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The difference in presentation between the launch of Starliner yesterday vs Starship today was stark. For most of the Starliner launch, all we got to see was a
by dave78 2y ago
The difference in presentation between the launch of Starliner yesterday vs Starship today was stark.
For most of the Starliner launch, all we got to see was a Windows desktop showing some basic animations that look like they're from the late 90s and unexplained telemetry with about a 1Hz update rate. Perhaps interesting to hardcore space nerds but not very exciting for John and Jane Public. Also, the "timeline" at the bottom of the webcast looked broken most of the time since it only updated when a couple major milestones occurred. Boeing even tried to address some of this in the press conference stating that video of the crew riding up to the station will be available after they download it post-flight (which, at that point, hardly anyone will care about).
Meanwhile, Starship had nearly-continuous live HD-quality feeds of video from multiple cameras from both the booster and spacecraft including all the way through reentry, producing some absolutely incredible views, some of which have probably never been seen before. Also, SpaceX puts very user-friendly telemetry displays on the bottom of their webcast that are easy to understand and seemingly have high update rates.
Maybe in the end it doesn't matter. On the other hand, if you were a potential future aerospace engineer, I think the Starship launch this week was the one that would have created most of the interest and enthusiasm. SpaceX is winning in the public-relations battle and a lot of that is because they've put focus and attention into their webcasts for a long time. Old space needs to learn a thing or 2 from them.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- shmoe 2y agoWe did get a lot of those Starlink views on flight 3 before the ship was destroyed, but yes -- definitely first time we've ever gotten to visualize re-entry live. Crazy stuff. They are so far ahead if you're paying attention it's not even funny.
- bryanlarsen 2y ago> hardcore space nerds Can confirm. My coworkers are hardcore space nerds and datavis nerds, and they took over our #random slack channel yesterday really digging the Starliner visuals.
- baq 2y agoflap leaking steel in almost-space is definitely a first for live TV.