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Deja Vu All Over Again! [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-16
I’ve previously mentioned that when I was about six years old, my father was in the Air Force, serving as Public Information Officer (PIO) for a missile base where, as Tom Wolfe said in “The Right Stuff”, “Ours blow up”.
It was around 1960, and the world was new to launching missiles. They called them “test” and “experimental” for a reason. No one had much success at first.
But when American missiles blew up, there was media covering the launch...and the aftermath.
When a launch deviated from the launch plan, the vehicle could transmit data back to the ground right until the Range Safety Office (RSO) triggered the self-destruction.
Kablooie
It would then fall on the PIO to talk to the media and provide something for posterity.
My father often reported the launch outcome along the following lines:
The launch was nominal and within parameters until the vehicle left the planned flight safety path and the RSO initiated the destruction. However, the vehicle continued to send solid telemetry until the end of flight.
Today, Prez Muskrat’s SpaceX launched a Starship vehicle from Texas. The first stage returned to launch site and was recovered — which was the “good news”.
“Bad news”? The main vehicle — with payload — blew up SPECTACULARLY over the Turks and Cacos Islands.
The videos capturing the Prime-Time Sunset Kablooie are amazing and worth a moment —
www.space.com/…
And the spokesperson for SpaceX channeled the Ghost of my father with this “explanation” for the loss of vehicle:
"Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn. Teams will continue to review data from today's flight test to better understand root cause.”
Give the wordsmith at SpaceX a new CyberTruk for coming up with “rapid unscheduled disassembly”.
As I said, and which bears repeating, again, is Deja Vu All Over.
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