For years, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been stridently glib when his rockets explode during tests, quipping that the blasts were "just a scratch," a "minor setback," or a "rapid unscheduled disassembly."

He's still deploying these jokey ripostes, but there's reason to believe the walls may be starting to close in for SpaceX's efforts on Starship, as more and more of the ultra-expensive spacecraft fail in spectacular public view.

The issue is that he's bet the future of the company on the massive craft, making its success — or failure — an existential issue for his space venture.

First off, in a narrative sense, it's the vehicle that he claims SpaceX will use to send settlers and the infrastructure to support them to Mars.

Those ambitions of colonizing the Red Planet remain, at least for n

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