Musk's other endeavors are having some problems

Tesla has had some problems lately, and its stock is falling.  And now, SpaceX.

Three U.S. lawmakers are calling for greater scrutiny of worker safety at Elon Musk's SpaceX following a Reuters investigation that documented hundreds of injuries at the rocket company's U.S. manufacturing and launch sites.

The Nov. 10 Reuters report detailed at least 600 previously unreported workplace injuries since 2014 at SpaceX including crushed limbs, amputations, head injuries and one death. The Reuters report found that injury rates at three major SpaceX industrial facilities in Texas and California far exceeded the average for the space industry.

  MSN

SpaceX founder Elon Musk hopes that Starship can one day become a cheap, rapidly reusable system that will jumpstart human exploration of the moon and Mars.

[...]

The first test flight of any rocket is going to be tough — and for its April 20 launch attempt, SpaceX tried to manage expectations. Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the official countdown timeline promised "excitement guaranteed" after the launch.

The rocket lifted off shortly after 8:30 a.m. local time. Almost immediately it was clear that some of the 33 engines in the first stage had failed, and as it climbed into the sky, further engines flamed out.

Before the Starship could separate from its booster, the entire rocket began spinning out of control. It exploded roughly 4 minutes into flight.

In the aftermath, it emerged that Starship's flight termination system, which was designed to destroy the vehicle if it went out of control, had failed to do its job. On top of that, the rocket's first stage pulverized the concrete launch pad during liftoff, sending particulate dust and chunks of debris flying.

[...]

The Federal Aviation Administration grounded Starship pending a safety and environmental review. Earlier this week, the regulator cleared SpaceX for a second try, in part because of changes the company made to the design.

  NPR

You can watch this morning's test live (actual takeoff starts at about 38:50 mark): 

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 09:42 am:

SpaceX's giant Starship rocket successfully lifted off around 8:03 a.m. ET from its launch pad in Texas. The Starship successfully separated from its first-stage booster as planned. But minutes later, the cheers subsided as mission control appeared to lose contact with the vehicle. SpaceX said it believes that Starship's self-destruct system activated, presumably because of a problem on board.

In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration said Starship was lost due to an "anomaly."

"No injuries or public property damage have been reported," the agency said.

[...]

McDowell says given that Starship separated from its booster and kept flying, this test should be considered a "successful failure," even though it eventually exploded.

  NPR

Newspeak.

"They need Starship to work eventually," he says. "The big question for me is: 'How much eventually can they get away with? How many failures can they tolerate?'"