Is it not you that is the most entrenched in the culture wars here? I see language about celebrities; politics; toxic modern discourse; corporate value.
In other comments, I see discussions about the event; its impacts; how to weigh those relative impacts - positive or negative; questions about why the engineering choices that were made, as they appear quite sloppy in hindsight.
Indeed, I might say someone who wishes to detach from the political side of things could easily comment that SpaceX might not be treated as a "cool" entity in this situation because they have made a failure, which might not be bad in itself, but a failure from quite a disappointing mistake. This will naturally color the discussion, don't you think? The emotional state of the audience isn't "interested in what went wrong", because that's obvious! Instead the tone is more related to the nature of mistakes - incredibly though, I don't even see a suggestion that mistakes are the new culture of Elon companies. So why are you whining?
All disposable rockets are dumped in the ocean, sometimes with toxic propellants still on board. Yet I've seen no end of articles about how bad this test is for the environment. I saw it all over the place even before this launched.
SpaceX wants its rockets to be fully reusable, which means when they work they will not be dumped in the ocean. They're also using less toxic and less CO2-intensive propellants on Starship than most other rockets that burn RP-1 (kerosene) or worse solid or hypergolic fuels. What are the SLS boosters emitting and what happens when those fall in the ocean?
I'm not a fan of Elon's recent political turn, but I also know a double standard and a politically motivated pile-on when I see one. SpaceX is much more important than Elon or his politics, and their launch vehicles aim to be considerably "greener" than anyone else due to reusability.
In other comments, I see discussions about the event; its impacts; how to weigh those relative impacts - positive or negative; questions about why the engineering choices that were made, as they appear quite sloppy in hindsight.
Indeed, I might say someone who wishes to detach from the political side of things could easily comment that SpaceX might not be treated as a "cool" entity in this situation because they have made a failure, which might not be bad in itself, but a failure from quite a disappointing mistake. This will naturally color the discussion, don't you think? The emotional state of the audience isn't "interested in what went wrong", because that's obvious! Instead the tone is more related to the nature of mistakes - incredibly though, I don't even see a suggestion that mistakes are the new culture of Elon companies. So why are you whining?