Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Blue Origin first human flight

blueorigin.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 504 posts

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#161

Post by kiba »

enraged_camel wrote: post #121
selykg wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I hate to break it to you but Musk is just as unlikeable. Right? I don't get the guy's appeal. Yes, SpaceX and Tesla are doing neat things and I love that. But Musk is literally the last person I want to hear from, or about. Despite all the cool stuff Tesla is doing, he really makes me not want to buy anything from Tesla ever just because he's associated with it. Perhaps a bit dramatic, but I really can't stand the…

>> I hate to break it to you but Musk is just as unlikeable. I had long suspected that he's on the spectrum, and earlier this year he came out and openly talked about his Asperger's diagnosis. That's not to say that excuses his terrible treatment of other people, but it sure explains it.

I had long suspected that he's on the spectrum, and earlier this year he came out and openly talked about his Asperger's diagnosis.

I don't think that confirms he has Asperger's. He said it on SNL as a joke.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#162

Post by BurningFrog »

sega_sai wrote: post #77

Obviously everybody (Branson/Bezos) is entitled to spend their cash in whatever way they want. But, if they are making a spectacle of it, publicise it and promote it like some big achievement, then those people should be prepared to take some criticism. And in my opinion, I see the last two launches as indeed amusement rides for billionaires and a strong argument for better taxation policies. In contrary, what Musk d…

> I see the last two launches as indeed amusement rides for billionaires

I see this take a lot, and I strongly disagree.

These launches are marketing events for their space tourism businesses! The billionaire CEOs go up to prove they personally trust the tech is safe. If they won't go, who else would?

Now they can start selling trips to paying customers, and hopefully build genuinely sustainable space tourism businesses. The fairly minimal experience of these short jumps will be improved gradually, and that future is impossible to predict, as it is completely novel territory.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#164

Post by jansan »

sschueller wrote: post #32

What I found interesting is that the vehicle that drove them to the launchpad was a Rivian SUV. The direct competitor to the Tesla Model X.

They should have driven there with four Rimac Nevera, one car per astronaut. Now THAT would have sent a message.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#165

Post by dhosek »

mygoodaccount wrote: post #141

I feel the same way when software developers call themselves engineers.

In certain industries, the titles often have little to do with the work. In banking, it seems, everyone is a vice president (I had a moment of panic when I had a job offer from a bank as a programmer and the offer said that I would be hired as a vice president). In publishing, everyone is an editor. The title managing editor generally has no editorial duties—it's largely dealing with the administrative/business duties of the publication(s). But since it's mostly English majors working in publishing, it makes them feel better to have editor in their job title.

So I have no qualms about having "engineer" in my job title, even if I still view myself as a programmer (I'm still not accustomed to having "senior" in my job title even though I've been a programmer longer than some of the readers of this comment have been alive).

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#166

Post by AlexanderTheGr8 »

docdeek wrote: post #9

Incredible achievement. I had to catch myself as, at first, I was thinking “10 minutes? That’s it? And in space for a lot less than that?”. Quickly reminded myself that in the history of the world hardly anyone has gone where they have gone - 10 minutes isn’t much, but if I could I would.

I agree - it's incredible. First flight of Wright Brothers lasted about 8 seconds. For initial flights, I would not consider time spent in space as the most important metric.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#167

Post by Clewza313 »

Ottolay wrote: post #157
marshallbananas wrote: post #8

This felt so underwhelming. I don't know if it's because I've seen SpaceX doing much more complicated missions or it's just not that big of a deal. They got about two minutes of zero G and came down immediately. You can experience that for much longer with a regular plane, for much less money. It really shouldn't count as space travel unless they go into orbit around Earth.

The underwhelming part is that it took so long. The first private manned suborbital flight occurred in 2004 with SpaceShipOne. It is 17 years later at this point and only now do we have paying customers for sub-orbital flight.

And even then we still don't have "paying passengers" in the sense of being able to rock up and buy ticket. One seat being raffles at a charity auction doesn't quite count.

I also suspect the pool of people willing to pony up $250k+ for a few minutes barely in space is going to be pretty shallow. I'd sign up in a heartbeat for a space hotel trip in that price range though, so here's hoping Axiom Space delivers (and gets the price range below the current projection of tens of millions).

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#168

Post by fighterpilot »

jbverschoor wrote: post #17
admissionsguy wrote: post #12

Mixed feelings. I suppose it's important to have competition/alternatives to SpaceX, but does it have to be done in such a sluggish manner by one the most unlikable people in the world?

And purely for egotistical reasons...

What a silly statement. No, you don't have the ability to read Bezos' mind from your armchair.

My 2c - it's great that billionaires are starting important businesses that are highly capital intensive, since those types of businesses are more inaccessible to newer entrepreneurs.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#169

Post by DaniloDias »

One way I feel different from most people posting here:

A man spends his life building a company successful enough to have the financial tools necessary to explore space flight. He won’t get that time back. The money that corresponds to that time is his to spend.

A bunch of boring and predictable meat bags on the Internet are so narcissistic that they blandly claim to know better how he should spend that money. You are no different than the Catholic Church.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#170

Post by nautilius »

mdorazio wrote: post #143
AlexanderTheGr8 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"An astronaut (from the Greek "astron" (ἄστρον), meaning "star", and "nautes" (ναύτης), meaning "sailor") is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft." They were trained (not as well trained as NASA astronauts, but still trained well enough for such a short mission) They were equipped with whatever equipments they needed for thi…

Crew members have defined roles and responsibilities, and are important to the success of a mission beyond having paid to be there. The alternative is more apt here, I think: passengers.

I take it you're not a big fan of Gagarin, the first human in space, then. What was his importance beyond 'being there'?
Post reply on HN