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SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

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Re: SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

#11

Post by thenoblesunfish »

mattlondon wrote: post #3
tpmx wrote: post #2

Civilian apparently meaning non-government here, not non-military. I guess not to be confused with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:NASA_civilian_astrona...

I think the point here is, this is the first "private" space mission that wasn't using government/military hardware or staff. It is a rocket designed by a commercial company, flying people who just made a few calls and then paid to do it. It is pretty wild when you think about it - not so long ago (10 years maybe?) this sort of thing would have been unthinkable . Say what you will about Elon Musk, but you've got to g…

When we're drooling over these accomplishments, we should direct more of our praise to the thousands of really, really good engineers who did the work, built on the accumulated experience of millions, over decades. People seem to be very eager to ascribe success to heroic individuals, and while leadership is certainly something remarkable, I think that there is a severe imbalance in who we're thanking for these achievements.

Re: SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

#12

Post by Clewza313 »

thenoblesunfish wrote: post #11
mattlondon wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point here is, this is the first "private" space mission that wasn't using government/military hardware or staff. It is a rocket designed by a commercial company, flying people who just made a few calls and then paid to do it. It is pretty wild when you think about it - not so long ago (10 years maybe?) this sort of thing would have been unthinkable . Say what you will about Elon Musk, but you've got to g…

When we're drooling over these accomplishments, we should direct more of our praise to the thousands of really, really good engineers who did the work, built on the accumulated experience of millions, over decades. People seem to be very eager to ascribe success to heroic individuals, and while leadership is certainly something remarkable, I think that there is a severe imbalance in who we're thanking for these achie…

It takes both engineering and leadership. There's no shortage of talent at NASA, but much of it has been and still is squandered over political machinations almost entirely unrelated to the task at hand. Case study: how the Space Shuttle was crippled by Air Force requirements that turned out to be completely unnecessary in the end.

Re: SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

#13

Post by tsimionescu »

mattlondon wrote: post #3
tpmx wrote: post #2

Civilian apparently meaning non-government here, not non-military. I guess not to be confused with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:NASA_civilian_astrona...

I think the point here is, this is the first "private" space mission that wasn't using government/military hardware or staff. It is a rocket designed by a commercial company, flying people who just made a few calls and then paid to do it. It is pretty wild when you think about it - not so long ago (10 years maybe?) this sort of thing would have been unthinkable . Say what you will about Elon Musk, but you've got to g…

While Elon Musk deserves credit for SpaceX, I fail to see what credit he deserves for Tesla. The founders of Tesla and the designers of the first car should absolutely get credit, but Musk is neither. He delayed the release of their first car to get rid of the founder, in fact.

Re: SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

#14

Post by _ph_ »

bserge wrote: post #9
mattlondon wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point here is, this is the first "private" space mission that wasn't using government/military hardware or staff. It is a rocket designed by a commercial company, flying people who just made a few calls and then paid to do it. It is pretty wild when you think about it - not so long ago (10 years maybe?) this sort of thing would have been unthinkable . Say what you will about Elon Musk, but you've got to g…

It was a thing 10-20 years ago already. Civilians paid for a trip (on the Soyuz iirc) and got it. It was just very expensive.

The difference is, that was a state-operated flight to the ISS which sold surplus seats. Equally, the shuttle could have carried a tourist on some missions.

This flight is purely for paying customers, organized and conducted by a private company. If there were enough paying customers, SpaceX probably would be happy to have such a flight every month. With this mission, space travel has become something you can commercially book, though at a very steep price - that might come down with the Starship.

Re: SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

#15

Post by rvz »

thenoblesunfish wrote: post #11
mattlondon wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point here is, this is the first "private" space mission that wasn't using government/military hardware or staff. It is a rocket designed by a commercial company, flying people who just made a few calls and then paid to do it. It is pretty wild when you think about it - not so long ago (10 years maybe?) this sort of thing would have been unthinkable . Say what you will about Elon Musk, but you've got to g…

When we're drooling over these accomplishments, we should direct more of our praise to the thousands of really, really good engineers who did the work, built on the accumulated experience of millions, over decades. People seem to be very eager to ascribe success to heroic individuals, and while leadership is certainly something remarkable, I think that there is a severe imbalance in who we're thanking for these achie…

> I think that there is a severe imbalance in who we're thanking for these achievements.

There you go.

The hard work from brilliant engineers of any giant tech company to make all of this actually work and become a reality is always overlooked and the spotlight is focused on the individual who gives out unrealistic deadlines for the engineers to meet.

If they meet the deadline, no one cares and it's business as usual. If they miss it; angry meetings, delays, reshuffles and layoffs happen.

Re: SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

#16

Post by huhtenberg »

starfallg wrote: post #4
mattlondon wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point here is, this is the first "private" space mission that wasn't using government/military hardware or staff. It is a rocket designed by a commercial company, flying people who just made a few calls and then paid to do it. It is pretty wild when you think about it - not so long ago (10 years maybe?) this sort of thing would have been unthinkable . Say what you will about Elon Musk, but you've got to g…

Wouldn't Virgin Galactic's flight be the first for this then?

They didn't even hit 100km mark, leave alone making an orbit.

Re: SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

#17

Post by regnerba »

thenoblesunfish wrote: post #11
mattlondon wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point here is, this is the first "private" space mission that wasn't using government/military hardware or staff. It is a rocket designed by a commercial company, flying people who just made a few calls and then paid to do it. It is pretty wild when you think about it - not so long ago (10 years maybe?) this sort of thing would have been unthinkable . Say what you will about Elon Musk, but you've got to g…

When we're drooling over these accomplishments, we should direct more of our praise to the thousands of really, really good engineers who did the work, built on the accumulated experience of millions, over decades. People seem to be very eager to ascribe success to heroic individuals, and while leadership is certainly something remarkable, I think that there is a severe imbalance in who we're thanking for these achie…

Totally agree! I have been avoiding Twitter the last few years but was recently going through Elon’s tweets. Something I noticed is that he is often giving credit to the teams at SpaceX and Tesla. There are a number of times where he responds to a tweet and point out how it was the teams at X company, and sometimes calling out people by name for their work. It was also something during his presentation during the Model S Plaid release. He said numerous times how important the teams at Tesla were to its success.

Re: SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

#18

Post by fumblebee »

Is this something SpaceX eventually plan to commercialise, like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are doing?

Seems to me that orbital spaceflight as a proposition is an order of magnitude more enticing than scratching the Kármán line. And for the people who could afford it, they'd surely pay an order of magnitude more.

Re: SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

#20

Post by qayxc »

fumblebee wrote: post #18

Is this something SpaceX eventually plan to commercialise, like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are doing? Seems to me that orbital spaceflight as a proposition is an order of magnitude more enticing than scratching the Kármán line. And for the people who could afford it, they'd surely pay an order of magnitude more.

I don't know whether it's truly that appealing to the "masses". Keep in mind that unlike with quick suborbital hops, orbital flights are preceded by week-long training, medical exams and preparations.

You can't just show up in the morning an hour before launch, get some final instructions, strap in and be back home in time for lunch.

It's much more of an investment in terms of time and effort, too besides just the money. The stress on both body and mind is also significantly higher - if you do panic, you can just close your eyes for a hot minute and be safely back on the ground (in the case of Blue Origin), whereas with an orbital flight you're stuck in space for at least an hour no matter what with the worst (e.g. re-entry) yet to come.

Going to orbit on a rocket isn't the quite the carnival ride that suborbital hops are.

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