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Not only that, but freaking first stage landings got routine. Not quite boring yet - I still tear up any time I see one :-)

gibolt 3y ago
Watched up until #30, but it gets old watching the exact same thing that many times. Exactly what you want for a reliable space vehicle.
baq 3y ago
Yeah they won when insurance on used rockets became less than on new ones. If you said that in public a decade or so ago, you’d be laughed at all the way to the psych ward.
- TMWNN 3y ago
  I didn't realize that insurance premiums' costs had changed. Has it gotten to the point where customers prefer used Falcons 9 because they're proven, as opposed to new boosters? Or are there still customers that prefer new boosters?
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    That's a shock to me too. SpaceX dubbing reused boosters "flight-proven" started as tongue-in-cheek; I never considered it becoming true taken at face value.
  - dotnet00 3y ago
    NASA officials have claimed to prefer flight proven boosters for most science missions (https://twitter.com/Dr_ThomasZ/status/1512459452938534916 https://twitter.com/Dr_ThomasZ/status/1512459452938534916)
TeMPOraL 3y ago
Oh yes. I don't bother watching them anymore. Initially, I was excited about the possibility of successful landing, after a while, I was secretly waiting for RUDs, but past the first Falcon Heavy launch with a pair of boosters landing safely at the same time, I started to feel they've solved automated powered landing and didn't tune in again until Starship trials. Funny thing though: I occasionally see some old (like, 1970s old) book or comic cover with a rocket ship landed vertically, or most recently, such drawings in my daughters' books; I used to laugh at them being nonsense, but after first few successful booster landings, I'm no longer laughing. I'm ashamed to admit that our forefathers got that thing right, and Star Trek et al. got it wrong. Also, one of the books my little daughter has a picture of Falcon 9 next to the usual lineup of Vostok-K / Saturn V / Space Shuttle lineup. I shed a few tears when I saw this - for the first time it really hit me that there was meaningful progress in space exploration that happened within my adult lifetime, a fundamental shift I got to see and follow closely as it developed, and which my kids will see as "just how the world is". Sure, same is true about the Internet and smartphones, but neither made me feel the generational perspective gap, the way SpaceX rocket landings (and subsequent uptick in space missions) did.

gibolt 3y ago

Watched up until #30, but it gets old watching the exact same thing that many times. Exactly what you want for a reliable space vehicle.

baq 3y ago

Yeah they won when insurance on used rockets became less than on new ones. If you said that in public a decade or so ago, you’d be laughed at all the way to the psych ward.

TMWNN 3y ago
I didn't realize that insurance premiums' costs had changed. Has it gotten to the point where customers prefer used Falcons 9 because they're proven, as opposed to new boosters? Or are there still customers that prefer new boosters?
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  That's a shock to me too. SpaceX dubbing reused boosters "flight-proven" started as tongue-in-cheek; I never considered it becoming true taken at face value.
- dotnet00 3y ago
  NASA officials have claimed to prefer flight proven boosters for most science missions (https://twitter.com/Dr_ThomasZ/status/1512459452938534916 https://twitter.com/Dr_ThomasZ/status/1512459452938534916)

TeMPOraL 3y ago

Oh yes. I don't bother watching them anymore. Initially, I was excited about the possibility of successful landing, after a while, I was secretly waiting for RUDs, but past the first Falcon Heavy launch with a pair of boosters landing safely at the same time, I started to feel they've solved automated powered landing and didn't tune in again until Starship trials. Funny thing though: I occasionally see some old (like, 1970s old) book or comic cover with a rocket ship landed vertically, or most recently, such drawings in my daughters' books; I used to laugh at them being nonsense, but after first few successful booster landings, I'm no longer laughing. I'm ashamed to admit that our forefathers got that thing right, and Star Trek et al. got it wrong. Also, one of the books my little daughter has a picture of Falcon 9 next to the usual lineup of Vostok-K / Saturn V / Space Shuttle lineup. I shed a few tears when I saw this - for the first time it really hit me that there was meaningful progress in space exploration that happened within my adult lifetime, a fundamental shift I got to see and follow closely as it developed, and which my kids will see as "just how the world is". Sure, same is true about the Internet and smartphones, but neither made me feel the generational perspective gap, the way SpaceX rocket landings (and subsequent uptick in space missions) did.