So he 'won' the coin toss. I wonder if at the time he felt he 'lost' given the unknown and risk
I think he was probably stoked to be the first pilot of a powered flight. They both were probably the most experienced pilots in the world at the time given the myriad manned test flights they did with the scaled up gliders after the kite testing phase. And 10 feet above the ground for like 120 feet touching down in "soft sand" (it's why they picked kitty hawk, wind and sand) seems like a semi-minimal risk versus the massive reward.
So this fandangled Space X rocket exploded thanks to a methane leak. Alright, even in failure we can learn something or it is a total waste.
Maybe next time not bottle the rocket up with too many cow farts?
That's one theory. No one knows what caused it. SpaceX isn't sayin'. And yes, even in failure you learn something. That's what testing is all about. At least they got it to land this time. An advancement over the last one that never recovered from the flop maneuver and spectacularly cratered into a fireball mess. So they fixed something between 9 & 10.
Also how much fuel do they intend to keep left over for landing? It was a huge explosion. By the time that touches down it should be running on fumes
I agree. It was quite the fireball when you would think for many aero reasons, weight, weight distribution, maneuvering, etc., they would have spent most of the fuel. Maybe residual fumes? I don't know enough about how rocket propellants work. I assume they will figure it out and we'll see what happens with 11.