On xbird, Japan Astronaut Noguchi noted that both new launch vehicles for #SpaceX and #JAXA, Starship & H3, successfully completed the 1st rocket stage and failed during the 2nd. But the response was WILDLY different.
Truthfully, when I read about the "successful" spaceX launch, I thought "who are their PR team, who turned RUD into RAD?!"
JAXA did lose the onboard ALOS-3 satellite, so the consequences were worse. But the "failure" has weighed heavily on JAXA. SpaceX seem to be raving the RUD 🤔
@elizabethtasker consider that as a private company maybe SpaceX just isn't as concerned with PR and informing the public as the politicized agency is.
The Starship launch was a success because it met the goals of the launch. True, not everyone in the general public was up to speed about how the launch program was proceeding, so a lot of people aren't aware of what the goals were.
Maybe SpaceX is more interested in focusing on the engineering mission than public outreach. That seems pretty reasonable to me.
A whole lot of us who follow the development, though, understand why the launch is seen as a success because we knew ahead of time what their goals were and we watched them accomplish their goals.
@volkris On the contrary, I'm very impressed by the SpaceX outreach! They turned something that would by default be seen as a failure (a rocket blowing up) into a declared success, and this was reflected in the resulting articles I saw on the news which followed the PR lead.
Part of the difference is also cultural, with Japan being more inclined to acknowledge any failure. But it's a pity we can't cheer on and focus on the success a bit more, like Space X.
@elizabethtasker perhaps I misunderstood your post.
There has been so much hate thrown at SpaceX for the last few days, based on misunderstandings of the development process, and it's been a shame.
