
SpaceX’s Unnerving Silence on an Explosive Incident - adventured
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/04/spacex-anomaly-dragon-nasa/588277/
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soared
Is this literally just a hit piece on spacex because they only released one
official statement so far? You’d think it would be normal operations to
release a statement, run an investigation, then release another statement
after it concludes.

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sunstone
As I recall, a few years ago when one of their rockets exploded during a test
they were similarly close lipped until they were able to determine the root
cause. And it took quite a long time.

In a situation like this, there's not much point in talking until you have
something definitive to say.

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JulianMorrison
What even could they say? "Uh, well, it blew up." We knew that.

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avmich
SpaceX is famous for having a lot of telemetry channels, so it's possible they
have a lot of data for the event. It's also more likely than not that they had
plans for various outcomes of testing, probably including this one, even
though one of the extremes. Specific data can influence future plans, which
won't be final until the end of investigation - but openly start talking about
details and options now will do wonders to build trust with the public, which
all PR departments should crave for.

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torpfactory
I don’t think journalists are necessarily aware of (maybe they just don’t
care) how long root cause investigations can take. Obviously the
euphemistically described “anomaly” is going to set them back, but going
public without a clear root cause would make them look incompetent.

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avmich
That's the point. Public wants to see confirmation of their competence, and
that's best seen in handling situations like this.

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walkingolof
Pretty useless article, these things take time.

Worst case scenario is that SuperDracos has to go and be replaced by an
external system (I.e a tower)

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ryanmarsh
This is the epitome of bike shedding. Every journalist thinks they know what
Elon Musk should be doing.

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avmich
It doesn't matter, as soon as journalist correctly represents the public's
opinion. It's the job of company to answer those expectation, if they don't
want to risk misunderstanding from the public.

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lsaferite
I'm part of 'the public' and I also understand it's a complex investigation.
They have nothing to say because the investigation is ongoing. Full stop.

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avmich
Not all public believe they shouldn't say anything before investigation is
over.

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JackFr
As long is NASA and the SpaceX board are happy, what does it matter what this
reporter thinks? Also the word 'unnerving' is pure clickbait.

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avmich
> what does it matter what this reporter thinks?

A lot, as reporter here represents the general public - which is more
important to them (the public) than NASA or SpaceX board.

