SpaceX’s Starship SN1 prototype blows up during pressure test on its Texas pad

Re:SpaceX’s Starship SN1 prototype blows up during pressure ... by WalterBright on Saturday February 29, 2020 @09:22PM (#22454687)

> Rockets have the nearly unique distinction of having to be strong enough and no stronger

More precisely, airplanes are designed to being 50% stronger than the max load it would ever see. Rockets are designed to something like 10% stronger.

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Re:SpaceX’s Starship SN1 prototype blows up during pressure ... by gpm on Saturday February 29, 2020 @10:34PM (#22454955)

SpaceX is apparently aiming for a 1.4x safety factor: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1215719463913345024

But my point here actually was the difference between "at least x times stronger than it needs to be", and "exactly x times stronger than it needs to be". Usually things are manufactured to the first spec, rockets are much closer to the latter spec because keeping weight down is so important.

I suppose airplanes must also be closer to the latter spec than most things, but they should still be more forgiving than rockets.

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