6 ms·

So what does a rocket company need to do to be imrpessive in your eyes?

Over2Chars 2y ago
It needs to give him a job :-)
hooli_gan 2y ago
A Mars cargo mission, according to the timeline spacex set for themselves. https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F2HFqsVkiZc/YT9bPpXSKDI/AAAAAAAAGJM/eni8UpAmZ3Iu1L-0Q5Kdu9gRkEZ6HmTmQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/SpaceX+Starship+timeline+%25282021.06%2529+by+Ryan+MacDonald_infographic.jpg https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F2HFqsVkiZc/YT9bPpXSKDI/AAAAAAAAG...
- pms 2y ago
  Thank you. This needs to be emphasized more.
- pclmulqdq 2y ago
  A lot of people have been shitting on SLS for being too expensive over the last 5 years, but it's worth noting that the Artemis program has been completely fucked due to SpaceX massively missing its milestones on Starship. So many people believe that Elon Musk is going to bring humanity back to the Moon, but he is largely the reason that humanity is not back on the moon already. The GAO put out a report on this a few months ago, pointing out the failures of SpaceX here (including massive cost overruns) much more than the supposed cost overruns of SLS. Incidentally, after this GAO report came out, Elon Musk became very interested in being in charge of managing "government waste."
  - ceejayoz 2y ago
    This is a very partial telling of the current situation. Orion is delayed due to a heat shield issue: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/nasa-identifies-cause-of-artemis-i-orion-heat-shield-char-loss/ https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/nasa-identifies-cause-... The first SLS launch was six years behind and massively over budget. Lunar Gateway is almost certainly getting delayed. None of these programs rely on SpaceX in any way thus far.
    - pclmulqdq 2y ago
      There was no heat shield issue, it was investigated and the resolved: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/nasa-delays-artemis-2-moon-mission-to-april-2026-artemis-3-lunar-landing-to-mid-2027 https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/nasa-delays-... There is an issue with another dependency for Artemis 2 and 3, though - Starship is nowhere near where it needs to be.
      - ceejayoz 2y ago
        "There was no heat shield issue" and "it was investigated and resolved" cannot both be true. There was a heat shield issue; they investigated for two years, and it has caused a delay. Artemis II has no Starship dependency. It's entirely SLS/Orion. Your own article agrees with me: > Artemis 2 likely would've been delayed by a year or so, to late 2026, had a heat-shield replacement been required, NASA officials said today. But the mission team still needs more time than originally envisioned to get Orion up to crew-carrying speed, explaining the roughly six-month push. > "The heat shield was installed in June 2023, and the root cause investigation took place in parallel to other assembly and testing activities to preserve as much schedule as possible."
  - panick21_ 2y ago
    Complete nonsense. There are many issues with Artemis timeline. And of course its completely ridiculous to blame a program that received 2 billion $ and only really started a few years ago, vs things like SLS Orion that have been going for decades and absorbed 50 billion $.
- Mistletoe 2y ago
  Ah Elon time strikes again.
tsimionescu 2y ago
Maybe match some achievements from 60 years ago, like having a rocket that can put someone on the moon, back when the largest supercomputer in the space program had less FLOPS than my watch.
- jve 2y ago
  Decreasing price of a launch by multiple orders of magnitude and increased cadence is also an achievement that hasn't been achieved previously.
  - tsimionescu 2y ago
    Increased launch cadence is an operational achievement, not an engineering one. And I'm not so sure that they actually decreased price to launch all that much. First of all, it's definitely not "several orders of magnitude", the best numbers quoted are maybe half price or so for a Falcon 9 compared to another contemporary rocket. And by my understanding, the US government at least is paying about as much for Falcon 9 as it was for a Soyuz to bring an astronaut to the ISS, at least.
    - jve 2y ago
      I was comparing to the achievements of 60 years ago when they put people on the moon :) They are working towards that in a sustainable manner.
      - senordevnyc 2y ago
        So…not something they achieved?
    - inemesitaffia 2y ago
      NASA pays both Boeing and SpaceX less than Soyuz was.
      - pclmulqdq 2y ago
pelagicAustral 2y ago
Go to the moon, land a rover, wander about, come back with everyone alive... should be easy right?, I mean, it's already been done... RIGHT????
rco8786 2y ago
We'll have to get to parity with what we were doing 50-60 years ago. The reusability is awesome, of course. More of that! And also, still gotta get the basics right. Oxygen/fuel leaks aren't a great look (spoken as a not rocket scientist).

It needs to give him a job :-)

A Mars cargo mission, according to the timeline spacex set for themselves. https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F2HFqsVkiZc/YT9bPpXSKDI/AAAAAAAAGJM/eni8UpAmZ3Iu1L-0Q5Kdu9gRkEZ6HmTmQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/SpaceX+Starship+timeline+%25282021.06%2529+by+Ryan+MacDonald_infographic.jpg https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F2HFqsVkiZc/YT9bPpXSKDI/AAAAAAAAG...

pms 2y ago
Thank you. This needs to be emphasized more.
pclmulqdq 2y ago
A lot of people have been shitting on SLS for being too expensive over the last 5 years, but it's worth noting that the Artemis program has been completely fucked due to SpaceX massively missing its milestones on Starship. So many people believe that Elon Musk is going to bring humanity back to the Moon, but he is largely the reason that humanity is not back on the moon already. The GAO put out a report on this a few months ago, pointing out the failures of SpaceX here (including massive cost overruns) much more than the supposed cost overruns of SLS. Incidentally, after this GAO report came out, Elon Musk became very interested in being in charge of managing "government waste."
- ceejayoz 2y ago
  This is a very partial telling of the current situation. Orion is delayed due to a heat shield issue: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/nasa-identifies-cause-of-artemis-i-orion-heat-shield-char-loss/ https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/nasa-identifies-cause-... The first SLS launch was six years behind and massively over budget. Lunar Gateway is almost certainly getting delayed. None of these programs rely on SpaceX in any way thus far.
  - pclmulqdq 2y ago
    There was no heat shield issue, it was investigated and the resolved: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/nasa-delays-artemis-2-moon-mission-to-april-2026-artemis-3-lunar-landing-to-mid-2027 https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/nasa-delays-... There is an issue with another dependency for Artemis 2 and 3, though - Starship is nowhere near where it needs to be.
    - ceejayoz 2y ago
      "There was no heat shield issue" and "it was investigated and resolved" cannot both be true. There was a heat shield issue; they investigated for two years, and it has caused a delay. Artemis II has no Starship dependency. It's entirely SLS/Orion. Your own article agrees with me: > Artemis 2 likely would've been delayed by a year or so, to late 2026, had a heat-shield replacement been required, NASA officials said today. But the mission team still needs more time than originally envisioned to get Orion up to crew-carrying speed, explaining the roughly six-month push. > "The heat shield was installed in June 2023, and the root cause investigation took place in parallel to other assembly and testing activities to preserve as much schedule as possible."
- panick21_ 2y ago
  Complete nonsense. There are many issues with Artemis timeline. And of course its completely ridiculous to blame a program that received 2 billion $ and only really started a few years ago, vs things like SLS Orion that have been going for decades and absorbed 50 billion $.
Mistletoe 2y ago
Ah Elon time strikes again.

tsimionescu 2y ago

Maybe match some achievements from 60 years ago, like having a rocket that can put someone on the moon, back when the largest supercomputer in the space program had less FLOPS than my watch.

jve 2y ago
Decreasing price of a launch by multiple orders of magnitude and increased cadence is also an achievement that hasn't been achieved previously.
- tsimionescu 2y ago
  Increased launch cadence is an operational achievement, not an engineering one. And I'm not so sure that they actually decreased price to launch all that much. First of all, it's definitely not "several orders of magnitude", the best numbers quoted are maybe half price or so for a Falcon 9 compared to another contemporary rocket. And by my understanding, the US government at least is paying about as much for Falcon 9 as it was for a Soyuz to bring an astronaut to the ISS, at least.
  - jve 2y ago
    I was comparing to the achievements of 60 years ago when they put people on the moon :) They are working towards that in a sustainable manner.
    - senordevnyc 2y ago
      So…not something they achieved?
  - inemesitaffia 2y ago
    NASA pays both Boeing and SpaceX less than Soyuz was.
    - pclmulqdq 2y ago

pelagicAustral 2y ago

Go to the moon, land a rover, wander about, come back with everyone alive... should be easy right?, I mean, it's already been done... RIGHT????

rco8786 2y ago

We'll have to get to parity with what we were doing 50-60 years ago. The reusability is awesome, of course. More of that! And also, still gotta get the basics right. Oxygen/fuel leaks aren't a great look (spoken as a not rocket scientist).