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The fanboism about SpaceX is beyond belief! Like they are the only private enterprise that works in this area! For example, there's no excitement here on HN abo
by nikolay 6y ago
The fanboism about SpaceX is beyond belief! Like they are the only private enterprise that works in this area! For example, there's no excitement here on HN about competitors such as Relativity Space [0], which has some really unique solutions! Or the many others in the field. Every failure of SpaceX is considered here a huge success!
[0]: https://www.relativityspace.com/ https://www.relativityspace.com/
- bigbubba 6y agoThere are a lot of companies like that popping up now in the wake of SpaceX's success. Enough to fatigue most peoples' capacity for excitement I think, particularly in the cases where the company has interesting ideas but has not yet put anything into orbit. SpaceX isn't just talking about paper rockets, they're also putting stuff into space regularly for the past several years. It's hard to compete with that for attention if all you have is neat ideas and a CEO who isn't a media hungry controversial celebrity billionaire. (Blue Origin almost has that, but I think they are too busy being secretive to nurture an army of fanboys.)
- virgilp 6y agoI'm totally ready to be a BlueOrigin "fanboy" but their bigger promises haven't materialized yet. I think Rocket lab is cool and follow their progress, but their ambitions are comparatively small.
- tastyfreeze 6y agoA lot of rocketry advancement would not be happening if SpaceX didn't enter as a competitor. For that reason alone SpaceX should be lauded. It helps that SpaceX is pursuing the dream of a space faring civilization that was promised decades ago. Relativity Space looks cool. But until they launch they will sit in the stack of neat tech to maybe be excited about. I am excited by humans doing things to advance the species. I don't care much who is doing it. But, I have been burned by too much vaporware to get excited by marketing pieces. If you haven't watched Smarter Every Day's ULA factory tour I highly recommend it. There is even a nice bit about how their materials have improved as computers were better able to model stresses. https://youtu.be/o0fG_lnVhHw https://youtu.be/o0fG_lnVhHw
- nikolay 6y agoMaybe, I can't tell if that's good or bad, but I also think all mindshare goes to SpaceX and it's not a good thing. And, also, can you compare the character of Tory Bruno to Elon Musk's? It's like comparing a day to a night!
- drummer 6y agoThere are various reasons for why SpaceX is so popular, but I think most important is because of Elon starting from scratch against incredible odds of failing, combined with massive resistance from established companies and initially even the government (to the point of Elon crying during an interview), combined with Elon's novel and bold designs/goals and SpaceX's engineering feats. Add to that also their willingness to be open and share success and failure with the world, and I think it becomes easy to understand why they have so many passionate fans.
- nikolay 6y agoSorry, can't sympathize. When I compare Elon Musk to Tory Bruno, it's a vast difference. Tory truly is a rocket man!
- tmckeage 6y agoI am a fan boi of cheap reliable access to space. It just happens that SpaceX is the only game in town. Relativity Space only has paper rockets at the moment, and their best design is 4 times more expensive per kg than the falcon 9. The only organisation right now that is working on a rocket that will compete with the falcon 9 is Blue. No one is working on something that will compete with starship.