Oh, I’m not for them canceling Starship. I just wonder if they might want to reconsider a lot of the design or flight profiles.
The main problems *seem* to be related to the engines/fueling. SN15 is a few weeks away it looks and hopefully will do better. The main thing I’m worried about is how long it might take to make it feasible to carry humans.
While the triggering event might be while they are still in the air, they are at least actually stably landing.
Without reading what they’ve found from the previous failure, I suspect something inside that shell is overheating during the deceleration process, and burning through or melting something critical while the rocket sits there on the pad.
Depends on what they think the cause is. The engine design is the highest risk factor. They had to develop some special alloys for the oxygen-rich plumbing for example. We'll know from what kind of tests they conduct subsequently, I guess. The integration of tanks and engine is probably the locus of concern.
Looking at the video of the engine compartment I see two things which *seem* odd. During the ascent I see little smatters of flame along the plumbing. This might indicate some cracking in the nozzle cooling jacket and leakage. Also there is an inrush of vapor immediately prior to the restart. This implies there might be a cryogenic leak. Considering the video cuts off immediately subsequent to the throttle up I'd suspect explosion in the engine compartment caused by a either or both. E.G. if the cooling shattered and there was a lot of propellant loose in the aft end, there would total RUD. If the combustion chamber went that's probably total RUD too, and more likely to result in a design backtrack.