Seems to be a good chunk of (educated) conjecture.
Also, 5 of the first stage engines failed immediately, and I don't think that was planned.
Couple two major unplanned malfunctions in a single launch test with the weight of manned spaceflight riding in the balance, and it looks more like recklessness than optimism.
The cheering crowd and nonacknowledgement from the announcer of the engine failure and the obvious tumble seemed eerily reminiscent of the final scenes of Don't Look Up.
I'm not against commercial spaceflight. I am against the type of groupthink that led to Challenger, and thought the mission had echoes of that today.
It's another thing entirely to do that during stage separation. Sure, historically separation has been risky, but it's nothing novel. They didn't seem to expect the vehicle to survive past that anyways.
There would be a delay even if another vehicle was ready to go - the launch site is a wreck.
In addition, this isn't publicly funded, so it would seem if some of the people get spooked by not understanding the goals of a launch correctly, then it doesn't really matter that much.
It does matter that we are scattering debris over a large area for no reason. It does not matter if that was done by the flight termination system or other mechanism.
Another possibility is: Space is too hard. So instead the focus is to analyze (ie: James Webb) instead of sending a human there.
* The Falcon 9, the first partially reusable spaceship that actually costs less than not re-using anything
* Terran R - a fully reusable space ship in the works by relativity space
* RocketLab Electron - an active rocket that is unique in its use of electric turbo pumps, 3d printed engines, and advanced composites use
* RocketLab Neutron - in the works, a larger rocket with the aim to be partially re-usable ala Falcon 9 but with a cheaper expendable 2nd stage and simpler design
* SpaceX Starship - in the works, (test flight today!) a large heavy lift vehicle with the aim to be fully reusable
* Blue Origin - working on a ship similar to starship
there are others!
Stranger things have happened though I suppose.
We don't really know that. This _appears_ to be the case but the accounting is strange. We would probably get better numbers if the company was publicly traded.
I really like the RocketLab designs.
Where's the funding for Skylon? Some US company with deeper pockets should license the design (the heat exchangers are incredible)
"We" have built a lot of spaceships since then but they simply went higher up than "just" 100km, so don't show up in the OP.
https://journeynorth.org/monarchs/resources/gallery/gallery-...
1. Some birds go really high into the sky. Not sure how they evolved to tolerate such a hostile environment. But it seems that Duck-like birds are able to handle very high altitude.
2. There are lots of cool spaceships that man has made. But it seems most of these were made in the 1950-1990 era. It's a shame that we are no longer doing that.