— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) May 29, 2026...used missiles (Redstone, Titan) for just this reason. That gave them time to develop the Saturn 1B and Saturn V.
I’m just saying, we’ve known how to do this for 60+ years. Why did we decide to farm it out to private enterprise?
Well, Redstone and Titan were built by private enterprise, too (Chrysler and Martin). So is the dark horse SLS (various contractors), which thus far has not blown up.
ReplyDeleteThe problem as I see it is that SpaceX's plans for moon missions are Rube Goldberg bullshit, and they put the cart before the horse on the reusability aspect. Blue Origin has been doing slow and steady development, but that appears to mean they don't have as much operational experience. Oddly enough, both companies have lost vehicles during static fire tests, which...well, space is hard, even on the ground (as Apollo One illustrates).
Built to DOD specifications. Both were missile platforms, which took development, too. NASA had its explosions before going with something a bit less “experimental.” Bezos and Musk keep proving it IS rocket science.
ReplyDeleteYup, and the missiles themselves went through growing pains, too! As Eric Sevareid exclaimed in The Right Stuff, "our rockets always blow up." They had the devil of a time with the Agena target vehicle (another DoD jobber originally for recon sats), too.
ReplyDeleteSpace is hard. And that's why I scoff at the grandiose pronouncements, especially from Elon humpers, about any of these new rockets. They're standing on the shoulders of giants, but they act like they invented this shit. People literally died learning a lot of lessons, and the oligarchs think first principles don't apply to them, ignoring Feynman's observation in the wake of Challenger that Nature cannot be fooled...
Yup. Couldn’t agree more. And now they want a “colony” on the moon. I only hope the supply rockets are more reliable, because if you don’t take it with you, it ain’t gonna be there. And if you run out….
DeleteSpace is hard. Damned hard.