Nothing can eliminate the enthusiasm for a project like Starship that will revolutionize human space exploration.
Also, there are thousands of people from all backgrounds and political beliefs working hard to push humanity further into space, without secondary interests. The future is still bright.
As a spacex fan I’m frustrated both because Musk is loosing control of details while is trying to get more political power AND doing that destroying twitter; it is also scaring watching all far right wing rising as a “side effect”.
With so many engineers pushing the envelope of science, I want to be excited and remember them in this. But honestly because of Elon and knowing what he's done, it's just hard for me to be excited now.
And because Elon and SpaceX are so important, a lot of space coverage never seems to dare to challenge Elon on the negative stuff. Which makes sense, don't bite the hand that feeds... but it again makes it hard for me to enjoy that content.
Understandable, but a real concern. I must say, @sciguyspace.bsky.social in particular has done a good job at keeping focus and balance. As you say, space journos can't bite the hand, but they shouldn't bend the knee.
Entirely agree! Eric is one of my favourite space journalists, and I was so happy to see him come over to Bluesky. His articles are always detailed and full of integrity.
Ever since billionaires started "doing spaceships" my excitement has been more muted. The excitement for me was growing up when governments were starting to work together on projects like Mir, the ISS and later ESA doing things like landing on comets.
Mixed feelings honestly. I hope starship succeeds but Musk's behavior is a big stain on the whole thing. I guess I'm supporting the workers at SpaceX and not their boss.
I am still fascinated by the technical side and really excited about it... The launch and (hopefully) the catch will definitely be watched.
Nevertheless, I find the situation surrounding it a bit strange. You sometimes have to justify why you are showing the above-mentioned enthusiasm.
The goal of getting civilization to Mars is still very exciting. My confidence in getting to Mars has increased. But confidence in it being a civilization has decreased.
SpaceX technology is impressive but I hope humans never land on Mars. It should be quarantined permanently to preserve its natural state. We already ruined one planet, that’s plenty.
Still excited from the technical perspective! Regardless of what the elongated muskrat does, big rocket do crazy things will always be interesting to watch.
Genuinely excited here, totally focusing on the launch, the technology and what it means for space travel.
I admit that sometimes I feel some guilt, in a Von Braun and V-2 sense. But at least at this point, that's not a fair comparison.
Both recent events, as well as lacking transparency by SpaceX on technical details of Starship - not even mentioning empty mass - combined with constantly downgraded performance and absolutely *nothing* indicating developments for the much vaunted Mars landing and colonization.
Elon said that Starship 3 would have 200t payload as a tanker, meaning 100-150t for regular payloads. But that was the planned performance for Starship 1!
Development was badly prepared, SpaceX has no experience with the steel construction, Raptors and their re-usability concept.
Not with the concept as used in Starship. Almost every aspect, starting from basic construction, stage separation and ending with the landing, including re-entry/heat shielding (of the Booster, not even talking about Starship), refurbishment and reuse of Raptors etc. is new.
Reentry from orbital velocity is a whole other can of worms, adding a lot complexity (and mass), with no experience by anybody with even roughly similar constructions (Spaceshuttle was very different) - and the lack of experience shows in missed performance margins.
Instead of gradually improving Starship with each version, they hope (justifiably) to rescue the concept by making it bigger after missing their planned performance margins that were made up of hopes and dreams of engineers, rather than practical data from smaller but actually flying rockets. 4/4
It was already quite big. Why is bigger an issue? Then for the rest of the argument, I may not disagree with you, but look at the pace they are going, iterative design works! So yeah not perfect first, but you learn from your mistakes.
If SpaceX had only reached the planned performance of Falcon 9 v1.0 with the ~60% larger Falcon 9 v1.1, this would have been an issue. This is essentially what is happening with Starship.
It's more expensive, more effort - and development is still by no means done.
I'm genuinely excited, but it can be harder to get others excited about Starship (and a few other space-related things), given the political landscape that tarnishes genuine accomplishments that move humanity forward.
As always I'm excited for SpaceX, not so much for you-know-who. My big question though: when are we going to see actual payloads? This isn't any ordinary rocket, but six test flights at this scale is already a lot. Hopefully on Ship V2?
My enthusiasm for Musk has vanished, gotta admit. But Starship will still be a great step forward for humanity when it works! Being based in the US, there are more guardrails on Musk than on the Chinese if they were to dominate space first. Lesser of two evils.
excited, also conflicted. I keep reminding myself there are amazing people running SpaceX. Much like Musk's exaggerations about founding Tesla, he is not the true genius behind SpaceX. He is the money.. and there is nothing new about terrible amounts of wealth and power falling into the wrong hands.
No doubt. But setting a high-lofting goal like using a methane fueled full flow staged combustion engine or landing a booster by catching it with the launch tower, and actually figuring out HOW to do it are two different things.
I have a lot of respect for what SpaceX has achieved and from that perspective I'll be hoping for success. However I'd rather it was owned by someone else now if I'm honest.
Really, it's just another example of why we need to NOT buy in to any 'cult of personality'...you either end up disappointed/ disillusioned or you follow them into the abyss.
I choose to just believe that Gwyn Shotwell is good ather job.
When the Muskrat talks about Humanity's future in Space and "occupying 🤮 Mars"(a term he deploys in a colonial militaristic fashion), it's very clear that this is a future exclusive to him and the ultra rich. I don't care how "cheap" launches get. It's not for us.
His plan is to get a million people on Mars. So some ultra-rich certainly, plus lots of minions. It will be very interesting to see what happens. I mean we have some remote bases, e.g. antarctic station, those aren't democracies either -- more like a military base or an oil rig. Interesting times
I am always excited by advances in space tech, but recent events and their potential effect on those not aligned with SpaceX make it tough to stay that way.
very, but the next really magical launch will be the one where the starship also comes home. obviously it would be nice if Elon also came back from planet Maga.
Doing my best to separate Elon's politics from SpaceX so I am still excited. I just wish there were more people from that community posting here so that I can keep up with SpaceX's activities.
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I’m used to watching NASA launching rockets to study what’s out there.
Also, there are thousands of people from all backgrounds and political beliefs working hard to push humanity further into space, without secondary interests. The future is still bright.
I’m trying to fangirl over Stoke and Rocket Lab now
Nevertheless, I find the situation surrounding it a bit strange. You sometimes have to justify why you are showing the above-mentioned enthusiasm.
Make that 60%: I just remembered who is paying a visit to Starbase this afternoon 🙄
Rocket engineering is awesome
That said sure Spaceflight is still cool.
I miss the excitement of 2016ish when Elon was normal and only focused in SpaceX/Tesla.
Now he's super distracted w/ Twitter, soon DOGE... although at this point the further he is and the more Gwynn runs things is better.
I admit that sometimes I feel some guilt, in a Von Braun and V-2 sense. But at least at this point, that's not a fair comparison.
Development was badly prepared, SpaceX has no experience with the steel construction, Raptors and their re-usability concept.
SpaceX didn't do that with the Falcons or Dragon and did much better as a result. They actually did "gradatim ferociter" there and now they stopped.
It's more expensive, more effort - and development is still by no means done.
I choose to just believe that Gwyn Shotwell is good ather job.
But that doesn't change the fact that Falcon 9/Heavy and Starship are magnificent achievements and I cheer every thrilling launch milestone.