In large engineering organizations, it is not uncommon for highly specialized engineers to not be aware of the status of the overall project. Plus, you hear A LOT of different stories, rumors and expectations as projects progress. I'm SURE they started with "Oh Yeah! This Baby is Going into ORBIT!" but as time went on they were like "Well.. we don't have time to build these 18 components to spec, so we loosened the tolerance so we think it'll launch but might explode 10 seconds later." And the nameless drone in sector 47 only heard the first projection.
I would be very surprised if Shotwell didn't have an all-hands to set the whole team's expectations beforehand.
SpaceX is well known to have a very "flat" management structure. They expect all their scientists and engineers to learn, understand, and contribute across-the-board.
I've have my own version of this more times than I can count.
For me, I run a trading firm and when I started it was "if we can survive the day without losing a ton of money, its a win." I was happy if the positions even made it to the exchange the way we wanted, haha.
Which is rightly, awesome... They just launched an 11 million pound firecracker....
It would be AWESOME if elon included actual fireworks which would go off in the event of a RUD to add some fabulousness to such events.
In fact, all the devices that are stripped out for these test launches should be replaced with their equivalent weights in fireworks. Detonate them when possible during a RUD to allow for more spectacle!
This is a fantastic idea, I'm sure the FAA will be thrilled when SpaceX asks them for permission to turn their rocket into a disneyland night-time spectacular orbital missile!
All Americian launches have a Flight Termination System (FTS) which is a bomb attached to ensure the off-course vehicle explodes before returning to earth. There are personnel in the control room who can activate the FTS when something goes wrong and there is a danger to people on the ground.
That is what detonated the StarShip today.
You'll find it was notably absent in Soviet rocket tests, for instance with the N1 which veered off course, returned to the ground intact and exploded there instead.
