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Sometimes the timing of unconnected events is curious on a cosmic scale. Only a day or two ago New Shepherd reached a milestone. Today parts from a past SpaceX
by Simorgh 11y ago
Sometimes the timing of unconnected events is curious on a cosmic scale.
Only a day or two ago New Shepherd reached a milestone. Today parts from a past SpaceX mission wash up onshore.
The proximity of these events show that space exploration is witnessing a lot of activity from agents who are operating independently.
- pocketstar 11y agoCorrelation != causation. Only recently has mass media decided to push tech billionaire's pet projects as "space news", that's is all this shows. There are dozens of other arguably more significant space projects flying under the mass media's radar.
- wertop 11y agoWhich projects? Would love to know.
- mikeash 11y agoMe too. I can't think of anything going on in space flight right now more significant than SpaceX's reusability efforts
- pocketstar 11y agoSpaceX's reusabulity efforts are just another incremental improvement to existing rocket technology. Reusable launch vehicles are nothing new. If they can get launch costs down to $60m with their reusable technology that would be great! However, they still can't launch anything >5000kg so it's a pretty mixed bag and a lot of good marketing.
- mikeash 11y agoReusable launch vehicles are nothing new? I can think of only one other, and it ended up being unbelievably expensive, costing far more than an equivalent expendable launcher. SpaceX's launch cost is already about $60 million in expendable mode, so your comment about bringing it "down to $60 with their reusable technology" makes no sense to me. If they pull it off, the cost might drop to more like $10-30 million. A rocket that costs like an expendable launcher but can be reused will be a massive game changer, not "just another incremental improvement." Maybe all the changes needed to get to that point are incremental, but that doesn't mean the result won't be huge.
- pocketstar 11y agoPick one: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_spaceflight_companies https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_spaceflight_...