Re: Starship hasn't had the most successful history?
"how many more tests before getting something reliable ?"
Something between 1 and n
Probability gets higher the closer infinity you get.
I am getting a feeling that their approach might not be able to achieve this. Too much stuff fixed already and less room for adjustments with each change (plus possibility of additional issues arising due to changes being introduced). It is easy to paint oneself in corner really fast. And full reboot of whole design would be required.
This kind of test prototypes fast -stuff might not be the solution companies actually need. It requires thorough understanding about the wicked problem being tackled.
Sometimes it would be really useful to spend extra month with simulation software trying to get as many viable options as ever possible just to have more prototype backlog just in case plus better understanding about the issues that need to be solved aka must win battles.