Apparently the floodgates are open and its open season on my-hero

    • TwistedCister@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      If SpaceX had to do the foundational work that NASA did there would be many more dead and still no space travel. Ellie wouldn’t even consider things like oxygen, he’d just be asking why the thrusters need to be held on with three bolts instead of two.

  • someone [comrade/them, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    (Insert usual caveat about how my respect for SpaceX’s accomplishments is strictly for the actual scientists and engineers and technicians actually doing the work, and not for the know-nothing dipshit who owns most of the shares.)

    In fairness they are trying to develop an entirely new type of spacecraft that’s never been tried before by anyone, an upper stage that’s actually reusable without refurbishment. My hope is that the Chinese space agency sees what works and what doesn’t with Starship, and applies those lessons to their R&D program.

    • leftAF [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      2 days ago

      For the HLS that Starship is allegedly supporting, it’s a pretty big miss since the timeline from the bidding process. I remember as of 2020 they were supposed to be doing an uncrewed lunar landing in Q1 2024. So far they’ve missed all the milestones and haven’t actually completed one yet (HLS test launch Q2 2022, Q4 2022 Propellant transfer test, Q2 2023 Long duration flight test, Q3 2023 Critical design review, Q2 2024 Design certification review, Q1 2025 HLS Launch)

      They haven’t even tested it with cargo, right? I’d love to see them try with the 100T of cargo they’re hoping for (because then they only need like 15 Starships launches to fuel one in orbit to go to the moon…) Can’t recover the 2nd stage, just plummets back and explodes when it doesn’t explode on the way up.

  • underisk [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    3 days ago

    look, its very difficult to put things into space. especially with all the benefit of information and research made publicly available through a government funded project that accomplished what you’ve failed repeatedly to do more than half a century ago with a mere fraction of the resources and technology.