13 ms·

Island residents are still dealing with the fallout of exploded Starship

76 points by janpot 2y ago

627467 2y ago
So many words to say: spaceX clean up your sh*t. It's fair ask. But it's also spreading "concerns" with little justification to do reputational damage to a public figure.
dismalpedigree 2y ago
Since when is CNN paywalled?!?
- gosub100 2y ago
  This is hilarious. I can't think of a dumber move.
- reaperducer 2y ago
  Since when is CNN paywalled?!? Recently. There's been a few articles in the newspaper lately about CNN having a new guy in charge. From memory: he wants to follow the New York Times/Washington Post model of news delivery -- which as much as people on HN hate -- seems to be working, financially speaking. To that end, he's putting CNN news behind a paywall, firing 200 TV journalists, and hiring 200 digital people. He's also pushing for more of CNN's video to be shot vertically.
michaelteter 2y ago
CNNs new paywall essentially locks up Firefox on iOS. Once their paywall pops up, I cannot do anything with the app except swipe left to go back. The Firefox menu is inaccessible as are any other features of the browser. This is the most hostile UI I have seen in years; and I will quickly learn to never click any CNN link.
- Y_Y 2y ago
  I would also blame Firefox (or underlying Safari) for this. The browser shouldn't cede control to the page, even things like modifying the right-click menu are iffy and should be easy to override.
  - marcosdumay 2y ago
    It's incredibly hard to decide what is a reasonable event to handle and what is "ceding control to the page". Even more because for most of those events, handling just a handful of them is perfectly fine and will improve your experience in a web app. Sometimes even conditionally handling them all is still perfectly fine.
    - Y_Y 2y ago
      Maybe I don't want my experience "improved". I have never been glad my scrollbar was hijacked, or that the behaviors of the "back" button was changed.
      - marcosdumay 2y ago
        > I have never been glad my scrollbar was hijacked Well, maybe not you, but almost everybody praises scroll to zoom in map applications.
        Y_Y 2y ago
        > almost everybody praises scroll to zoom in map applications In what sense is that true?
  - the8472 2y ago
    On desktop shift+rightclick overrides context menu event handlers.
  - ge96 2y ago
    Tangent: In win10 when you right-click the menu is massive, it's the full height of the window not sure if that was a bug Edit: menu as in "open link in new tab"
- shrillhnpsycho3 2y ago
  [flagged]
- ericrallen 2y ago
  You can replace the `www.` in the URL with `lite.` to get the text-only version[0] which has no ads, no paywall, and no images. Not sure if it will continue to work for the paywalled articles, but it’s a much more pleasant reading experience if you do find a CNN article you want to read. [0]: https://lite.cnn.com/2025/01/30/science/spacex-starship-explosion-debris-turks-caicos/index.html https://lite.cnn.com/2025/01/30/science/spacex-starship-expl...
- walrus01 2y ago
  Page works perfectly fine with Firefox on Android, with ublock origin, which also seems to strip out the paywall
LorenDB 2y ago
https://archive.ph/EyuTt https://archive.ph/EyuTt
tonetheman 2y ago
[dead]
exabrial 2y ago
This is hilariously common, but because SpaceX is involved, the media spotlight is centered on it. (No other opinions implied or denied btw, just my observation)
- benreesman 2y ago
  They got Capone on tax evasion. I don’t really care what they get Elon on as long as it’s true.
  - 9283409232 2y ago
    Capone wasn't the acting President.
    - rob74 2y ago
      Neither is Elon. Sure, he's currently his best buddy, but there's no telling how long that will last. There are many intrigues at the court of King Donald...
      - 9283409232 2y ago
        Elon might as well be President in everything but name.
    - croisillon 2y ago
      elect a clown, expect the whole circus
  - ElectronCharge 2y ago
    Elon has done and will do more for humanity than almost anyone. You’re a victim of the disinformation establishment. Try to think critically, rather than emotionally - and base that critical thinking on reality instead of human narratives. One issue is that facts are only as good as their “authoritative” source. One good example is the purported fascist salute. It’s been funny seeing the clips of so many on the Left (BHO, HRC, Harris, Trudeau and many more) making the exact same gesture with nary a peep from anyone.
dahart 2y ago
> The agency also said that, before the test flight launched, it required SpaceX to map out “hazard areas sufficient to ensure that the probability of casualty to a member of the public on land or on board a maritime vessel does not exceed one in one million.” The way this is worded makes it sound like it could be a one in a million chance separately for every individual. So for example if the chance is exactly one in a million per person, then the probability of someone in a town of 1000 people dying would be one in a thousand, and the statistical expectation of having a city of 1M people in the “Debris Response Area” is that one person would die. I hope my reading is wrong. Can someone correct me - is the rule that the total probability of any 1 person in total dying is 1:1000000 or less, or is it really per-person? For context about why 1:1000000 per person is pretty bad, that’s almost as risky as skydiving (1:370000 per jump) and much riskier than driving in a car. I feel like I’m okay with “rapid iterative development” when the company assumes any and all risks, and takes responsibility for any & all failures. It seems to be crossing a line if the risks are externalized to the public & national agencies, especially when the risks aren’t fully communicated or when veto choice is not given to everyone involved, right?
- cwillu 2y ago
  Your reading is wrong.
  - dahart 2y ago
    Good! How do you know? That’s the part I was hoping to hear. The public statements are downplaying the risks.
- binoct 2y ago
  It’s common in this type of statement for “A member of the public” to refer to any person rather than just one person.
wslh 2y ago
I imagine SpaceX will clean the debris as much as possible. No pun intended.
russdill 2y ago
Somehow the author of the article discussed how liquid methane and liquid oxygen would be dangerous to touch.... Without mentioning that it would absolutely not be present
- robocat 2y ago
  What's worse, is that the quote comes from a US government employee? The megarocket instead relies on liquid methane and oxygen for propellant — but “any kind of fuel is going to … have a bunch of chemical energy inside it,” according to Marlon Sorge, the executive director of the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies at The Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded research center. “Even if it isn’t as dangerous as hydrazine, where you touch it or get close to it and you’re in trouble — it’s still volatile, like gasoline,” Sorge added. “And there are other things on board spacecraft, like batteries.” He added that it is possible for entire rocket fuel tanks to survive the trip down to the ground: “If they’re weakened, you touch them, they blow up.” I assume quotes are taken out of context by the article author. But that last quote appears pretty idiotic. I would hope that an executive director had more nous (technical and PR).
  - bean-weevil 2y ago
    That last quote is saying that if tank hits the ground but it's not compromised enough for pressure to escape, disturbing it could cause it to release all that pressurized fuel at once ("explode"). Hopefully in the original context they explained that this is not very likely.
    - perihelions 2y ago
      I think composite-overwrapped pressure vessels could survive intact, though those are technically not fuel, but inert pressurant gasses. I believe Starship uses both helium and CO2. One of the Falcon ones reentered as space debris in Washington state, in 2021, https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/2/22364582/spacex-rocket-debris-falls-farm-washington https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/2/22364582/spacex-rocket-deb... ("SpaceX rocket debris lands on man’s farm in Washington") edit: There's a few other examples on page 47 of (.pdf) https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/Report_to_Congress_Reentry_Disposal_of_Satellites.pdf https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/Report_to_Congress_R... ("Risk Associated with Reentry Disposal of Satellites from Proposed Large Constellations in Low Earth Orbit" (2021)) edit²: Here's what the Starship COPV's look like (being recovered from the Indian ocean), https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/1h1l1gk/starship_s31s_debris_have_returned_to_australia/ https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/1h1l1gk/starship_s3...
PicassoCTs 2y ago
Souvenirs- get your piece of starship now
- gangstead 2y ago
  Seriously. I met a guy on Hwy 4 in front of the Starship launch pad that was selling found bits out of his truck. He was asking a couple thousand dollars for a whole TPS tile. I'd buy a tile to help pay for the cleanup.
seltzered_ 2y ago
Related: a long podcast talking about the issues with starship locally: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/32-spacex-wastewater-lng-in-the-rgv-sustained/id1438167065?i=1000672768770 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/32-spacex-wastewater-l... (from https://deceleration.news/podcast/ https://deceleration.news/podcast/ ) , also https://deceleration.news/spacex-is-colonizing-south-texas-en-route-to-occupy-mars/ https://deceleration.news/spacex-is-colonizing-south-texas-e...
sebazzz 2y ago
> “I just never have seen colors like that in the sky,” said Lori Kaine, a resident of Providenciales, the main island of the Turks and Caicos archipelago. “At first, I thought it was an actual plane that had exploded.” Starship broke up in beautiful rainbow.
justinclift 2y ago
No mention of visitors from foreign adversaries doing a bit of beach combing?

76 points by janpot 2y ago

So many words to say: spaceX clean up your sh*t. It's fair ask. But it's also spreading "concerns" with little justification to do reputational damage to a public figure.

dismalpedigree 2y ago

Since when is CNN paywalled?!?

gosub100 2y ago
This is hilarious. I can't think of a dumber move.
reaperducer 2y ago
Since when is CNN paywalled?!? Recently. There's been a few articles in the newspaper lately about CNN having a new guy in charge. From memory: he wants to follow the New York Times/Washington Post model of news delivery -- which as much as people on HN hate -- seems to be working, financially speaking. To that end, he's putting CNN news behind a paywall, firing 200 TV journalists, and hiring 200 digital people. He's also pushing for more of CNN's video to be shot vertically.

michaelteter 2y ago

CNNs new paywall essentially locks up Firefox on iOS. Once their paywall pops up, I cannot do anything with the app except swipe left to go back. The Firefox menu is inaccessible as are any other features of the browser. This is the most hostile UI I have seen in years; and I will quickly learn to never click any CNN link.

Y_Y 2y ago
I would also blame Firefox (or underlying Safari) for this. The browser shouldn't cede control to the page, even things like modifying the right-click menu are iffy and should be easy to override.
- marcosdumay 2y ago
  It's incredibly hard to decide what is a reasonable event to handle and what is "ceding control to the page". Even more because for most of those events, handling just a handful of them is perfectly fine and will improve your experience in a web app. Sometimes even conditionally handling them all is still perfectly fine.
  - Y_Y 2y ago
    Maybe I don't want my experience "improved". I have never been glad my scrollbar was hijacked, or that the behaviors of the "back" button was changed.
    - marcosdumay 2y ago
      > I have never been glad my scrollbar was hijacked Well, maybe not you, but almost everybody praises scroll to zoom in map applications.
      - Y_Y 2y ago
        > almost everybody praises scroll to zoom in map applications In what sense is that true?
- the8472 2y ago
  On desktop shift+rightclick overrides context menu event handlers.
- ge96 2y ago
  Tangent: In win10 when you right-click the menu is massive, it's the full height of the window not sure if that was a bug Edit: menu as in "open link in new tab"
shrillhnpsycho3 2y ago
[flagged]
ericrallen 2y ago
You can replace the `www.` in the URL with `lite.` to get the text-only version[0] which has no ads, no paywall, and no images. Not sure if it will continue to work for the paywalled articles, but it’s a much more pleasant reading experience if you do find a CNN article you want to read. [0]: https://lite.cnn.com/2025/01/30/science/spacex-starship-explosion-debris-turks-caicos/index.html https://lite.cnn.com/2025/01/30/science/spacex-starship-expl...
walrus01 2y ago
Page works perfectly fine with Firefox on Android, with ublock origin, which also seems to strip out the paywall

LorenDB 2y ago

https://archive.ph/EyuTt https://archive.ph/EyuTt

tonetheman 2y ago

[dead]

exabrial 2y ago

This is hilariously common, but because SpaceX is involved, the media spotlight is centered on it. (No other opinions implied or denied btw, just my observation)

benreesman 2y ago
They got Capone on tax evasion. I don’t really care what they get Elon on as long as it’s true.
- 9283409232 2y ago
  Capone wasn't the acting President.
  - rob74 2y ago
    Neither is Elon. Sure, he's currently his best buddy, but there's no telling how long that will last. There are many intrigues at the court of King Donald...
    - 9283409232 2y ago
      Elon might as well be President in everything but name.
  - croisillon 2y ago
    elect a clown, expect the whole circus
- ElectronCharge 2y ago
  Elon has done and will do more for humanity than almost anyone. You’re a victim of the disinformation establishment. Try to think critically, rather than emotionally - and base that critical thinking on reality instead of human narratives. One issue is that facts are only as good as their “authoritative” source. One good example is the purported fascist salute. It’s been funny seeing the clips of so many on the Left (BHO, HRC, Harris, Trudeau and many more) making the exact same gesture with nary a peep from anyone.

dahart 2y ago

> The agency also said that, before the test flight launched, it required SpaceX to map out “hazard areas sufficient to ensure that the probability of casualty to a member of the public on land or on board a maritime vessel does not exceed one in one million.” The way this is worded makes it sound like it could be a one in a million chance separately for every individual. So for example if the chance is exactly one in a million per person, then the probability of someone in a town of 1000 people dying would be one in a thousand, and the statistical expectation of having a city of 1M people in the “Debris Response Area” is that one person would die. I hope my reading is wrong. Can someone correct me - is the rule that the total probability of any 1 person in total dying is 1:1000000 or less, or is it really per-person? For context about why 1:1000000 per person is pretty bad, that’s almost as risky as skydiving (1:370000 per jump) and much riskier than driving in a car. I feel like I’m okay with “rapid iterative development” when the company assumes any and all risks, and takes responsibility for any & all failures. It seems to be crossing a line if the risks are externalized to the public & national agencies, especially when the risks aren’t fully communicated or when veto choice is not given to everyone involved, right?

cwillu 2y ago
Your reading is wrong.
- dahart 2y ago
  Good! How do you know? That’s the part I was hoping to hear. The public statements are downplaying the risks.
binoct 2y ago
It’s common in this type of statement for “A member of the public” to refer to any person rather than just one person.

wslh 2y ago

I imagine SpaceX will clean the debris as much as possible. No pun intended.

russdill 2y ago

Somehow the author of the article discussed how liquid methane and liquid oxygen would be dangerous to touch.... Without mentioning that it would absolutely not be present

robocat 2y ago
What's worse, is that the quote comes from a US government employee? The megarocket instead relies on liquid methane and oxygen for propellant — but “any kind of fuel is going to … have a bunch of chemical energy inside it,” according to Marlon Sorge, the executive director of the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies at The Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded research center. “Even if it isn’t as dangerous as hydrazine, where you touch it or get close to it and you’re in trouble — it’s still volatile, like gasoline,” Sorge added. “And there are other things on board spacecraft, like batteries.” He added that it is possible for entire rocket fuel tanks to survive the trip down to the ground: “If they’re weakened, you touch them, they blow up.” I assume quotes are taken out of context by the article author. But that last quote appears pretty idiotic. I would hope that an executive director had more nous (technical and PR).
- bean-weevil 2y ago
  That last quote is saying that if tank hits the ground but it's not compromised enough for pressure to escape, disturbing it could cause it to release all that pressurized fuel at once ("explode"). Hopefully in the original context they explained that this is not very likely.
  - perihelions 2y ago
    I think composite-overwrapped pressure vessels could survive intact, though those are technically not fuel, but inert pressurant gasses. I believe Starship uses both helium and CO2. One of the Falcon ones reentered as space debris in Washington state, in 2021, https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/2/22364582/spacex-rocket-debris-falls-farm-washington https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/2/22364582/spacex-rocket-deb... ("SpaceX rocket debris lands on man’s farm in Washington") edit: There's a few other examples on page 47 of (.pdf) https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/Report_to_Congress_Reentry_Disposal_of_Satellites.pdf https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/Report_to_Congress_R... ("Risk Associated with Reentry Disposal of Satellites from Proposed Large Constellations in Low Earth Orbit" (2021)) edit²: Here's what the Starship COPV's look like (being recovered from the Indian ocean), https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/1h1l1gk/starship_s31s_debris_have_returned_to_australia/ https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/1h1l1gk/starship_s3...

PicassoCTs 2y ago

Souvenirs- get your piece of starship now

gangstead 2y ago
Seriously. I met a guy on Hwy 4 in front of the Starship launch pad that was selling found bits out of his truck. He was asking a couple thousand dollars for a whole TPS tile. I'd buy a tile to help pay for the cleanup.

seltzered_ 2y ago

Related: a long podcast talking about the issues with starship locally: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/32-spacex-wastewater-lng-in-the-rgv-sustained/id1438167065?i=1000672768770 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/32-spacex-wastewater-l... (from https://deceleration.news/podcast/ https://deceleration.news/podcast/ ) , also https://deceleration.news/spacex-is-colonizing-south-texas-en-route-to-occupy-mars/ https://deceleration.news/spacex-is-colonizing-south-texas-e...

sebazzz 2y ago

> “I just never have seen colors like that in the sky,” said Lori Kaine, a resident of Providenciales, the main island of the Turks and Caicos archipelago. “At first, I thought it was an actual plane that had exploded.” Starship broke up in beautiful rainbow.

justinclift 2y ago

No mention of visitors from foreign adversaries doing a bit of beach combing?