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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). Spac
by 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!