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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

#31

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…

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.

In all seriousness, founding a company and designing[0] a car aren't really remarkable achievements. This has been done many times. What's really impressive is moving from a glorified proof-of-concept to manufacturing at a massive scale—a feat rarely achieved by startup automotive companies anywhere in the world.

[0] Especially when "design" really just means an electric drivetrain and bits of custom trim for a Lotus skateboard.

Re: SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

#32

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…

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.

Apart from being a proof of concept (MVP if you prefer) the original roadster has had little influence on Tesla's success.

Re: SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

#34

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…

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.

Musk was a founding investor and Chairman of the company. The company was incorporated shortly before that. He also oversaw design of the Roadster. Before Musk's involvement it consisted of a handful of people and some plans to build a prototype adapted from an existing vehicle, the AC Propulsion T Zero. The Roadster project didn't start until after Musk's involvement and he participated in design discussions from day 1.

Re: SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

#35
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Or if you are going to pick an individual it should be Gwynne Shotwell at least.

[deleted]

Re: SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

#36

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.

They have commercialised it. Axiom has bought a couple of flights on Dragon V2 and they've sold a Starship flight around the moon.

The biggest difference is the price and that they only sell full flights rather than individual seats.

Re: SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Mod…

Sorry, but why does one go through someone elses tweets? Twitter is focused on current events - and they do not age well. So why read up on the past utterances of anyone? This seems.. strange.. sorry, if that offends.

Re: SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

#39
> The soon-to-be-astronauts

Maybe this is just me, but I think we need a new word for people who pay to take a ride on a spacecraft but have nothing to do with the operation or mission of that spacecraft. "Payload" seems rude, perhaps "passengers"?

Whatever they are, they're not astronauts.

Re: SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The first Tesla is a car for rich people only. The reason for Tesla's 700b valuation is the innovation that Tesla has made in producing the model y and model 3 and the current goal of producing the first $25k mass produced electric car.

> first $25k mass produced electric car

That ship has sailed a few years ago: Volkswagen e-Up, Seat Mii, Renault Twingo, several models from BYD, Dacia Spring, Smart EQ, Fiat 500e, and even Renault Zoe or MG ZS in some markets. All under 25k€, including value added tax

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