Re:SpaceX's next Starship flight could test refueling tech
by inglor_cz on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @02:14PM
(#38616906)
a) Those people with sliding rulers and navigation computers also had 2.5 % of American GDP annually at their disposal, which is several orders of magnitude more than anyone now has. (Be it SpaceX or Boeing or whoever...)
b) The Apollo program actually cost not just money, but human lives = a much worse outcome than just losing a test rocket. And Apollo 13 crew was very lucky to have returned to Earth alive.
c) Losses of test hardware can only really be somewhat prevented by being extremely careful and pedantic during development, which takes time, and guess what? More time spent obsessing about every single detail = more money spent on development. It is entirely possible that the "hardware is expendable" approach is much cheaper than what you would like to have.
b) The Apollo program actually cost not just money, but human lives = a much worse outcome than just losing a test rocket. And Apollo 13 crew was very lucky to have returned to Earth alive.
c) Losses of test hardware can only really be somewhat prevented by being extremely careful and pedantic during development, which takes time, and guess what? More time spent obsessing about every single detail = more money spent on development. It is entirely possible that the "hardware is expendable" approach is much cheaper than what you would like to have.