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That's neat. But what I see on video is Bezos landing a rocket and Musk blowing up a rocket. I understand the technical differences, but in terms of media, t

That's neat. But what I see on video is Bezos landing a rocket and Musk blowing up a rocket. I understand the technical differences, but in terms of media, this is a pure win.

rakoo 11y ago
What I see is Musk supplying the ISS, and Bezos doing a PR stunt. Let's try comparing those on more than just media, shall we ?
- fixermark 11y ago
  Perhaps, perhaps not. Financially speaking, between the two goals, there's enough money concentrated in private individuals' hands that you might be able to find six people willing to shell out for space tourism. Government funding supplies the ISS. A laudable goals, but there's a grim realpolitik view that suggests it's not as guaranteed sustainable of a market as space tourism. On the other hand, SpaceX's goals also allow for deployment of orbital payloads... Now that's lucrative.
nightpool 11y ago
There are plenty of videos of Musk successfully landing a rocket? Just never actually landing one from orbit.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  No-one has managed a landing from orbit. Yet.
  - tillinghast 11y ago
    It would be a breakthrough of Gaussian proportions!
tertius 11y ago
* Excluding your "media win" part of the comment. Parallel parking a Prius vs. parking a dragster is different. But as you said, you understand the technical differences.
paraboul 11y ago
SpaceX already achieved suborbital VTOL in 2013 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t15vP1PyoA&app=desktop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t15vP1PyoA&app=desktop
- chillingeffect 11y ago
  Not that I have any skin in the game - I think Musk and Bezos are both insufferable billionaire jerks, scamming taxpayers and working the lower class to death - but Grasshopper went to 250m, while Blue Origin went to 100km.
  - baq 11y ago
    it's not that much of a difference, going almost straight up and falling mostly straight down is a matter of burning longer. it is an achievement, it's just not useful for much (for the price) and overengineered at that. if it actually went to orbit and didn't come back, it'd be a bigger thing.
ra88it 11y ago
>> That's neat. You make a very good point about public perception. But your opening line seems sarcastic and aggressive. I think that's why your comment is light grey.

That's neat. But what I see on video is Bezos landing a rocket and Musk blowing up a rocket. I understand the technical differences, but in terms of media, this is a pure win.

rakoo 11y ago

What I see is Musk supplying the ISS, and Bezos doing a PR stunt. Let's try comparing those on more than just media, shall we ?

fixermark 11y ago
Perhaps, perhaps not. Financially speaking, between the two goals, there's enough money concentrated in private individuals' hands that you might be able to find six people willing to shell out for space tourism. Government funding supplies the ISS. A laudable goals, but there's a grim realpolitik view that suggests it's not as guaranteed sustainable of a market as space tourism. On the other hand, SpaceX's goals also allow for deployment of orbital payloads... Now that's lucrative.

nightpool 11y ago

There are plenty of videos of Musk successfully landing a rocket? Just never actually landing one from orbit.

jacquesm 11y ago
No-one has managed a landing from orbit. Yet.
- tillinghast 11y ago
  It would be a breakthrough of Gaussian proportions!

tertius 11y ago

* Excluding your "media win" part of the comment. Parallel parking a Prius vs. parking a dragster is different. But as you said, you understand the technical differences.

paraboul 11y ago

SpaceX already achieved suborbital VTOL in 2013 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t15vP1PyoA&app=desktop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t15vP1PyoA&app=desktop

chillingeffect 11y ago
Not that I have any skin in the game - I think Musk and Bezos are both insufferable billionaire jerks, scamming taxpayers and working the lower class to death - but Grasshopper went to 250m, while Blue Origin went to 100km.
- baq 11y ago
  it's not that much of a difference, going almost straight up and falling mostly straight down is a matter of burning longer. it is an achievement, it's just not useful for much (for the price) and overengineered at that. if it actually went to orbit and didn't come back, it'd be a bigger thing.

ra88it 11y ago

>> That's neat. You make a very good point about public perception. But your opening line seems sarcastic and aggressive. I think that's why your comment is light grey.