So SpaceX's Starship did not make it into orbit today, but nonetheless is being hailed as a success. It is definitely quite spectacular to watch it go up. I can only really imagine seeing, hearing, and feeling all those rocket engines firing. I've watched a lot of Falcon 9 launches. There are, fittingly, nine Merlin engines. I've seen a couple Falcon Heavy launches. Those are like three Falcon 9s strapped together with 27 Merlin engines. The first stage of Starship has 33 Raptor engines which deliver twice as much thrust as their Merlin counterparts. It's A LOT of thrust. Then the upper stage of Starship has another six Raptor engines.
I have not yet seen what SpaceX is saying about the launch, but even before the launch it was being reported what a triumph this would be if the world's largest rocket even left the pad, "Other interested parties are less hyperbolic [than Elon Musk], but no less optimistic. 'As soon as that thing launches the first time, they’re going to learn so much and they’re going to be at warp speed,' says Isaacman. 'I have no doubt there will be a lot of hardware and engines just ready to go.'" I've become a big fan of the idea as stated by Mark Zuckerberg of "move fast and break things". It's fallen out of favor with some people generally, but I'm a strong believer that this is really t best way to innovate. So much will be learned -- Thousands of ways how not to build a lightbulb in a single launch.
I've been struggling with what I can only really hope is simply a mid-life crisis. Half a life spent in figuring out how not to make a lightbulb. I suppose that maybe if I knew that my life from the start was to be spent trying to create a better lightbulb, perhaps I would have made some more progress on it so far. I haven't even gotten that far in finding what it is I am really supposed to be doing with my life. Thinking about Starship, though, maybe my purpose isn't really meant to be a perfectly successful mission. Like I said to Jen tonight, I admire Elon Musk's willingness to move forward without everything being perfect. If they waited until they knew with 99.999% certainty that Starship was going to get into orbit, they would simply never end up launching anything. life isn't going to be perfect. Maybe we do the best we can and leave as much data behind for the next generation to comb through to find where things went wrong.
Jen was telling me tonight about a documentary she watched on the Cassini project. The Cassini mission to Saturn lasted twenty years, thirteen of which were spent exploring and photographing Saturn. Cassini returned almost a half-million images of Saturn and its moons. It discovered six new moons and traveled almost five billion miles. It ended it's life burning up in Saturn's atmosphere recording and sending data back all the way. It was sacrificed to the atmosphere of the planet rather than quietly landing on one of the moons so as not to accidentally pollute an environment that may hold life and may even be able to sustain human life. Cassini was a step toward life outside of our solar system.
I have made a lot of mistakes in life. Maybe my purpose all along hasn't been how to create a better lightbulb. Maybe it is more of a data-discovery mission. I could probably write a book on how not to overcome mental illness. It isn't something to trifle with and not something to ignore. Ignoring it doesn't make it go away. I hope when I do leave this earth it can be in a rocket ship. Outside of that, I hope I can leave enough data for some forensics study to comb through and maybe shed light on what just didn't go right. And maybe have them scratching their heads muttering, "What's with all the drawings of lightbulbs?"
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