Just so. Zack Golden’s latest series of YT videos on the new pad design really underlined this. The original pad design they put in place at Pad 1 was really an experiment, to see what would work, something that perhaps could get them through the initial flight test campaign. And they thought they could get through maybe a few dozen launches with it. They quickly figured out that wasn’t going to happen, and that it wasn’t a design that could ever get them to a rapid launch cadence. The “shower head” flame diverter plate apparently was gradually breaking down with each launch. They learned from that, the hard way, and rapidly pivoted to a very different Stage Zero design.

The new design at Pad 2 is a revolutionary change. We will have to see how it fares when it starts doing launches, but it clearly seems a lot sturdier. It at least *seems* like something that could be worked up to a fairly rapid launch cadence platform. They seem to have some confidence in it, given that they’re replicating it now at Pad 1, and at the three new launch pads at the Cape.

The contrast with the fiasco of NASA’s Mobile Launcher 2 could not be more stark.