FaceDeer , 2 months ago

They knew that it wasn't going to be enough by itself, they were predicting that it would last long enough to survive a single launch. They were already planning to replace the pad, they just figured they would do it after the first test launch.

They were slightly off in their prediction, but that's why these are test launches. Fortunately it didn't do much harm, and they were already gearing up to replace the launch pad surface anyway so free excavation.