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Here's his statement on twitter from today: "Sorry to hear about the @OrbitalSciences launch. Hope they recover soon" https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/52724

Here's his statement on twitter from today: "Sorry to hear about the @OrbitalSciences launch. Hope they recover soon" https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/527247155954610176 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/527247155954610176 Was he speaking facts? Because if they were using rockets made in the 60s - he's not really badmouthing them as much as he is making public facts.

Lambdanaut 12y ago
Comparing their rockets to "the punchline of a joke" is definitely bad mouthing, just factual badmouthing. Despite that, I don't blame him. Being factual is what's important.
- avmich 12y ago
  And of course it's ridiculous that engines like NK-33 are considered bad just because they sit in a hangar for some 40+ years :) . It's not milk, they aren't that easily spoiled. Elon just used this time reference to make the decision look good - for somebody who doesn't know better. So factually he's right - but also misses the point. Here I should admit that Elon says more than he does - but he does quite a bit too, so kudos to his successes - Merlin-1D is a great engine.
  - ramidarigaz 12y ago
    It's not that they've been sitting in a hangar for decades so much as that we've gotten a lot better at building engines. Presumably modern designs have a lot lower catastrophic fault probability.
  - justin66 12y ago
    > And of course it's ridiculous that engines like NK-33 are considered bad just because they sit in a hangar for some 40+ years I took his comment to be more in the "that's your business model? buying and selling old Russian hardware?" vein. It's not that the hardware is bad, per se. Although the hardware might be bad. I imagine they're looking into that...
avmich 12y ago
I think technically engines were manufactured in early '70s - like, in 1974? Definitely weren't stored in Siberia - Russia has quite sizable European part, no need to go to Siberia if you want to hide about 70 engines from nemesis Glushko's eye...
- readerrrr 12y ago
  They were stored in Samara, Russia. Maps say that is in Siberia.
  - x4m 12y ago
    Samara is in european part of Russia. Siberia starts from Novosibirsk, it's about 2k miles to East from Samara.
    - tanzam75 12y ago
      > Siberia starts from Novosibirsk, it's about 2k miles to East from Samara. Omsk is in Siberia and it's only 1000 miles away from Samara. Anyway, Los Angeles is not in Oregon, Moscow is not in Germany, and Samara is not in Siberia.
  - tanzam75 12y ago
    > They were stored in Samara, Russia. Maps say that is in Siberia. Samara is not in Siberia. It is in the Volga Federal District, which is west of the Urals and therefore in European Russia. In fact, Samara is 1000 miles away from Siberia. Even for Russia, that's still quite a distance.

Lambdanaut 12y ago

Comparing their rockets to "the punchline of a joke" is definitely bad mouthing, just factual badmouthing. Despite that, I don't blame him. Being factual is what's important.

avmich 12y ago
And of course it's ridiculous that engines like NK-33 are considered bad just because they sit in a hangar for some 40+ years :) . It's not milk, they aren't that easily spoiled. Elon just used this time reference to make the decision look good - for somebody who doesn't know better. So factually he's right - but also misses the point. Here I should admit that Elon says more than he does - but he does quite a bit too, so kudos to his successes - Merlin-1D is a great engine.
- ramidarigaz 12y ago
  It's not that they've been sitting in a hangar for decades so much as that we've gotten a lot better at building engines. Presumably modern designs have a lot lower catastrophic fault probability.
- justin66 12y ago
  > And of course it's ridiculous that engines like NK-33 are considered bad just because they sit in a hangar for some 40+ years I took his comment to be more in the "that's your business model? buying and selling old Russian hardware?" vein. It's not that the hardware is bad, per se. Although the hardware might be bad. I imagine they're looking into that...

avmich 12y ago

I think technically engines were manufactured in early '70s - like, in 1974? Definitely weren't stored in Siberia - Russia has quite sizable European part, no need to go to Siberia if you want to hide about 70 engines from nemesis Glushko's eye...

readerrrr 12y ago
They were stored in Samara, Russia. Maps say that is in Siberia.
- x4m 12y ago
  Samara is in european part of Russia. Siberia starts from Novosibirsk, it's about 2k miles to East from Samara.
  - tanzam75 12y ago
    > Siberia starts from Novosibirsk, it's about 2k miles to East from Samara. Omsk is in Siberia and it's only 1000 miles away from Samara. Anyway, Los Angeles is not in Oregon, Moscow is not in Germany, and Samara is not in Siberia.
- tanzam75 12y ago
  > They were stored in Samara, Russia. Maps say that is in Siberia. Samara is not in Siberia. It is in the Volga Federal District, which is west of the Urals and therefore in European Russia. In fact, Samara is 1000 miles away from Siberia. Even for Russia, that's still quite a distance.