View of SpaceX’s Starship Mk. 1 after the top of a pressurized cryogenic tank blew off during a test.
Credit: K.C. Lee
During a pressurization test of SpaceX’s gleaming new Starship Mark 1 test item on November 20, the prototype blew the top of its fuel tank high into the sky. Were this a more traditional company the test failure might have been considered a major setback, but SpaceX characterized this as a part of their iterative “fail fast, fail forward” philosophy. As the company said soon after the anomaly, “The purpose of today’s test was to pressurize systems to the max, so the outcome was not completely unexpected . . . There were no injuries, nor is this a serious setback.” They further added, “The decision had already been made to not fly this test article and the team is focused on the Mark 3 builds, which are designed for orbit.”