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Look these are long discussions. Here's the one we had 3 years ago. You even chimed in. No one said they were toys. Should we just stay at home? You didn't

Look these are long discussions. Here's the one we had 3 years ago. You even chimed in. No one said they were toys. Should we just stay at home? You didn't think so 3 years ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8540279 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8540279 Are Turing_Machine and JoeAltmaier still around?

JumpCrisscross 9y ago
> Should we just stay at home? The legacy of Scaled Composite's air launch approach, aerodynamic re-entry, and piloted design--all fair decisions for a quick daredevil run to space--cost Virgin Galactic and its investors hundreds of millions of dollars. Their delays, overruns and mistake, in turn, made life difficult for SpaceX, Blue Origin, Sierra, and a handful of other space start-ups. Customers, Congress and investors now had a well-publicized promise, and failure to deliver, in mind.
- melling 9y ago
  Look, if we're talking manned space flight, I was arguing against it 3 years ago in favor of robotic exploration. HN said I was wrong. As for X-Prizes, in general, I think they're a great idea. My blog is http://h4labs.org http://h4labs.org I took h4 from the first "X-Prize". H4 was the version of the watch that won the money. It has been explained repeatedly why they're a great idea. Should I rehash it on my blog, because I'm not going to do it here, again? Btw, it sounds like we might simply be arguing over what's a good "X-Prize"?
  - Retric 9y ago
    Yea, you completely misunderstood my point. Even just building and testing rocks has killed people because they are fucking dangerous. However, so is putting solar panels on people roofs. That does not mean nobody should build rockets, just that safty is a major consideration when building them. IMO, astronauts are almost irrelevant from an overall safty standpoint. Rocketry has killed more people on the ground than it has people trying to get to space, though this may change over time as we get away from those extremely dangerous early days. Ex: Just VLS-1 an unmanned rocket killed 21 peopel more than the total number of US astronauts killed so far.
- valuearb 9y ago
  What difficulties did Scaled Composite cause for SpaceX or Blue Origin? SpaceX is doing great, and the flying turtle has consistently achieved laudable milestone after laudable milestone.

JumpCrisscross 9y ago

> Should we just stay at home? The legacy of Scaled Composite's air launch approach, aerodynamic re-entry, and piloted design--all fair decisions for a quick daredevil run to space--cost Virgin Galactic and its investors hundreds of millions of dollars. Their delays, overruns and mistake, in turn, made life difficult for SpaceX, Blue Origin, Sierra, and a handful of other space start-ups. Customers, Congress and investors now had a well-publicized promise, and failure to deliver, in mind.

melling 9y ago
Look, if we're talking manned space flight, I was arguing against it 3 years ago in favor of robotic exploration. HN said I was wrong. As for X-Prizes, in general, I think they're a great idea. My blog is http://h4labs.org http://h4labs.org I took h4 from the first "X-Prize". H4 was the version of the watch that won the money. It has been explained repeatedly why they're a great idea. Should I rehash it on my blog, because I'm not going to do it here, again? Btw, it sounds like we might simply be arguing over what's a good "X-Prize"?
- Retric 9y ago
  Yea, you completely misunderstood my point. Even just building and testing rocks has killed people because they are fucking dangerous. However, so is putting solar panels on people roofs. That does not mean nobody should build rockets, just that safty is a major consideration when building them. IMO, astronauts are almost irrelevant from an overall safty standpoint. Rocketry has killed more people on the ground than it has people trying to get to space, though this may change over time as we get away from those extremely dangerous early days. Ex: Just VLS-1 an unmanned rocket killed 21 peopel more than the total number of US astronauts killed so far.
valuearb 9y ago
What difficulties did Scaled Composite cause for SpaceX or Blue Origin? SpaceX is doing great, and the flying turtle has consistently achieved laudable milestone after laudable milestone.