Launching a prototype rocket with the expectation that it will probably blow up and then having it blow up isn't a failure, especially when the goal is to see what happens.

Especially when each rocket successfully makes it further into the test, beyond the point where the previous iteration failed.

You said "unexpected catastrophic explosive failures". But

1. They were not unexpected. They very very clearly communicated months ahead.

2. "Catastrophic" is a bit much too, as they were indeed expected and planned for. In fact, the biggest failure in the Starship development was that the rocket did NOT explode fast enough once.

3. "Failures". Well.. no. These are prototypes intended to learn from. Experiments if you will. A scientist that never has a negative result is a fraud. Same here.

Well that's one way to tell the world you've never built anything new.

I want to short anything you’re involved in