It’s not an explosion. It’s just a very rapid unscheduled disassembly.
We’re in awe of the achievements of science and technology. What a wondrous age we live in that such things are possible! And yet, the dazzle of these amazing successes hides an important truth: they did not happen effortlessly, nor quickly.
As an example of this in practical application, have a look at SpaceX’s new video on how not to land an orbital booster. They had to go through a lot of iterations before they finally stuck a landing of the Falcon orbital booster in April of 2016.
Just like all other fields of human endeavor, it’s very easy to look at the wonders of science and technology and assume that things always work, are always smooth and money spent is never without mishap. The reality is that everything might look right on paper, but when you actually try to do it you find out exactly how many things you forgot to take into account, or simply had no idea were going to be problems.
The reality of technological innovation is fraught with far more failure than success. Here’s about three minutes of video from Space X’s attempts at building and testing a recoverable space booster to make space exploration less expensive and allowing Space X to reuse components rather than having to build everything from scratch after boosting something into orbit.
If you have ever looked at your goals and projects and felt like you weren’t making the progress you should, or reaching the quality you’d hoped for, take heart. It’s that way for everybody. You’re comparing your work in progress to somebody else’s final results.
Failure is the word you don’t hear often enough. You simply cannot succeed unless you fail first. Success comes only after failure. If you’re not failing, you’re not moving forward.
Enjoy our Video of the Day: How Not to land an Orbital Rocket Booster.
For more information on SpaceX and the Falcon 9 booster, visit SpaceX.com.
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