experimental... so failures like this are being paid for directly by
the taxpayer.
 Given Trump and Musk's on-again off-again relationship, I could see anything
at all happening.  Maybe the contract will be cancelled completely and we
won't be paying for SpaceX services at all.  Maybe everything will be handed
over to the contractor without any oversight.  Maybe (it could happen!) there
will be proper inspection and contract management like there was in the
beginning.  Maybe something else will happen.
--scott

Nope, experimental.  The first production Starship will have dozens of Version 3 Starlink satellites in it.  You will know when.
Is there another contractor / entity on this planet that can reliably lift 22,800 kg payloads to LEO reliably and on a weekly basis ?  That has 490 completed missions to date ?
    https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/falcon-9/
Lynn