11 June 2016 - a thousand slips

Jay Scott : Daily Whale : archive : 2016 : 11 June 2016

SpaceX Gets There Eventually

Is this the launch that faced a thousand slips
And burned the bottomless budget of billi-ons?
Dear Elon, make me a Martian with your ship.

clue:

In case you skipped class that day, see Marlowe’s Faustus:

Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium—
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.