SpaceX Faces Reckoning after Starship's Messy First Flight

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May 04, 2023

This week, we’re caught up in the fallout from reaching for the stars. Well, not “the stars,” exactly, but rather reaching for a faster, better, cheaper way of accessing space. SpaceX’s recent test flight of its gigantic Starship rocket—the largest ever built—is the latest and greatest development in the generations-spanning effort to make spaceflight much less expensive and far more routine. But as our lead story shows, SpaceX must overcome many obstacles to succeed—chief among them the literal and figurative “fallout” from Starship’s unexpected destruction of its launchpad. Elsewhere this week, we have stories on planet-swallowing stars, needed improvements to NASA’s safety culture, mathematicians beguiled by the “Sleeping Beauty Problem,” the murky origins of Mars’s moons, and much more. Enjoy!

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics

Space Exploration SpaceX Faces Reckoning after Starship's Messy First Flight SpaceX’s Starship launch site in southern Texas is now the subject of a lawsuit after the vehicle’s first flight caused concerning damage By Meghan Bartels

Astrophysics Astronomers Just Saw a Star Eat a Planet for the First Time A dying star swallowing a giant planet hints at the fate awaiting our solar system some five billion years from now By Charles Q. Choi,SPACE.com

Planetary Science Where Did Mars's Moons Come From? New results from a U.A.E. orbiter suggest Mars’s moons may be pieces of the planet. A Japanese mission will tell us for sure By Jonathan O'Callaghan

Space Exploration With a Planned Moon Launch, NASA Must Put Safety First NASA is again sending people to the moon. The agency must revamp its safety reporting procedures to protect everyone involved By Matthew Beddingfield,George Leopold

Astronomy JWST Spots Planetary Building Blocks in a Surprising Galaxy Planets might be more common throughout the universe than previously thought, results from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest By Myriam Vidal Valero,Nature

Mathematics Why the 'Sleeping Beauty Problem' Is Keeping Mathematicians Awake A thought experiment that’s dividing mathematicians can help illuminate how belief shapes rational decisions By Manon Bischoff

Planetary Science The Six Moons Most Likely to Host Life in Our Solar System Vast quantities of liquid water may exist on moons of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune, making life possible there, too By Rebecca Boyle,Juan Velasco

Astronomy How Magnetic Fields Control Galactic Growth Our galaxy’s enormous scaffolding is shaped by complex magnetic fields By Rachel Berkowitz

Particle Physics Physicists See 'Strange Matter' Form inside Atomic Nuclei New research attempts to discern how bizarre particles of strange matter form in the nuclei of atoms By Stephanie Pappas

Energy This Pioneering Nuclear Fusion Lab Is Gearing Up to Break More Records Here’s what’s next after the U.S. National Ignition Facility’s breakthrough on nuclear fusion last year By Jeff Tollefson,Nature magazine

Particle Physics Strange Material Breaks a Classic Rule of Physics An unusual semiconductor is making physicists rethink the science of extreme conditions By Rachel Nuwer

Particle Physics How Much Does 'Nothing' Weigh? The Archimedes experiment will weigh the void of empty space to help solve a big cosmic puzzle By Manon Bischoff

Pollution New Technique Can Map Ocean Plastics from Space Researchers figured out how the flow of microplastics flattens ocean waves, letting satellites paint a clearer picture for future policy and cleanup efforts By Lauren J. Young

FROM THE STORE Scientific American Volume 328, Issue 5

QUOTE OF THE DAY "Rocket exhaust will just eat right through concrete and dig a hole. It's like if you put a blowtorch on ice cream." Philip Metzger, a physicist at the University of Central Florida, on the physics behind the catastrophic failure of Starship's launchpad

FROM THE ARCHIVE Astronomers Reveal New Details of How Stars Devour Planets Surprisingly, some worlds can survive being engulfed by a sunlike star when it swells to become a red giant By Nola Taylor Tillman | August 2022

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