#RocketFails

[prankyclown]

"Did Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship Explosion Cause Flight Disruptions at Florida Airports?"

SpaceX’s highly anticipated Starship launch on March 6 turned into an unexpected “prank” on Florida’s air traffic system when the rocket decided it had had enough of this planet and self-destructed mid-air. Or, as SpaceX put it in their classic engineer-speak:

“During Starship's ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost.”

Translation? Boom.

A live stream captured the moment when, about eight minutes into the launch, engines started cutting off like they were quitting their jobs. The booster had successfully returned to the tower, but the main spacecraft apparently took one look at the situation and said, “Nope.” It spun out of control before ghosting the entire SpaceX team.

So, What’s This Got to Do With Florida Airports?

Apparently, Starship didn’t just explode—it scattered space debris like confetti at a surprise party, leading to flight delays at major Florida airports, including Miami International, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, and even Philadelphia (which, to be fair, has enough travel chaos without help from Elon). Smaller airports in Orlando and West Palm Beach also got caught in the madness.

FAA Steps In Like a Hall Monitor

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) jumped in, declaring a Debris Response Area (a fancy way of saying, “Uh-oh, stuff is falling from space”) and slowing down air traffic until things settled.

But What If This Was Actually… a Sackman Prank?

Think about it. What if Sackman had somehow infiltrated SpaceX and “accidentally” switched a few controls? Imagine Musk sitting in mission control, watching his multi-billion-dollar spacecraft pull a disappearing act like, “Wait, that wasn’t supposed to happen…”

Or better yet, what if Sackman had been onboard Starship the whole time, only to realize halfway through the ascent that space isn’t his vibe? Cue emergency exit.

Moral of the story? When launching the most powerful rocket in history, double-check your engine settings—and make sure Sackman isn’t lurking around mission control.

Your Thoughts?

If Sackman was behind this, what would be his next prank?

Should Elon Musk hire Sackman as SpaceX’s official “disruption consultant”?

More importantly… would Sackman survive re-entry from space?

One thing’s for sure—Florida wasn’t ready for this level of chaos.

[unit-antares]

🎀 🖤 HEY GANG!!! #escapingarrest #rocketfail #teamridersstayswinningforever 💪^_^ 👊💥

[jayblanc]

Rocketfail, Worldcrash

Okay, the first draft of the timeline of What Went Wrong With The Hugo Awards in 2023 is up at

[porcupine-girl]

And as if all the nomination fuckery weren’t enough, now it’s coming out that there may have been all sorts of problems with how the financial and legal side was handled, from taking money from a company currently under US sanction (probably not illegal per se but not a great look) and a variety of issues with how they’ve been handling the Hugo trademark to a refusal to account for where some sponsorship money even came from in the first place (which seems to be the straw that convinced the Glasgow committee to refuse to take Chengdu’s leftover money) and the fact that the WIP nonprofit is currently delinquent on its nonprofit filings and may have been created as the wrong type of nonprofit in the first place. Some of this I’ve gotten from Bluesky but most of it is on this timeline of events: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15lpBrtBTWNSkLaXMyyeVTDxKU1t9-BZv-mR1izK4yTE/edit

(Also people were talking about Standlee leaving comments on this doc but those comments are gone now.)

“What this means is that the entire 2023 Hugo scandal is something completely different from what we've understood it as during the last month.”

[jamiegames250-blog]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbPotdWPWCI)

[skiencefornumpties]

RocketFail

Four: Yes! Hit the ball!

Seven: *hits ball* *scores own goal*

Four: ... literally anywhere but there.