April 22, The SpaceX HFR (1)

 

The SpaceX HFR was launched and cleared the launching pad.

For just a minute, things look great and engineers were glad.

But at the time when first and second stages separate,

Instead of separating, we saw them disintegrate.

 

As we watched on TV the SpaceX HFR blew up;

Such an explosion would imply that there was some screw up.

But their report was burnished from words used initially,

To a more polished version when released officially.

 

There was a sudden, “rapid, unscheduled disassembly.”  (2)

Components weren’t recovered for scheduled reassembly. (3)

The first launch of the SpaceX HFR was, nonetheless,

Described by their PR department as a huge success.

 

They didn’t even use the well-worn phrase, “Mistakes were made.”

To get the rocket off the ground at all earned an “A” grade.

Our TVs showed the SpaceX engineers in loud applause,

The “rapid disassembly” not implying any flaws.

 

The words, “exploded,” and, “blew up,” leave engineers depressed.

Like, “Don’t say gay,” in Florida, or topics like incest. (4)

They got out their thesauruses and wrote a longer phrase,

Disguising the explosion with a smoky, wordy haze.

 

So, rocket science isn’t only charts and graphs and math.

For sometimes rockets may fly off the calculated path.

So English major obfuscators are required on site,

When HFR components “disassemble” in their flight.

 

• The new SpaceX rocket is the biggest, most powerful rocket ever built, hence the appellation, “HFR,” for “huge f***ing rocket.” This was its initial launch and just getting off the pad was a form of success. It was unmanned,  so nobody died.
• They really wrote that to describe the explosion.
• One of the advances SpaceX has made is to bring booster rockets back to Earth in a controlled fashion so that they can be reused.
• The launch was from Cape Canaveral in Florida.