11–20 of 24 posts
Not to minimise their accomplishments but, once again, the table has been set pretty well by decades of publicly funded research and development. It is actually possible to be vertically integrated again with all the shared know-how.
Not to minimise their accomplishments but, once again, the table has been set pretty well by decades of publicly funded research and development. It is actually possible to be vertically integrated again with all the shared know-how.
Great example of government priming the pump.
Not to minimise their accomplishments but, once again, the table has been set pretty well by decades of publicly funded research and development. It is actually possible to be vertically integrated again with all the shared know-how.
Agreed. I just got back from the National Air & Space Museum where I saw a few rocket engines, and it occurs to me that somebody had to figure out how to build such an amazing piece of machinery once upon a time, and that somebody was NASA. SpaceX is doing an amazing job, but there's no way in hell they could go from a twinkle in Elon Musk's eye to orbit in 7 years without Apollo, Gemini, Mercury, etc. Even SpaceX's…
Not to minimise their accomplishments but, once again, the table has been set pretty well by decades of publicly funded research and development. It is actually possible to be vertically integrated again with all the shared know-how.
The largest breakthrough by spaceX is the realization that fuel not the largest cost of getting to space. They do several things which dramatically reduce cost at the cost of using more fuel but it's a net win.
Not to minimise their accomplishments but, once again, the table has been set pretty well by decades of publicly funded research and development. It is actually possible to be vertically integrated again with all the shared know-how.
Agreed. I just got back from the National Air & Space Museum where I saw a few rocket engines, and it occurs to me that somebody had to figure out how to build such an amazing piece of machinery once upon a time, and that somebody was NASA. SpaceX is doing an amazing job, but there's no way in hell they could go from a twinkle in Elon Musk's eye to orbit in 7 years without Apollo, Gemini, Mercury, etc. Even SpaceX's…
Exactly what are you talking about that was totally new and not done/planned 1945 by von Braun et al?
(Or, for that matter, by Goddard.)
He should get his car working first
Their three most recent launches were all successful.
Not to minimise their accomplishments but, once again, the table has been set pretty well by decades of publicly funded research and development. It is actually possible to be vertically integrated again with all the shared know-how.
Agreed. I just got back from the National Air & Space Museum where I saw a few rocket engines, and it occurs to me that somebody had to figure out how to build such an amazing piece of machinery once upon a time, and that somebody was NASA. SpaceX is doing an amazing job, but there's no way in hell they could go from a twinkle in Elon Musk's eye to orbit in 7 years without Apollo, Gemini, Mercury, etc. Even SpaceX's…
The real difference isn't the technology, but the mindset with you how you apply it. Big aerospace contractors (Boeing, Lockheed, etc.) do everything from a "one off" perspective - they are effectively the world's largest contracting firms. Their business model isn't making something repeatable and cheaper, it's about building custom things from the ground up over and over again. And they are REALLY expensive.
Elon is simply taking all that collective knowledge and converting it into a repeatable process that can be incrementally improved and drive down cost over time. Making the Honda Civic of Rockets, as opposed to the Lamborghini. :)