Within the span of a few days, another SpaceX Starship broke up on re-entry, and two other space companies faced failures. This reflects a new "fail-fast, learn-fast" ethos of spacecraft development.
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The relevant question is are these failures the result of the unforeseeable, or are they the result of things that are known but space X choose to ignore because they were inconvenient.
Failure has always been an option in science, including space exploration. The problem isn't really Musk's products failing, it's that he & his supporters feel that they are allowed and have the agency to judge and make decisions based on the supposed failures of others, even if they are not.
So according to this administration crashes with non white billionaires aboard are due to "DEI hires" but this is "fail fast learn fast"?? Outrageous and racist. Do better NPR.
Those are my taxes dollars raining down …and it pisses me right off! Waisting our money on elons stupid rocket ships at same the time he & trump are firing good people doing jobs that help so many. F*ck right off elon.
No, this is FUBAR, and your milquetoast reporting is folly. We are giving Musk billions of our dollars only to have him clutter our orbit and pollute our oceans with debris, disrupt commercial airspace, and fill his damn pockets at the expense of crucial Federal programs. WTAF NPR?
Imagine what the money spent on these worthless SpaceX spacecrafts could’ve been used for to help humanity. Veterans, Homeless, sex trafficking rings, you name it, anything other than this shit.
In Europe we built the Ariane6 and it brought on March the 6th. 2025, after only one test flight, on their second flight already a commercial satellite into orbit. Both flights were a complete success. Those who build good rockets do not have to learn from mistakes. 🤔
Stop normalizing this shit. Or, make them put their money where their mouths are and start sending CEO's on the flights. Let's see EM brag about space flight when he's strapped into one of his rockets.
"Fail-fast, learn-fast" on the taxpayers dime while gutting critical & life-saving government agencies & programs that actually help The People in the name of "efficiency" is will go down as greatest heist in US history.
Within the span of a few days, another SpaceX Starship broke up on re-entry, and two other space companies faced failures. This reflects a new "fail-fast” ethos.
It means these companies have no idea how to analyze risk of failure and prevent it before it happens.
Read this article for a slow stroke on why ‘fast science’, good, ‘legacy’ NASA science, bad + why fElon should continue to steal hundreds of billions of dollars from lazy, tax-payer-funded gov’t programs
Yep you are correct! NASA is a public good. These private companies are not. It’s insane to me we subsidize them with billions while cutting NASA. Just disgustung.
Look into the number of ships that sank in the days when people were trying to cross the Atlantic Ocean. That'll give an idea as to the rate of casualty/loss we're in for.
Um…didn’t we learn how to launch most rockets safely in the mid-1960’s, after blowing them up in the 1940’s and ‘50’s? Seems like NASA already worked out a lot of problems 50-60 years ago.
He ignored safety regulations and procedures and risked the lives of hundreds if not thousands of people while simultaneously harming our environment and atmosphere.
The only thing he has learned is how to avoid responsibility
All their good engineers got burnt out and left and they've done nothing but cut corners. This is the long term effect of elons management. Tesla is a similar rotting corpse
You can only “fail-fast, learn-fast” when you’ve monopolized more money than you know what to do with. Honestly, any money these tech bros get from the gov’t should have strict requirements, like “Make sure you don’t just set the taxpayers’ money on fire because you’re fucking morons.”
I wish this wasn’t as serious as it is. There doesn’t seem to be any oversight. America has a space program. It needs fresh funding and new blood to overhaul and modernize the vehicles we know work. Elon could have stepped up and offered to fund NASA projects instead of wasting time on his ideas.
How well does that work as he replaces air traffic controllers with these people now regularly blowing things up? How does fail fast learn fast work when it’s planes full of people being crashed on the regular as they learn on the job? Just another oopsie we killed your family but we’re learning?
Elon should stop mooching off of government tax accounts and fund his businesses himself, like any other respectable businessman -- never mind, he doesn't fit that mold.
When I Elon needs a few bucks to blow up some rockets, it's "fail fast, learn fast". When I need some money to retrain into a new field because AI stole my job they say it's "waste fraud and abuse".
circumvent engineering best practices (based on decades of testing), only to have failures caused by a circumventing design. Lean into circumvention, repeat.....
This is what privatized space ventures look like, cuz it's the nature of capitalism to cut corners to maximize profits. Investors are backed by the government, so they can socialize the risk, but privatize the profits.
No it is just "go fast and don't be careful or detail oriented and fuck up and waste a shitload of money and put people in danger because you are lead by rich impatient dumbfucks."
How about we don't launch things that we aren't sure will work over areas that people live and fly! Want to save money? Maybe put a halt on all this nonsense that we are all paying for! Imagine the gas bill we'll save!
NPR, do you really think these sadists won't think it's twice as funny to yank your funding after your organization completely transforms into the warm and fuzzy state media channel it's rapidly becoming?
Nah it’s insanity spearheaded by a fucking idiot, “failure is an option” because he’s also a reckless fucking idiot. Things aren’t complicated. Don’t try to sain wash the ketamine riddled Nazi, please.
Fail fast learn fast that also distrupts travel for sometimes multiple days hurting the economy.
As it was once stated, if NASA failed as much as SpaceX has, they'd have lost funding immediately and been declared a waste. Meanwhile, Musk gets more subsidies for SpaceX conveniently.
Deport Elon Musk to his homeland as he is not an elected official and not a citizen of United States. SpaceX Starship broke up on re-entry. Hopefully Musk won't break up on re-entry to South Africa, his homeland but he might.
Except... they're not learning anything worth while, they're keeping what they learn internal, NASA never had to go through these learning curves, and they're getting closer and closer to killing people who are completely uninvolved.
Has Elon taken his eye off the ball. At least 2 Starship rockets have exploded in the last few days. Tesla sales are cratering, and people are leaving X by the thousands
Wretched. There's more journalism from these non-professional youtubers than these NPR 'journalists'. A serious outfit would do what these lads have, and try to find out when (OR IF!!!!) the flight termination system kicked in. Because if it didn't ...............
If it didn't, SpaceX lost control of a very dangerous object that has the potential to come down anywhere it damned well pleases. Maybe even the Hamptons (are you starting to get it yet, NPR?) - got to appeal to your self interest, as I'm not sure about your better nature.
Sounds like NPR has decided to embrace the fail-fast, learn-fast ethos with this characterization of a reckless and dangerous megalomaniac. NASA would have ceased operations had they been so catastrophically irresponsible.
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Spend loads of money, fail fast, cause environmental damage, face no consequences, maybe learn something, and repeat.
We have seen no evidence of "learn-fast."
It means these companies have no idea how to analyze risk of failure and prevent it before it happens.
*also* how much environmental damage are these frequent explosions causing?
BTW, the ethos is rather old; "move fast and break things". As they say failure is the best teacher.
You people have failed at your jobs. Lick that billionaire boot.
He ignored safety regulations and procedures and risked the lives of hundreds if not thousands of people while simultaneously harming our environment and atmosphere.
The only thing he has learned is how to avoid responsibility
"SHIT BLOWING UP WEEKLY IS A GOOD THING! YOU CAN LEARN A LOT FROM FAILURE! MUSK NEEDS MORE SUBSIDIES! LET HIM TAKE US TO MARS!"- salt righters now
It's irresponsible and life threatening to blow shit up in the air traffic pattern over Florida.
"learning curve"
https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Transportation/Ariane_6_takes_flight_for_the_second_time
Scorecard:
They didn't even need to defund NPR to start ruining it.
Don’t remember NASA failing this much.
2 things changed:
1. We stopped building NASA missions atop rockets designed as weapons.
2. We now have professional & amateur news coverage of the development phase of new rockets
Do you know how lucky we are no one was killed?
Applying “fail fast” to space travel will result in the deaths of astronaut and hazards to the public.
Private individuals can't be allowed to wreck other people's lives for their personal whims.
Do not let them get away with it. Sue them!
Translated = waste huge resources, create aviation chaos, fill the skies & ocean with debris & emit masses of fossil fuels.
Paid for by US taxpayers.
All to prop up the traitor Trump's spy satellites, pour $ into Musk's pockets, and feed his fantasy of conquering Mars.
But not for rockets: someone’s going to get killed by falling debris.
And sure as hell not for the US government.
As it was once stated, if NASA failed as much as SpaceX has, they'd have lost funding immediately and been declared a waste. Meanwhile, Musk gets more subsidies for SpaceX conveniently.
Deport Elon Musk to his homeland as he is not an elected official and not a citizen of United States. SpaceX Starship broke up on re-entry. Hopefully Musk won't break up on re-entry to South Africa, his homeland but he might.
Fuck them.
And I'd bet NASA wasn't allowed the tax-funded luxury of this ethos.
I assume the point of this fluffery is to suck up to Elon in the hopes he won't set his DOGE drones on them. Good luck with that.