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Why is it amazing that it left the pad?


It’s the first time this rocket has had all 33 engines attempt to light and fully throttle up.

SpaceX has no test facility capable of withstanding a full thrust booster test on the ground.

Also SpaceX has more boosters and ships complete and in various stages of assembly. A complete loss of the pad would have been much more damaging to the program.


It's a giant shaking and trembling structure built in a fail-fast iterative manner using unexpected materials (stainless steel) and processes (regular welding). Assemble all this in history's largest rocket ever, and expect everything to go perfect the first time?

I wouldn't have been surprised if the whole thing shook itself apart on the lift pad and blew up.

I don't know about you, but when I rapidly build and assemble large complex structures like a cowboy, I certainly expect a ton of failures on my first trials. When stuff goes much further than I expected, I'm in awe and disbelief.




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