Re:SpaceX receives FAA approval for return to flight [pdf]
by londons_explore on Friday January 06, 2017 @01:53PM
(#13339066)
I hope they have the whole thing super-practiced and can do one per week like a big production line.
Big planes, which are of similar complexity, have production lines rolling off one per day, so it's doable with the right processes.
Re:SpaceX receives FAA approval for return to flight [pdf]
by thelambentonion on Friday January 06, 2017 @05:09PM
(#13340743)
Big planes have an order of magnitude lower complexity than a rocket of the Falcon 9's caliber. That's a somewhat subjective statement, I'm sure, but even if it weren't the case there's so much variation between each Falcon 9 I'd be surprised if they could crank that many out with any reasonable amount of QA.
Re:SpaceX receives FAA approval for return to flight [pdf]
by msl on Saturday January 07, 2017 @02:20AM
(#13342825)
The Soviet Union managed to produce their Soyuz-U rockets at a higher pace than that some four decades ago [1] while achieving a success rate of > 97%. Sure, it's a different rocket with different capabilities, but it was also a long time ago.
Re:SpaceX receives FAA approval for return to flight [pdf]
by NegativeLatency on Friday January 06, 2017 @05:40PM
(#13340968)
Big planes generally have better failure modes as well, and humanity has more experience in producing/operating planes than rockets.
Re:SpaceX receives FAA approval for return to flight [pdf]
by 6stringmerc on Friday January 06, 2017 @05:08PM
(#13340737)
...one only has to make a similar comparison between Tesla and a variety of auto manufacturing firms to note there is a distinct whiff of under-performance and delays that, by outward appearances, appear to be top-down culturally.
Let's hope Spacex can keep the pace.