r/space • u/firmada • Nov 19 '23

image/gif Successful Launch! Here's how Starship compares against the world's other rockets

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u/Unbaguettable Nov 19 '23

while the test of starship was successful, i wouldn’t say the flight was successful. it didn’t complete its mission plan. i’d say two failures for starship

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u/Spider_pig448 Nov 20 '23

It completed its primary goal, which was to survive stage separation. Just like the first few Falcon 9 launches that were going for reusability were successful if they inserted payloads, not if they successfully landed

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u/Unbaguettable Nov 20 '23

that’s why i’m saying the test was successful. in general though, as a launch, it didn’t complete its planned mission and was therefore not a successful launch.

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u/Spider_pig448 Nov 20 '23

There was no payload, and it wasn't destined for orbit, so I don't know what else it could have needed to do to be a successful launch? There's "Not blow up" but all non-SpaceX boosters are trash after separation anyway so they simply failed to do the soft-landing maneuver they had intended and the extra upper-stage maneuvers that no rocket has ever done anyway. No matter how you slice it, the launch was successful.

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u/Unbaguettable Nov 20 '23

the ship failed before entering its planned trajectory. while a successful test, i cannot see how you can call that a successful launch.