A real rocket test was also needed for the launch pad test
A photo of the launch pad of the SpaceX Starbase test site appeared on the Web, from which the SpaceX Super Heavy launch vehicle with the Starship spacecraft set off on a test flight on Thursday. If you do not know the background, then by the destruction you might think that a bomb exploded on the site. Now the company has a lot of work to restore the site.
Elon Musk has already noted that SpaceX did not have time to install a water-cooled metal plate at the base, but hoped that the concrete would withstand. On static tests, everything really went smoothly, but as Musk himself noted, during such tests, the Raptor engines worked only halfway, on Thursday they were turned on at full capacity, and the concrete could not stand it. In general, a real flight was needed not only to test the rocket itself, but also to test the launch pad.
