“getting the landings right is one thing. Not being able to get to orbit is a totally different thing.”
I remember 10 years ago when you morons were calling Falcon 9 a failed rocket, and that SpaceX rockets blow up all the time. Because of all those landing tests.
All 9 previous Starship test flights had the perigee of their orbits in the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, because they haven’t tested the de-orbit burn. SpaceX doesn’t want a 100+ metric ton object (with a heat shield!) tumbling in multiple orbital loops, like China’s CZ-5B 20 metric ton core stage does on every flight.
Do not lecture me on space travel again.
@nocults
"are they that stupid to copy a rocket that can go to orbit 0 out of 9 times?"
"I mean, SpaceX's success is dependent on the Dragon and the Falcon, not this Starship shit, which is basically taxpayer money set on fire."
It took SpaceX 20 attempts to get the Falcon 9 landings right. Now SpaceX dominates 90% of the entire world's annual orbital upmass.
Unlike you, the Chinese ruling class knows how space travel works.
The commentariat right's perception of space travel is stuck in the ULA/Arianespace/Shuttle paradigm.
Brilliant Pebbles, a space weapon concept for using cheap mass produced satellites to intercept ICBMs and to destroy other satellites, would've been considered infeasible under the Boeing Lockheed expendable ULA rocket paradigm.
It now exists in the form of Elon Musk's 7,000 Starlink satellites. Launched by a reusable booster that launches every 2.3 days.
There are comparisons of the three American strongmen to that of Rome's original 1st Triumvirate.
- Trump = Pompey
- Elon = Crassus
- JD Vance = Caesar
But the Roman strongmen were actual war chieftains, they were much better men than a merchant->commander, a merchant->tech prophet, and a lawyer.
You need Trump's populist right for rank and file warriors. Trump inspires military and para-military recruitment (Pete Hegseth and Erik Prince).
You need Elon's tech right for hypersonic weapons and kill bots. Elon inspires the recruitment of tech priests (see the young man who AI decoded the Herculaneum scrolls).