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> we don't really know how good these companies are...yet His company made rockets that fly backwards and park autonomously.

• kennywinker 5y ago
  So did blue origin, and that was started a couple years before spacex. I suspect this is more the case of an idea that's time came, rather than any particular feat of genius or insight by a company founder. Once you have the computing power + speed, and the built-up engineering knowledge and tools, there's nothing stopping anyone with a half a billion in government funding from building something like that.
  • zarzavat 5y ago
    Their rocket only went up and down. Weather balloons do that too. Not the same as an orbital rocket.
  • vimy 5y ago
    > In 1999, after watching the rocketry biopic film October Sky, Bezos discussed forming a space company with science-fiction author Neal Stephenson.[23][24] Blue Origin was founded in 2000 in Kent, Washington, and began developing both rocket propulsion systems and launch vehicles.[25] Since the founding, the company was quite secretive about its plans[26][27] and emerged from its "self-imposed silence" only after 2015.[25] .... As early as 2005, Bezos had discussed plans to create a vertical-takeoff and landing spaceship called New Shepard. Plans for New Shepard were initially kept quiet, but Blue Origin's website indicated Bezos' desire to, "lower the cost of spaceflight so that we humans can better continue exploring the solar system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin I had no idea. I always assumed he was inspired by SpaceX. October Sky is a great movie btw.
  • lutorm 5y ago
    Delta Clipper landed 25 years ago, too. Vertical landings of suborbital rockets aren't anything new. Reuse of orbital rockets are. Blue Origin has accomplished practically nothing compared to SpaceX, even if they "landed a rocket before SpaceX". In the 7 years since New Shephard first flew, they've not flown anything new. To this date, BO has not launched a single gram into orbit. For comparison, 7 years after Falcon 1 first flew in 2006, SpaceX had flown F9 v1.1 and had built a spacecraft that flew to the ISS.
    • runarberg 5y ago
      That is to be expected since SpaceX is where all the NASA funding went along with most of the talent previously working on VTVL technology. It is not hard to imagine an alternative world where Elon Musk had nothing to do with the SpaceX company and the same achievements would have been reach. Or even an alternative world where the NASA funding would have gone to a completely different company, or—yet even—a world where NASA would have developed this technology them selfs (hiring the same experts off course). All is to say that Elon Musk is not some essential figure in the development of VTVL rockets. Rocket engineers would have developed it regardless in any world where the Space Shuttle is sunset.
• runarberg 5y ago
  VTVL rockets existed before SpaceX. In fact SpaceX started by hiring engineers which had been working on the same thing at Blue Origin. SpaceX also got a bunch of funding from NASA to develop exactly this thing. I think if it wasn’t for SpaceX this technology would still exist today, just developed by a different company (or even NASA them selfs if they were so inclined). SpaceX just happened to be the right company at the right time with the right engineers onboard to reap the benefits afterwards.
• emkoemko 5y ago
  they did this in like the 90's why make it out like SpaceX is the only one capable of doing this? some of those engineers are now working for blue origin