SpaceX's giant rocket did much better on its second launch attempt, but it still failed

On Saturday morning, SpaceX made its second attempt to launch its Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage. While that launch went much better than the first attempt in April, it still ended with the destruction of both the booster and the upper stage, with neither reaching the goals set for this flight.

For any fan of spaceflight, it was a visceral thrill to see the enormous 394-foot-tall, 11-million-pound rocket blasting away from the launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas, and soaring upward on 33 engines with roughly twice the thrust of NASA’s legendary Saturn V moon rocket. The rocket includes several innovations and design decisions that are intended to make it not only fully reusable but also easier to build. For SpaceX and its CEO, Elon Musk, the combined rocket (which is also confusingly known as Starship) is the key to drastically reducing the cost of reaching space and eventually taking humans to Mars.

Over the last decade, SpaceX has gone from strength to strength, using a philosophy of rapid iteration and “fast failure” to go from an almost-broke also-ran to by far the most dominant company the space industry has ever seen. That philosophy appeared to be on full display Saturday morning as the second Starship attempt headed for the sky.

However, there are reasons to doubt the whole approach. And very good reasons to think that SpaceX’s attempts to revolutionize space in the long term could be a major stumbling block over the next few years, especially for NASA.