this post was submitted on 28 May 2025
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SpaceX mission control lost contact with the rocket after it leaked fuel and spun out of control, despite already flying halfway around the world

SpaceX mission control lost contact with its latest Starship rocket on Tuesday, as it leaked fuel, spun out of control, and made an uncontrolled re-entry after flying halfway around the world, likely disintegrating over the Indian Ocean, officials said.

“Just to confirm, we did lose contact with the ship officially a couple of minutes ago. So that brings an end to the ninth flight test,” said SpaceX’s Dan Huot during a live feed.

Starship, the futuristic rocket on which Elon Musk’s ambitions for multiplanetary travel are riding, roared into space from Texas on its ninth uncrewed test launch and flew further than the last two attempts that ended in explosive failure.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I remember a NASA engineer saying that if NASA had half the failures that SpaceX has had in its early days they would have been disbanded as an organization and their funding pulled completely.

Yet this private org somehow gets bailed out again and again and again and again and again all while not only wasting massive tax payer money, but also causing a hell of a lot of waste. SpaceX is the waste fraud and abuse that should be trashed, not the national park service.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Damn, I thought it said "loses contract."

Governments are still going to throw money at anything this guy does. Useful idiots couldn't have been more useful a few years ago.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (3 children)

All the money being spent on this bullshit could've been better spent improving the living conditions of the working class.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Lmaooo in the USA? Unlikely.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

I guess you have to call a place on solid ground Starbase when everything you build to carry building supplies into space to build a Starbase fails.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Elons not a nazi, because nazis are good at making rockets

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

They are actually more alike than you suggest:

https://youtu.be/OdBh54MoZRE?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago

Musk reaction video:

[–] [email protected] 82 points 3 days ago (7 children)

Just for comparison, on their 9th test flight the Apollo program they had already successfully reached orbit 5 times.

The 9th test flight of the Soyuz was their 7th time reaching orbit.

Elon's 9th attempt is his second time reaching the bottom of the Indian ocean. Shows the level of proficiency in spacex.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

I think that is less about competence and more about a completely different style of work. I don’t want to sound like a fanboy, but it isn’t apples and apples. There were much more stringent testing standards for that program. SpaceX is all about throwing shit in the dryer on the fluff cycle and seeing what they scrape off the lint screen.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The Saturn V's 9th flight was the third time it took humans to the moon...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

~~Apollo 9~~ Apollo 8 went to the moon but they had multiple test flights prior to that numbering. Those are a more reasonable point of comparison.

Edit: I misremembered the number.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (12 children)

I believe this is the 4th (or is it 5th?) time starship successfully reached orbit too (just lacking an insertion burn which is on purpose for these tests). But it’s also important to keep in context the fact that starship and super heavy are so big, while trying to be completely reusable and be assembly lined. Very different goals, technology, and ideas happening between the generations. One starship launch intends to replace between 3 and 5 falcon 9 launches if they can nail down the reliability.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 days ago (3 children)

It concerns me from a standpoint that is similar to Oceangate - the engineers are probably aware something is going wrong, but money is getting the final say. Then the people on one of these things end up dying, and it won't be Musk.

I'm also concerned because this lax approach to engineering is becoming more apparent in the private sector. Engineers have a very difficult job -traditionally balancing budget, schedule, and quality. But we also are vital in ensuring regulatory compliance, safety, disposal, process, efficiency etc.

Engineer salaries, however, have stagnated like the rest of American workers. It's true we still get paid better, but compared to how much the salary got you in the 80s-90s, we get much less.

Private sector engineers are largely not PEs as we're shielded by our employers. We are more worried about being laid off than fucking up a project to the point lives get risked.

Part of this is why I chose to no longer work on systems that can cause injuries/ harm to a user. If I'm doing that, I can assume I'm not alone. If those of us consciously avoiding it because of fears of hurting users, it might mean that the ones working on the systems aren't motivated by safety of the user.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 3 days ago (1 children)

And while both of those programs weren't starting from zero, like Apollo learned from Mercury and Gemini, SpaceX should have learned from all of them.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

spacex is also not starting from zero. They previously made the falcon 9.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Next time put that Nazi fuck Elon in it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Elon could eat the exhaust

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It seems like destiny for that to be how dies. Killed by his own hubris like Mr. Expired carbon fiber submarine.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

Go fetch it and re-use it.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago

ship loses attitude control and burns up on reentry

Welcome back, starship flight 3

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