SpaceX: Abort ! Abort! Abort!

[CelticCossack51]

I can't help but be quite bemused on how such a simple, otherwise boring item as test launch video footage can spark such -um, er- impressively passionate discussion.

Yeah, I noticed that as well. I think it's good that SpaceX is testing their abort button, but make sure that the capsule does no have to land on a solid surface.

[Sampa]

MUTINY

HOW COULD YOU

Half the forum pretty much worships companies like SpaceX

I don't know...I really agree with the guy ahead of you...I am not too pleased with SpaceX taking over a lot of NASA's jobs.

[Zucal]

I don't know...I really agree with the guy ahead of you...I am not too pleased with SpaceX taking over a lot of NASA's jobs.

What do you mean? The only thing SpaceX does that NASA no longer does is ISS cargo and soon crew transport. That's not a large market, and you should be glad it's being done in a far cheaper and safer manner than it would have been with the shuttle, freeing NASA to do better things with its time. It's a relationship with mutual benefits.

[Herr Rictus Bingo]

[Frozen_Heart]

I have to say I love SpaceX. They develop thing very quickly and cheaply and offer launch cost a lot lower than rival companies. This is only a good thing for spaceflight.

In addition they are very open and loud about what they're doing which keeps more people interested than with secretive companies. Getting the public interested is also a very good thing.

I don't understand how people can dislike them.

[lincourtl]

I have my opinions, and they're probably far more left of center than you might think, but rather than injecting my own political biases here let me just throw this out for a bit of perspective...

You all realize that the Apollo program was private-public venture of unprecedented size, right? Private sector involvement in human spaceflight is nothing new.

The LM program at Grumman was a large and complex effort. At it's peak, over 9,000 people were employed by Grumman. There was a continent of 1,400 at KSC launching facility, 450 working at the Houston space headquarters, and 300 at the rocket test facility at White Sands, New Mexico. Of the 7,000 workers at Bethpage, there were 2,400 engineers assigned to the program: 1,800 on the flight vehicle and 600 on the ground support equipment. ... Grumman's subcontractors who produced systems or parts for the LM were over 140 in number, and each of these subcontractors used subcontractors etc..... Here is a list of some of the major Grumman subcontractors...

A large list of Saturn V subcontractors: http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4206/app-e.htm

A chart from Appendix F of Chariots for Apollo showing major Apollo spacecraft contractors and subcontractors:

[Fel]

I don't know... I don't like Space X at all including his manager, the dragon spaceship looks like a tuning with this horrible dragon under the hatch... I don't know if members here are sharing the same idea

I happen to agree with Herr Bingo. I think SpaceX is overrated. The fact that a nerd-deity like Elon Musk (Who I'm neutral on, but lean towards dislike) is running the show doesn't help either.

I do not get this either. Everywhere you look there seems to be a need to make lists and orders and then argue like there is no tomorrow about who's list is better. Can we not applaud any and all space initiatives and hope they all do well?

Hero worship is bad, just take a look at this:

I think Elon Musk gets to be a bit smug after revolutionizing three industries, PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX. ULA is only interested in maintaining the status quo, ridiculously expensive expendable rockets. Bezos is just following.

Anyone who knows a little about business and statistics knows that business is much more like gambling than a true science and that succeeding three times doesn't indicate skill but having luck of the draw... but despite the simple fact that probability says someone will eventually score three times in a row, we take it as a sign that he's superhuman... and begin to excuse, or mitigate, his faults. Hero worship. We lose our ability to think rationally about a situation and hold someone, or something, to the levels of God. And then it gets nasty.

Forums about celebrities are rife with "X vs Y" and utter warfare between the two, no one can say something bad about X, X is the best! X is my personal God, Y is just trash.

What is the difference between the same trivial arguments held there, and the arguments held now? That we're talking about science-like stuff? They're just people... just companies... one day they're popular the next they they're not. There's no need to be all hostile over it.

[Hunting.Targ]

'Nobody's perfect'. And in an age of apathy and cynicism, I'll take hero worship over hero-bashing any day. Elon Musk has faults and shortcomings. So did Steve Jobs, and Sam Walton, and John F. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan, and Stephen Speilberg or George Lucas or Jim Henson. That didn't stop them from accomplishing great things. The people who really damage our culture aren't the ones who have faults (that's everybody), but the ones who try to hide them and live up to the image that hopeful, sometimes naïve fans paint onto their reputations; Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong come to mind.

I do agree with you about losing objectivity and becoming overly defensive. At the same time, I think that we can be respectful while being realistic. That takes effort from both sides.

Edited May 11, 2015 by Hunting.Targ
added more names to first example