lol

Nobody is going to be fired.  

This was an experimental vehicle on its first test flight.

They'll have the next one ready to go in six months, with improvements to the separation system and other systems.  This is how spaceX does it.  Rapid iteration.

The intentional spin-rotation to get separation is freaky as fuck.

I can understand why they're trying it,  Starship itself is enormous and getting a positive separation from Superheavy using a system that's powerful enough to guarantee a clean separation is probably difficult. Last thing they want is them to separate then collide again.

And I imagine that something powerful enough to ensure Starship is clear, and quickly igniting Starship's Raptors would possibly damage Superheavy, and they obviously want Superheavy back undamaged with minimum refurb required under ideal circumstances.

And I'd guess that the spin separation offers substantial mass savings, if other ejection/separation hardware and it's associated complexity,  wiring, control systems, and oressurized COPV tsnks, etc., can be eliminated, and it just uses the RCS both Superheavy and Starship are carrying anyway. If you can get a "two-fer" out of any particular rocket's system, that's a big win.

But... damn... Even at high altitude way beyond Max-Q you just don't see a full stack bigger than a goddamn Saturn V intentionally flipping end over end like that without it being a disaster/RUD.

Other thoughts...  They got farther, a lot farther, than any Soviet N1 ever did.

Chunks of hot debris, and sporadic flares in the plume indicates several Raptors RUD'ed. But hell... that's insanely robust! The thing's a goddamn tank to have that much go wrong and keep flying. It's like a V8 or V12 ICE engine blowing several valves, 2 cracked pistons, busted rods etc. and keeps on trucking down the freeway.

And the Starship/Superheavy looked significantly off-axis a few times well before the attempt at spin separation too. Most any other rocket would be destroyed. I don't think I've ever seen a launch where so much shit went wrong, but it made it as far as it did.

Superheavy is a beast, a damn dump truck juggernaut.

And some of the engines being off was intentional, as the cycling probably has aspects for keeping some as backup, or unused to keep one fresh for the Superheavy back-burn and hover/landing. Especially one of the center gymbaled ones. But that many on the outer edge being off was probably related to the ones that failed.

Shutting off or cycling engines might also have benefits for payloads substantially smaller than it's maximum capacity, or hitting certain trajectories that doesn't need 100% of the potential thrust. Just having an engine off is probably simpler/safer than messing with throttling.

The turboprop spinning down could be a significant reduction in gyrosopic force the attitude control needs to fight.

And of course, being able to shut engines off and switch others on at-will, autonomously, or as commanded by ground control, is insanely useful in case one or more fails. Some of the flares and unusual things in the exhaust plume might have been shutdowns and startups, and not all CATO/RUD effects.

Honestly, I'm in awe, it was like watching an 18 wheeler intended to make a run from NY to CA, but was on fire, missing several tires, 1/4 of the stuff in the engine was blown, and it still made it halfway into PA.

Looked like a Russian tank turret got heaved to the side just before lift off. When it impacted you could see a huge gout of dirt go flying up. Whatever it was was big and heavy.

Holy shit