SpaceX has been trying to get this right for years. Bezos’s group finally nailed one. Welcome, people of earth, to the 1930’s.
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They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. It means “The Ultimate Argument of Kings,” and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. “We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it’s about: You’ll do as I say or I’ll send my goons to kill you.”
I thought about that for a long time. If there’s an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I’ve got bullets – he’s got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that’s not going to happen. So if there’s an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain’t bullets.
It finally came to me – and that’s when I abandoned the city and most of my stuff, and gave all that was behind me a good stiff Randian Shrug.
The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.
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To be fair, NASA has made several highly publicized propulsive landings. Some of them even manned. But doing it on earth with a first stage vertical assent booster is a whole different ballgame.
Reusable boosters will change the whole space business, likely in our lifetimes. NASA not only won’t be able to take credit, they will totally be left in the dust.
yes, well, some of that is comparing apples to oranges.
Bezos’ group did the successful return of the capsule, and landed the first stage, and that is no small feat. I congratulate them on the accomplishment.
But the Blue Origin vehicle is suborbital….it went up to 100 km. It is not capable of achieving orbit, its for taking passengers on a brief ride to the edge of space. It only went a tad less than Mach 4, not the full up Mach 25 needed to go to orbit. And Bezos was landing on LAND.
SpaceX is orbital, and he was landing on a barge in the ocean.
I’m happy that Bezos did it. And its all good for both of those guys groups to succeed. The more the merrier. But saying (as many have) that Bezos beat Musk to it is less than correct.
Well, Since NASA outsources all space vehicle development and construction, this is true of everything. If NASA buys one of those from Bezo, suddenly, “that’s something NASA CAN do”.