“It’s weird if it doesn’t explode, frankly,” Musk said in 2021, “because we’re trying to develop advanced rockets at a high speed and if you want to get payload to orbit, you have to run things close to the edge.”

SpaceX, the private space technology company owned by Elon Musk, is asking federal authorities to approve a new round of tests for a prototype reusable rocket, but some of them may never make it back to the surface intact and will crash in the ocean.