It's all about the spin

Coming home from co-op this afternoon, we had NPR on the radio. A spot came on discussing the SpaceX launch today... about how the rocket took off and then four minutes later exploded. At least it was unmanned. Everyone was listening with half an ear as the announcer discussed how the SpaceX team considered the launch a success. 

At that statement I could feel everyone in the car sit up a bit to listen more carefully because a rocket blowing up four minutes after takeoff didn't seem particularly success to the children in the car. And then the announcer commented that the SpaceX team saw what happened four minutes after launch to be "a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation." The van occupants proceeded to erupt in laughter and suggesting that it sounded like something Jasper Fforde would have written, meaning that they found it to be an excellent bit of unintentional satire. 

Now, I do not care for Elon Musk in the least, but I can appreciate a team who sees failure as an opportunity to learn. Based on what I heard, the feeling of success about the launch (and subsequent unscheduled disassembly) was that the team learned a lot and this information was going to make the next launch even better. (If they can figure out how to stop the unscheduled disassemblies, that seems like a win right there.) I'm constantly telling my children that mistakes are how you learn. To me, it is far worse to not attempt anything at all than it is to experience failure as you're learning to do something new. Our society is not really organized to accept failure or mistakes as part of the learning process. (I'll save you my whole sermon about how grades in particular are extremely effective at creating a deep fear of failing or making mistakes. If you've been reading here for any length of time you probably know my main points already.) This is probably why the positive attitude of the launch team, at least as it was reported, made me kind of happy.

However, I don't know about you, but the idea of actually riding in one of the SpaceX rockets doesn't sound like something that would be terribly wise at the moment. Unscheduled disassemblies of any mode of transportation one is riding in are never a good thing.