If NASA Had Blown Up This Many Rockets, The Government Would Have Cancelled the Space Program

As an institution, the Pentagon has come to be known for many things over the years — its transparency, its generosity, its cunning. Consistency is not one of them.

SpaceX, a private company with a valuation of over $350 billion, is currently coasting off billions of dollars in Pentagon launch programs. Based on contracts in force in 2025, the company will now carry out the majority of US military space launches until at least 2036.

But in the wake of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's latest disastrous Starship failure — the company's third in a row — some are wondering if we weren't better off when space flight wasn't beholden to the whims of a few billionaires, but as a national project under NASA.

"Weren't we NOT blowing up rockets, like, 50 years ago," asked The Verge features editor Sarah Jeong on social media. "Also weren't we like 'ah yeah that was a fail' when the rocket fell apart instead of calling it a 'partial success,'" she asked, referencing

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">Musk's insistence that the latest explosion,