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>Now we are able to launch a rocket in orbit, then fly the first stage to land on a small platform floating in the middle of the ocean. You know we landed on t

>Now we are able to launch a rocket in orbit, then fly the first stage to land on a small platform floating in the middle of the ocean. You know we landed on the moon, right? I mean, this is cool, but from a sheer "fascinating achievement" standpoint, this is at least a few notches behind that.

bunderbunder 12y ago
The engineer's perpetual irritation: Your most impressive achievement never has as much sex appeal as you'd hope.
InclinedPlane 12y ago
Landing on the moon was a historic achievement, but this work with reusable rockets is on the same scale. In order to colonize space and no longer be bound to just the Earth, we will need transportation that costs less than a billion dollars per person. Apollo showed us that the stars are in our grasp, SpaceX wool provide the means of actually grasping them.
tomswartz07 12y ago
Surely, but this is all computer controlled. Humans are pretty crafty, but it takes a special kind of craftiness to program a computer to do it as well as a person. :)
KeytarHero 12y ago
Can't we just appreciate how both are fascinating for entirely different reasons? I think it's pretty amazing we were able to get a rocket to land (edit: well, almost land) to this precise a spot - and all by itself, without human pilots. Sure, it's no moon landing, but it has certain other challenges the moon landing didn't have. I think both are really cool.
HCIdivision17 12y ago
As others noted, it's not, but for different reasons. The moon landings were sort of a different task (get people to the moon and back and don't kill 'em). SpaceX is trying something a bit different though: make this whole thing boring and industrialize it. The first is a historic series of one-shots that really can't be repeated for any sane economic purpose. The second is an attempt to automate and ruggedize it. It's sort of why the sky-crane landing on Mars was such a historic achievement, arguably far more complex than the Apollo work. Don't let that diminish the greatness of Apollo, though. Today we have tools bording on magic, while they literally used wax pencils and slide rules. But don't let that diminish the accomplishment here, where the tools are being properly leveraged to make LEO an everyday occurrence. In short: there's plenty of awesome to go around!

bunderbunder 12y ago

The engineer's perpetual irritation: Your most impressive achievement never has as much sex appeal as you'd hope.

InclinedPlane 12y ago

Landing on the moon was a historic achievement, but this work with reusable rockets is on the same scale. In order to colonize space and no longer be bound to just the Earth, we will need transportation that costs less than a billion dollars per person. Apollo showed us that the stars are in our grasp, SpaceX wool provide the means of actually grasping them.

tomswartz07 12y ago

Surely, but this is all computer controlled. Humans are pretty crafty, but it takes a special kind of craftiness to program a computer to do it as well as a person. :)

KeytarHero 12y ago

Can't we just appreciate how both are fascinating for entirely different reasons? I think it's pretty amazing we were able to get a rocket to land (edit: well, almost land) to this precise a spot - and all by itself, without human pilots. Sure, it's no moon landing, but it has certain other challenges the moon landing didn't have. I think both are really cool.

HCIdivision17 12y ago

As others noted, it's not, but for different reasons. The moon landings were sort of a different task (get people to the moon and back and don't kill 'em). SpaceX is trying something a bit different though: make this whole thing boring and industrialize it. The first is a historic series of one-shots that really can't be repeated for any sane economic purpose. The second is an attempt to automate and ruggedize it. It's sort of why the sky-crane landing on Mars was such a historic achievement, arguably far more complex than the Apollo work. Don't let that diminish the greatness of Apollo, though. Today we have tools bording on magic, while they literally used wax pencils and slide rules. But don't let that diminish the accomplishment here, where the tools are being properly leveraged to make LEO an everyday occurrence. In short: there's plenty of awesome to go around!