SpaceX rockets keep exploding. Is that normal?

With yet another failed Starship test this week, in which the ambitious heavy rocket exploded once again, you might reasonably suspect that luck has finally run out for SpaceX.

But this degree of failure during a development process isn't actually unusual, according to Wendy Whitman Cobb, a space policy expert with the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, especially when you're testing new space technology as complex as a large rocket. However, the Starship tests are meaningfully different from the slow, steady pace of development that we've come to expect from the space sector.

"The reason a lot of people perceive this to be unusual is that this is not the typical way that we have historically tested rockets," Whitman Cobb says.

Historically speaking, space agencies like NASA or legacy aerospace companies like United Launch Alliance (ULA) have taken their time with rocket development and have not tested until they were confident in a successful outcome. That's still the case today with major NASA projects like the development of the Space Launch System (SLS), which has now dragged on for over a decade. "They will take as long as they need to to make sure that the rocket …

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