Kind of feel bad for the SpaceX engineers though. Elon is going to push them hard during the holidays. They probably won't see their family or friends for the holiday break. Another failure but perhaps we won't need to wait as long for the next test flight assuming the launch pad mods worked.

5) Starship Recovery - Clearly a failure! Again, reusability is a big selling point for SpaceX but both stages were not recovered.

I would rate the test flight as 40% success based on the objectives stated. Still a failure, but further than last time so progress.

4) Starship / Second Stage Flight - Failure, although initially it did seem to be fine before they lost contact. Starship is not flight proven still. The Flight Termination System (FTS) may have been activated near the end of engine cut off, will know more later.

3) Super Heavy Booster Recovery - Failure! It exploded! No way to spin it but the fanbois certainly are! Starship is all about it being more cost effective due to reusability. It is not optimized like most other launch vehicles because of the reusability aspect.

2) Stage Separation - The key moment for a 2 stage rocket. SpaceX is doing a hot stage separation, where the second stage (Starship's) engines are lit and are used to push away, instead of a pneumatic system which is safer. It does appear separation was a success. This did not happen last time!

Wow, amazing results!

Sorry, I should check this more often. Yes, it is quite robust in terms of facial tweaks. The body tweaks are more global changes.

how's the flooding in your area?

Thank you! I was talking to @stardustlegacy.bsky.social earlier and she told me you had provided the invitation! Much appreciated!