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1 point·inglor_cz··4 comments

I have never seen a good reason why they rushed to launch without the plate. "Because we want to" isn't a good reason.

"Our funding agency demands we meet KPI or we lose 2024 budget" is plausible. It's a reason I can understand if I don't like it.

And, "fuck engineering concerns, do it my way" i can believe as well. Because the owner has that in him (A terrible reason)

Lots of people will doubtless say this is hindsight talk, and it may well be. But, what was the specific reason to launch without a mitigation which was in planning? If they had planning for the plate they knew risks existed the plate was designed to prevent.

"We thought it would be ok" is (-sorry) pretty bad reasoning. It's two holes of the cheese grater away from killing people. NASA doesn't like people dying, they know how it affects them, longterm

I concur, that was one of the more obvious weak spots in the entire plan. Raptors are freakishly strong engines, their total energy output must have been mind-boggling.

At the same time, we really benefit from hindsight. There might have been 100 other, less known issues, that theoretically could have bitten but didn't.

The supposedly heat resistant concrete failed because it cracked and hot gasses forced their way in and under. If the rocket bidet I'd bet it will be for similar reasons, that the gas powering the water is wimpy compared to the rocket blast, and the bidet gets ripped apart because it could not keep the hot gasses out.

One of the interesting facts is that this test took place only 12 days after installing the main plate. This is a remarkable speed for the standards of 2023 and sort-of indicates that the energy and creativity of the Apollo days can be replicated even today.

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