So Musk's shiny rocket test flight ended with an explosion, and his explanation was, "Fuel header tank pressure was low during landing burn, causing touchdown velocity to be high & RUD". RUD apparently stands for rapid unscheduled disassembly.
Which is the most wanky way to describe a crash I've ever heard.
@InvaderXan "equine-assisted dismount" was an old joke from many years ago and it occurred to me musk might've meant to draw some kind of parallel here
@carcinopithecus @InvaderXan no, "rapid unscheduled disassembly" is a frequently used technical term in rocket science, and yes, I still find it funny.
@carcinopithecus @InvaderXan
Musk didn't come up with it.
Quick search found a thread with examples of similar phrases being cited in print in the 1970s:
https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/10022/who-coined-the-phrase-rapid-unscheduled-disassembly
@InvaderXan ...i wonder if that reference was intentional now