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The cost savings from SpaceX's reusable rockets are absolutely revolutionary. If SpaceX manages to get their Starship rocket to follow the path laid by their F
by loudmax 5y ago
The cost savings from SpaceX's reusable rockets are absolutely revolutionary. If SpaceX manages to get their Starship rocket to follow the path laid by their Falcon rocket, they'll be even further ahead of the competition. So good on Blue Origin for having performed this kind of internal review. I really hope they pull into the same league as SpaceX.
Having said that, I do hope Blue Origin does this by emulating SpaceX's positive characteristics: the focus on customer demand, cost constraints, iterative design, etc. Not SpaceX's negative characteristics of pushing employees to work 60+ hour weeks for months on end, periodically culling 10% of their employees, etc. I worry that Musk is running his companies as cults of personality that won't survive his departure.
Based on Blue Origin's accomplishments, I'm not holding my breath for for them to catch up any time soon. Fortunately there are several other companies using innovative techniques to get into the market so even if Blue Origin goes bust, SpaceX won't be alone.
- hagbard_c 5y agoEven more than that I hope Blue Origin tries to get even with SpaceX by ways of engineering prowess instead of lawfare. Thus far they seem to be more willing to take to the latter than the former. While "no bucks, no Buck Rogers"[1] may be true I've seen more Buck Rogers for far fewer bucks coming from SpaceX than what I've seen from Blue Origin. They have been stuck at the X-prize level for years now, with not much proof of any capability to go beyond that. [1] https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/no+bucks%2C+no+Buck+Rogers https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/no+bucks%2C+no+Buck+Rog...