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> We can't have the future because it slightly inconveniences the present and ruffles the feathers of developers fired from Twitter. Or because he constantly s
by tw04 3y ago
> We can't have the future because it slightly inconveniences the present and ruffles the feathers of developers fired from Twitter.
Or because he constantly stomps on experienced engineers with stupid ideas and puts the whole thing at risk. Literally EVERYONE said the cement base was a stupid idea and yet Elon had to trump his own experts.
Every time he forces his idiotic ideas on his engineers he puts the future of the whole business at risk. At least he’s been so distracted by the Twitter debacle the adults have been able to make decisions without having to cater to his ego and make him think the idea was his.
- ethagknight 3y ago[flagged]
- huytersd 3y agoTesla is doing great, SpaceX has always been amazing. Twitter is failing. Elon Musk becomes less respectable by the day.
- doubleg72 3y agoYou must have missed TSLA last week earning call…
- huytersd 3y agoI didn’t. I still think they have enough of a moat for 5-10 years and beyond especially since they own the vast majority of the now standard NACS charging stations.
- brandonagr2 3y agoHow is twitter failing? Usage is growing and they will be cash flow positive soon, that sounds better than twitter 1.0 was doing
- huytersd 3y agoUsage is dropping. Down about 15% over the last 10 months. Revenue has dropped 11% compared to last year. It’s expected to keep dropping in 2023 with advertising revenue leaving.
- d-z-m 3y ago> Literally EVERYONE said the cement base was a stupid idea and yet Elon had to trump his own experts. Do you have more information on this? My quick googling turned up nothing.
- almost_usual 3y agoThis submission was flagged on HN but it was pointed out. > In addition to the siting and sizing of the pad, SpaceX does not have a flame trench, nor do they have a water deluge system used to suppress heat and sound energy from any launches, as the Army Corps of Engineering permitting required to add these civil engineering systems is itself a multi-year process. > No large rocket complex on the planet: not in Russia, nor China, and certainly not in the US, exists that doesn’t contain one or both of these energy suppression systems. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35590279 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35590279 https://blog.esghound.com/p/spacexs-texas-rocket-is-going-to https://blog.esghound.com/p/spacexs-texas-rocket-is-going-to
- Animats 3y agoBoca Chica now has a better launch pad with a flame deflector and a water deluge system.[1] They really needed that. The first version just fired the entire output of the booster at a flat concrete slab, which destroyed the pad, sending chunks of concrete into the ocean and around the area. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYRJn3uvw3M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYRJn3uvw3M
- skellington 3y agoSpaceX said it was more a question of timing. That the water system would take too long and they were hoping to test before it was fit. The first test involved a subset of all the engines so they hoped the concrete would survive.
- kcplate 3y agoI can literally watch SpaceX fire rockets into space 3-4x a month from my backyard. Name one other company, person, or even a country that can and is willing to do that. There are none. As long as SpaceX can and no one else can, the future of SpaceX is on a pretty sound footing in my opinion.
- lancewiggs 3y agoRocketlab is doing this at about half the rate.
- kortilla 3y agoNo it’s not, it’s not even making 1 per month.
- nickik 3y agoNot even close, and doing it with a tiny 100kg rocket isn't even remotely the same thing anyway.
- m4rtink 3y agoNot to mention it does not even have a reusable booster (yet) and unfortunately there seem to be still some reliability issues as well.
- ben_w 3y agoI'm all in favour of SpaceX having an engine-rich development cycle that gets things done faster and cheaper than anyone else, this doesn't mean Musk is doing everything right. I'm sad about the interference that Starlink causes to ground based astronomy, this doesn't mean Musk is ignoring those issues. And I value government agencies making sure that business interests are balanced against democratic will of the people, that doesn't mean they're funded at the right level for a rapidly growing industry.
- cmsj 3y agoChina. https://www.rocketlaunch.live/?pastOnly=1&filter=china https://www.rocketlaunch.live/?pastOnly=1&filter=china
- brandonagr2 3y agoYou sound like you don't know anything about what actually happened or the SpaceX engineering process in general. SpaceX knew that the concrete wasn't the final solution, it was always temporary, they had already started building the steel water cooled plate before the first test flight. Based on the data they had available from the series of static fire tests leading up to the test they thought the concrete would ablate and survive one test flight before they took the downtime to replace it. Do you have any evidence to support your assertion that Elon overruled all the SpaceX engineers on the timing of when to install the steel water cooled plate or are you Literally making things up? Learning more by moving quickly and taking calculated risks is clearly the better approach, as evidenced by the current dominance of the Falcon 9 and SN 25 and booster 9 sitting on a repaired OLM and being scheduled to make another orbital attempt in less than 2 weeks.
- skellington 3y agoYou're only being downvoted because of your accuracy.
- renewiltord 3y agoBizarre that the most accurate take here is greyed out. Absolutely correct.
- fomine3 3y ago> Learning more by moving quickly and taking calculated risks is clearly the better approach, I think most people agree that it's better for SpaceX business, but some don't agree that it's worthwhile for our society with what happens if failed. It's like Tesla's "FSD Beta" situation.
- kasdi 3y ago> Do you have any evidence to support your assertion that Elon overruled all the SpaceX engineers on the timing of when to install the steel water cooled plate or are you Literally making things up? Unfortunately, #LiterallyMakingThingsUp seems to be a trend these days.
- soperj 3y ago> Or because he constantly stomps on experienced engineers with stupid ideas and puts the whole thing at risk. Literally EVERYONE said the cement base was a stupid idea and yet Elon had to trump his own experts. Wouldn't that be called working from first principles? Proving it doesn't work can be quicker in the long run than over-designing something based on what you think won't work.
- tigershark 3y agoYou don’t need to work from first principles to understand that the most powerful (by far) rocket built would obliterate whatever concrete you use without an appropriate water deluge system and/or flame trench.
- ben_bai 3y agoAnd now they have to repair the launchsite, which they already did. And add water deluge, which they already did. The upside was they got lots of data to improve the next rocket, which they already did. It's ready to go again, just waiting for FAA approval.
- rbanffy 3y ago> The upside was they got lots of data to improve the next rocket, Or they could have done that the first time with a flame trench and a water deluge system that prevented the energy of the rockets from damaging the rockets dooming the first stage and making concrete rain on the neighboring wildlife reserve. Elon could have verified that hypothesis with a full static fire test AND be able to see the damage to both rockets and pad from an actual launch without destroying a rocket. This is why SpaceX grew from the start with an immune system to prevent Elon from ruining too much stuff.
- aik 3y agoIs your argument that SpaceX has succeeded despite Elon, not in large part due to Elon?
- kortilla 3y ago> Literally EVERYONE said the cement base was a stupid idea and yet Elon had to trump his own experts. Even Elon said this. It was a gamble, it didn’t pay off.
- hef19898 3y agoAnd those gambles make Elon a bad engineer, if one at all.
- martindbp 3y agoNo, a bad engineer is one that takes no risks ever and end up doing nothing of consequence. His risk taking is the sole reason SpaceX exists.
- hef19898 3y agoYou never did any real engineering work, did you? Because there is risk taking, or rather risk management with engineering decisison always being trade offs and such, and taking ahort cuts, cutting corners and taking uncalculated risks in hopes of being lucky. Topped by ignoring advice from others.
- aik 3y agoI think at the same time there are 100 decisions he made that have paid off. Of course agree this one didn’t and of course hope he learned from it.
- kortilla 3y agofalcon and all of spacex is based on ignoring advice from others, especially “industry experts”. It’s called first principles reasoning.
- nemo 3y ago>falcon and all of spacex is based on ignoring advice from others, especially “industry experts” Not in the least. SpaceX hires a lot of rocket scientists who are industry experts. They're more agile than the entrenched players since Boeing/Lockheed legacy space programs weren't efficient but SpaceX has relied upon expert consultation and expert advice from folks in the industry to build their rockets. I don't see them as building from first principles at all, they're building on what's come before standing on the shoulders of the rocket engineers who've come before.
- nickik 3y agoYes and he has often overruled his engineers and was right. Taking calculated risk to shorten development is reasonable. Even if you don't get it always right. > Literally EVERYONE said the cement base was a stupid idea They expected it to break but be ok for one launch. Its a reasonable risk to launch sooner. > Every time he forces his idiotic ideas on his engineers he puts the future of the whole business at risk. And yet the he has lead the business for 20+ years and the company has been getting more and more and more successful. I guess that just happens by magic. > At least he’s been so distracted by the Twitter debacle the adults have been able to make decisions When SpaceX does good its because Musk wasn't there, when it does bad its because of Musk. Classic.
- wnkrshm 3y agoI wonder why Musk is always thrown into the ring with SpaceX, when its entire operation is mostly done by Gwynne Shotwell.
- zpeti 3y agoBecause Elon is the product lead (and founder and owner), Shotwell does the business development. Product is way more interesting in this case than BD, considering it's the most badass rockets ever made. But feel free to praise Shotwell too, that's great too.
- hef19898 3y agoYou really think Elon is anymore than Product Lead / Chief Engineer in title?
- zpeti 3y agoYes. Please read any of the official comments about him by people who have worked with him, or just answers on Quora, or read the new biography. Or watch his actual comments and behavior on everyday astronaut interviews. If 4 of those data points don’t convince you, you obviously don’t want to be convinced even in the slightest
- madaxe_again 3y agoThag make round rock. He call “wheel”. Thag idiot. No need round rock wheel thing in cave. Sometimes you do something against conventional wisdom, and people call you a genius. Sometimes it doesn’t pay off. I am assuming that you are employed, rather than an employer.