3 ms·

Crash landing not withstanding but as any other rocket launch provider or space-faring nation, I'd be scared shitless now. SpaceX is in a league by itself.

trhway 6y ago
>as any other rocket launch provider or space-faring nation, I'd be scared shitless now. Russian Space agency "Roskosmos" strikes back - it plans to produce alcohol, perfume, clothes, etc. under the trade mark "Poehali" ("let's go") - the word famously uttered by Gagarin when the rocket started to ascent. (in Russian) https://lenta.ru/news/2020/11/13/poehali/ https://lenta.ru/news/2020/11/13/poehali/ Also comes to mind the "Souz vs. Crew Dragon" tweet couple months back by a Russian cosmonaut which brought the Roskosmos CEO and the other top bureaucrats there into boiling publicly with rage https://twitter.com/Msuraev/status/1313945340039528448/photo/1 https://twitter.com/Msuraev/status/1313945340039528448/photo...
- avmich 6y ago
  Russian space program is in a pretty low state these days. It will take significant changes in Russia to come back to space exploration comparable to peers.
  - trhway 6y ago
    >It will take significant changes in Russia to come back As Russian joke about road building and everything else that requires any concerted effort goes - "There are 2 possible alternatives, a realistic one and a fantasy one. The realistic one is when aliens come to Earth and accomplish it for us. The fantasy one is when we accomplish it ourselves." For example Russia has been for several years trying to build a new spaceport in the Far East. After the first years of tremendous corruption discovered and prosecuted, the total control, audit and surveillance there have been unparalleled, yet despite it there have already changed several waves of the top/mid management - they get assigned there, steal a lot, get arrested, and new people get assigned, ...
    - avmich 6y ago
      > they get assigned there, steal a lot, get arrested, and new people get assigned, ... This is just an illustration of what the state of things currently is around Russian space efforts. To change that requires changes above that in government operations. There are still a lot of capable engineers and even managers in space industry. But being capital and material heavy, space industry can't hide from corruption, which isn't going anywhere while Kremlin is as it is today. Soyuz spacecraft is a wonderful machine, but lately it more and more served as largely a cash cow and political facade. With Crew Dragon flying, that role diminishes. Given that Proton doesn't provide either, Russian space is left with just a few venues for development. It's hard to see bright sides there until incentives would change.
    - philwelch 6y ago
      Also, the only road to the new launch facility goes through an extremely narrow Tsarist-era tunnel that severely limits rocket size.
tuatoru 6y ago
The crash is valuable by itself. Examining the wreckage will tell SpaceX lots about structural defects/overbuilt areas. Edit: SpaceX has invented a vastly better process for innovation. That's what should be scaring the others.
- texasbigdata 6y ago
  What is that? Iteration?
  - tnli 6y ago
    Fast iteration. Not aware of anyone else doing that with 50m tall 9m wide rockets.
    - kitsunesoba 6y ago
      Furthermore, fast iteration that isn't averse to failure. While they do what they can to make each test a success, they don't let it turn into a black hole of time, money, and manpower. They're willing to say, "yeah, that's good enough", test, and make the most of every aspect of the test. Where a more traditional aerospace company would go out of their way to avoid failures at any step, SpaceX embraces them so long as nobody is endangered in the process.

trhway 6y ago

>as any other rocket launch provider or space-faring nation, I'd be scared shitless now. Russian Space agency "Roskosmos" strikes back - it plans to produce alcohol, perfume, clothes, etc. under the trade mark "Poehali" ("let's go") - the word famously uttered by Gagarin when the rocket started to ascent. (in Russian) https://lenta.ru/news/2020/11/13/poehali/ https://lenta.ru/news/2020/11/13/poehali/ Also comes to mind the "Souz vs. Crew Dragon" tweet couple months back by a Russian cosmonaut which brought the Roskosmos CEO and the other top bureaucrats there into boiling publicly with rage https://twitter.com/Msuraev/status/1313945340039528448/photo/1 https://twitter.com/Msuraev/status/1313945340039528448/photo...

avmich 6y ago
Russian space program is in a pretty low state these days. It will take significant changes in Russia to come back to space exploration comparable to peers.
- trhway 6y ago
  >It will take significant changes in Russia to come back As Russian joke about road building and everything else that requires any concerted effort goes - "There are 2 possible alternatives, a realistic one and a fantasy one. The realistic one is when aliens come to Earth and accomplish it for us. The fantasy one is when we accomplish it ourselves." For example Russia has been for several years trying to build a new spaceport in the Far East. After the first years of tremendous corruption discovered and prosecuted, the total control, audit and surveillance there have been unparalleled, yet despite it there have already changed several waves of the top/mid management - they get assigned there, steal a lot, get arrested, and new people get assigned, ...
  - avmich 6y ago
    > they get assigned there, steal a lot, get arrested, and new people get assigned, ... This is just an illustration of what the state of things currently is around Russian space efforts. To change that requires changes above that in government operations. There are still a lot of capable engineers and even managers in space industry. But being capital and material heavy, space industry can't hide from corruption, which isn't going anywhere while Kremlin is as it is today. Soyuz spacecraft is a wonderful machine, but lately it more and more served as largely a cash cow and political facade. With Crew Dragon flying, that role diminishes. Given that Proton doesn't provide either, Russian space is left with just a few venues for development. It's hard to see bright sides there until incentives would change.
  - philwelch 6y ago
    Also, the only road to the new launch facility goes through an extremely narrow Tsarist-era tunnel that severely limits rocket size.

tuatoru 6y ago

The crash is valuable by itself. Examining the wreckage will tell SpaceX lots about structural defects/overbuilt areas. Edit: SpaceX has invented a vastly better process for innovation. That's what should be scaring the others.

texasbigdata 6y ago
What is that? Iteration?
- tnli 6y ago
  Fast iteration. Not aware of anyone else doing that with 50m tall 9m wide rockets.
  - kitsunesoba 6y ago
    Furthermore, fast iteration that isn't averse to failure. While they do what they can to make each test a success, they don't let it turn into a black hole of time, money, and manpower. They're willing to say, "yeah, that's good enough", test, and make the most of every aspect of the test. Where a more traditional aerospace company would go out of their way to avoid failures at any step, SpaceX embraces them so long as nobody is endangered in the process.