Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Ward
Musk is very much an opportunist. Space X have had to invent very little which this gleaning off the net neatly summarises....
"NASA essentially had to invent the space program as we know today. Everything like the deep space network, communications, practical ways of doing the orbital maneuvers, handling cryogenic propellants, building large rocket engines and handling combustion instability, handling PoGo oscillations and all the challenges of building a super-heavy lift rocket - and all of this with little to no previous practical knowledge of the technical challenges posed by Space travel, and all of this done with slide rules and slow, primitive computers"
Yet, with all these lessons already learnt Space X still blow stuff up.  |
I totally concur with all the above as most of today’s industry and technology was built from the pioneers of the past. My Aunt in the US worked for Rocketdyne ( 1968 to 1978 ) as a Secretary to one of many managers in production. She often sent me Apollo merchandise, a great time in history.
At least Musk has a vision and purpose not like his Amazon counterpart sending up the rich and famous for a flea hop. Smilin Al would turn in his grave if he knew about this mockery of the past and present astronaut corp.
I forgot to point out that Musk has launched nearly 500 Falcon 9 missions ( both crewed and un crewed supply and science missions ) with only 3 failures. Falcon 9 is not a small rocket ( thrust nearly 2 million pounds) and is 70% reusable. It can land anywhere land or sea.