Space is hard

Over the last week, we had some space news of note.

SpaceX tried (and failed again!) to launch starship.  The result was similar to the last launch in that they lost control of the upper stage and it pitched uncontrollably and they had to destroy it. 

In this case, the view of the craft and its problem were visible from the east coast of Florida (in spite of the launch from the Texas coastline, it flew eastward).  The reason for the visual was the time of day (sunlight was reflecting at the right angle), the altitude, and the typical trail from the rockets themselves as it pitched.

It was another learning experience for the company, because failure is always an option.  

But it caused problems for airports up and down Florida's coast and triggered a response from the FAA - which undoubtedly will prove "complicated" since Musk dictates what the FAA does and also owns SpaceX (conflict of interest anyone?)

Next up was Intelligent Machines second attempt at a lunar landing.  They launched a few weeks ago, and everything seemed to be going well.  Then when it came time for landing, they had some unexpected thrust from an engine; it landed, but like their last launch, it appears to be not quite upright.  They are getting data back and did deploy the solar panels, so they may be able to salvage some of the mission and meet major objectives.

And finally, we had the other lunar lander that was launched as part of the ride share with Intuitive Machines.  Blue Ghost, from Firefly aerospace, landed successfully and thus becomes the first *successful* moon landing for the US since the Apollo program ended 50 years ago,

  

In their case, I would argue space was hard - but achievable.  We'll learn a lot as they work through their mission objectives.