:melon-musk: was told many times by lead engineers in the program that a flame diverter and full deluge system would be necessary and he fired them for being 'too traditional'. Now the program is going to waste time and resources having learned a lesson they didn't need to learn by reinventing the wheel (that yes, the largest launch system in history is going to need something to manage all of the pressure generated by those engines at launch). I don't have high expectations for their 'water cooled steel plate' diverter, probably a good chance it will be flinging up steel fragments instead of concrete next time, and that's after all of the time they'll be spending cleaning up this mess. I think a year is a bit pessimistic though, I'd wager closer to about 6-8 months until they fly again.