SpaceX wants this supersized rocket to fly. But will investors send it to the Moon?
Getting Starship off the ground is costing the commercial spaceflight company billions of dollars at a time when money is tight. Some analysts think more funding will be needed.
by Geoff Brumfiel
May 05, 2023
4 minutes
When SpaceX's newest rocket, Starship, lifted off last month, employees cheered as they watched the video feed. They kept cheering as it pulverized the concrete slab under its launch pad, as one of its engines appeared to explode a few seconds into flight, and even when it somersaulted out of control, before disintegrating over the Gulf of Mexico.
None of that was in the original flight plan for Starship, which was supposed to splash down in the Pacific Ocean. But nobody seemed to care that the rocket made it just 40 miles or so from the company's launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
"Everybody here is absolutely pumped to get off the pad
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