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SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

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Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#111
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish I could invest into SpaceX. Such a slam-dunk rarely presents itself, and an opportunity to change the world for the better _while also making money_ is rarer still.

It seems you could buy a stake in a number of publicly traded companies and funds that themselves own a stake. Seems like Google and Fidelity each own about 4% of SpaceX, maybe Fidelity is offering it as a component of some fund? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX#Ownership,_funding_and_...

Google at least is a bad option. You won't actually get any value representation, any exposure, due to their extreme market cap.

Most likely close to 0% of the SpaceX ownership stake is represented in Google's stock. Let's assume though for the sake of argument that some large part is, say $1.3 billion of the stake is represented (3% of $44 billion). That's equal to about 1.3% of Google's market cap (~$1t).

Whatever you do never buy a stock on that kind of premise. Risking the other 98.7% of your capital to get a meaningless piece of something else (which is already a big something else at a $44b market cap). If SpaceX doubles in value, you'll never notice it (you put $1,473 into Google, SpaceX doubles, max scenario you might make $20). It may be one of the worst reasons to ever buy a giant like Google. People commonly make this mistake when buying Berkshire Hathaway or certain other conglomerates, thinking they're getting a 1-to-1 direct exposure to the Berkshire portfolio (among their equity holdings, only a few matter at all, as with the Apple holding at $110b). I often see it pitched as a form of bonus diversification. Cash and equity holdings on the balance sheets of public companies are essentially never represented at full value in the market cap. The larger the company and the smaller the asset in question, the more likely it is to have something more toward zero representation.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#112
post #16

What a week for SpaceX! Two days ago they landed Bob and Doug, and now they succeeded to hop a water tower (as a side project nonetheless, AFAIK only a small part of SpaceX is on this team)! Can't wait to see future iterations and improvements of this beast, especially to see more Raptors strapped on!

The water tower was last year. This is a prototype using the same production technique as for the production versions. EDIT: More grain silo than water tower. ;)

Is it just me or does the workmanship look like a step up?

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given how much difficulty they've had with welds and materials to date, is it really feasible to conduct in-situ repairs without a ton of advanced equipment?

The difficulty is making it light and strong. If you're doing an emergency patch repair on a small area you could sacrifice some cargo and use much thicker material and more welds to be sure it will hold. It wouldn't be easy but is much easier than the initial build.

Most importantly, you mostly need it light to escape Earth's atmosphere. (And somewhat to have enough fuel.)

On Mars, Moon or in space this constraint is reduced.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#114
post #33

No one has seemed to have mentioned it yet, but the game changer of Starship will be full reusability of both the first and second stage of the rocket. Falcon 9's reusability of the first stage was a huge step towards making access to space a lot cheaper. If SpaceX can realize full reusability with Starship it will enable things like large scale moon bases, space hotels and mars colonization. They still have a lot of…

Future of space as presented in shows like the Expanse. controlled by trillionaires and their companies and powerful people in governments all killing each other over space rocks. We're a long way from Star Trek, that's going to take a more fundamental advance not at all related to technology.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#115
As a child I read all the Tintin books. My favourite ones were Destination Moon, and Explorers on the Moon. The rocket used in those stories is iconic. For me, Starship taps directly into those memories. I know it's infeasible, but if they ever painted the production Starships white and red, it would make me SO happy.

I'm too old now (approaching a de-orbit burn for 50) to be able to go to space, but I'm still loving the thought that my future grand-kids should be able to.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much less one’s college admission test scores - how do they signal a “hard working person” especially 20 years down the road?

Why would a person with 20 years of experience want to work for a company with no work-life balance? I prefer investing in Tesla/SpaceX instead of working there, and leave working extra hard to young people who have more energy than me.

> Why would a person with 20 years of experience want to work for a company with no work-life balance?

The initial comment by bfieidhbrjr already answered that very nicely: out of the desire to actually do something that is important re work. Important being subjective to the person in question obviously.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#117
post #82

Always impressive to me. And I know that people will say "Yeah, basically the only thing 'new' here is the engine" but there are also a bunch of other things that struck me; It did the hop 'off balance' (the final version expects to have 3 raptor engines working together) so the engine out scenario for landing still seems pretty safe. There is something like four more advanced vehicles in the warehouse section at var…

The DC-X still manages to look modern next to it. Had it succeeded, it'd have done something not even SpaceX is doing, which is a fully reusable single-stage-to-orbit craft. I don't think we have the advanced materials for that.

Here's a video on SSTO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfc2Jg1gkKA

Elon talking about SSTO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIQ36Kt7UVg

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#118
post #82

Always impressive to me. And I know that people will say "Yeah, basically the only thing 'new' here is the engine" but there are also a bunch of other things that struck me; It did the hop 'off balance' (the final version expects to have 3 raptor engines working together) so the engine out scenario for landing still seems pretty safe. There is something like four more advanced vehicles in the warehouse section at var…

The DC-X still manages to look modern next to it. Had it succeeded, it'd have done something not even SpaceX is doing, which is a fully reusable single-stage-to-orbit craft. I don't think we have the advanced materials for that.

In theory starship will have the delta v to get to LEO and back in a single stage, but the payload would be so small it wouldn’t be worthwhile.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#119
post #114
post #33

No one has seemed to have mentioned it yet, but the game changer of Starship will be full reusability of both the first and second stage of the rocket. Falcon 9's reusability of the first stage was a huge step towards making access to space a lot cheaper. If SpaceX can realize full reusability with Starship it will enable things like large scale moon bases, space hotels and mars colonization. They still have a lot of…

Future of space as presented in shows like the Expanse. controlled by trillionaires and their companies and powerful people in governments all killing each other over space rocks. We're a long way from Star Trek, that's going to take a more fundamental advance not at all related to technology.

For Star Trek we just need SpaceX + UBI!

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#120
post #114
post #33

No one has seemed to have mentioned it yet, but the game changer of Starship will be full reusability of both the first and second stage of the rocket. Falcon 9's reusability of the first stage was a huge step towards making access to space a lot cheaper. If SpaceX can realize full reusability with Starship it will enable things like large scale moon bases, space hotels and mars colonization. They still have a lot of…

Future of space as presented in shows like the Expanse. controlled by trillionaires and their companies and powerful people in governments all killing each other over space rocks. We're a long way from Star Trek, that's going to take a more fundamental advance not at all related to technology.

I’m glad that not everyone in human history has shared your bright outlook, otherwise we would still live in caves…
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