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Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX

arstechnica.com

11–20 of 259 posts

Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX

#11

The Asteroid Wars in 20 or 30 years between Musk and Bezos is going to be right out of Ben Bova.

Won't be much of a war if Bezos can't get Blue Origin working. They can't operate at 5% of the speed of SpaceX or even 100% of the speed of SpaceX. They have to operate faster than SpaceX because SpaceX is in the lead.

Or lobby successfully enough to criminalize their competition.

With the weight of Amazon on their side, I wouldn't rule that path out.

Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX

#12
Blue Origin makes Bezos look like a sad little boy that wants to fit in with he big boys but fails miserably. BO feels like a cheap SpaceX knock-off. His ride over the Karman line (which they tried to point out as the border to to space so bad on their channels) really convinced me of that. Bezos lacks a vision for space, it's just a hobby for him and he fails at executing the Amazon playbook there.

Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX

#13

Why can't they cooperate instead of compete? It's not like they don't already have all the money they'd ever need or could use, and wouldn't the world be better off if they worked together than against each other?

Because there's no ego benefit there.

That's all these companies exist for.

Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX

#14

Why can't they cooperate instead of compete? It's not like they don't already have all the money they'd ever need or could use, and wouldn't the world be better off if they worked together than against each other?

Because competition is how innovation is born.

Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Won't be much of a war if Bezos can't get Blue Origin working. They can't operate at 5% of the speed of SpaceX or even 100% of the speed of SpaceX. They have to operate faster than SpaceX because SpaceX is in the lead.

Or lobby successfully enough to criminalize their competition. With the weight of Amazon on their side, I wouldn't rule that path out.

The US won’t allow that for now because of external competition from China and Russia. That would result in the US losing the current Space Race.

EDIT: Probably India as well

If SpaceX were Russian, Indian, or Chinese, the US would shit its pants.

Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX

#16
post #3

It's really a shame what has happened to Blue Origin. They've gone from a promising space startup to yet another purveyor of perpetual vaporware. Where is the BE-4 engine? Delayed, again and again. New Glenn, the rocket that could actually go into orbit? Same. So far their only functioning hardware (New Shephard) is, in effect, a glorified amusement park ride. Considering that SpaceX has actually made it to orbit mul…

Slow and steady wins the race. I'm not counting them out, Bezos is so immensely wealthy that if he wants Blue Origin to succeed then it will succeed.

> Slow and steady wins the race.

Not if it's a 100m or 200m sprint. Try that and you'll finish dead last.

If SpaceX had gone with slow and steady, it would have merely given their monopolistic competition - competition particularly well connected in DC - that much more time to try to wipe them out using their preferred approach of avoiding competition via government protection.

Blue Origin may yet make something of itself via slow and steady pacing (which Bezos can afford), however it's not winning the race.

Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX

#18

Why can't they cooperate instead of compete? It's not like they don't already have all the money they'd ever need or could use, and wouldn't the world be better off if they worked together than against each other?

Space is expensive. Bezos is pumping 1 billion per year into the company and the blue origin proposal was for 13 billion. Even for Bezos that's not chump change.

Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX

#19
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or lobby successfully enough to criminalize their competition. With the weight of Amazon on their side, I wouldn't rule that path out.

The US won’t allow that for now because of external competition from China and Russia. That would result in the US losing the current Space Race. EDIT: Probably India as well If SpaceX were Russian, Indian, or Chinese, the US would shit its pants.

There is no "current space race" as far as the US is concerned. Americans put a man on the moon fifty years ago, and no one is worried that China or Russia are going to "gain the high ground" and nuke Washington from orbit. No one cares.

Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX

#20
post #3

It's really a shame what has happened to Blue Origin. They've gone from a promising space startup to yet another purveyor of perpetual vaporware. Where is the BE-4 engine? Delayed, again and again. New Glenn, the rocket that could actually go into orbit? Same. So far their only functioning hardware (New Shephard) is, in effect, a glorified amusement park ride. Considering that SpaceX has actually made it to orbit mul…

Slow and steady wins the race. I'm not counting them out, Bezos is so immensely wealthy that if he wants Blue Origin to succeed then it will succeed.

That is like saying that the meek shall inherit the earth - or what is left of it when the bold have taken all they wanted. Slow and steady is just that, slow. There is a place for it, e.g. when refining an established practice like mining or internal combustion engines. Commercial space exploration is a place where rapid advances can be made by visionary explorers, only once you can buy an off-the-shelf space minivan for the whole family the time has come for 'slow and steady'.
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