SpaceX’s Starship launch was much-memed-upon but it honestly went as well or better than could be expected given the development approach the company takes. That said, it’s clear that the test cadence is being rushed at Elon’s behest (launching without a proper pad deluge system, for instance) and they’ve reached a size of rocket that having something go wrong in flight could cause serious damage, and isn’t just an opportunity to deploy funny acronyms and giggle.
That said, SpaceX is one of the few things he’s doing that isn’t a total clusterfuck, and that’s got a lot to do with the much more competent people he has running the company under his nominal leadership. Gwynne Shotwell has been very well-regarded and tends to do a good job of insulating the rest of the company from Elmo’s dumbest whims.
Oh, unquestionably. The parts of SpaceX that they insulate from him are going well, but there’s no excuse for not having a pad deluge system (or something else that you’ve tested to accomplish the same goal) and it’s gotten them a lot of bad press. The rocket exploding was at least arguably expected, but the fact that they weren’t able to stop the torrent of bad press is notable.
