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by steve197711 hours ago |
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upvoteby imglorp4 hours ago|
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BO was founded in 2000 and has about 2 orbital launches with a partly reusable system. They build rockets.

SpaceX was founded in 2002 and has around 660 orbital launches with a fully reusable system. They build rocket factories.

BO is absolutely the underdog, in every way, unless you want to count 38 suborbital joyrides, then they're ahead at 38 to 0.

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upvoteby perilunar2 hours ago|
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None of the SpaceX orbital launches so far have been fully reusable. The second stage is not recovered.
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upvoteby brookst4 hours ago|
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Always hope for the stupid mistake. It’s embarrassing but so much better than having the same problem caused by a complex and difficult-to-root-cause issue.

After a long day of working on a car I would much rather have it fail to start because I forgot to connect the battery than fail to start because the starter I replaced had been returned to the store by a previous purchaser, with the wrong part in the box, which was mechanically compatible with the mount but not with the flywheel. (Hypothetically speaking…)

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upvoteby AdamN10 hours ago|
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Sort of - if it's determined that somebody bypassed a safety control they can just make the control firmer and fire that person and move onto other things. If it's some fundamental flaw in the engine design that could set them back months/years.
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upvoteby Rover2224 hours ago|
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Calling Blue Origin a vanity project is so ridiculous.
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upvoteby steve19772 hours ago|
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What would you say is Jeff Bezos' motivation behind it?
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upvoteby GMoromisato2 hours ago|
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Jeff Bezos loves space exploration. He loves O'Neil's vision of orbital colonies, and he firmly believes that moving heavy industry to orbit will leave Earth better off. That's not a vanity project.

The Washington Post, on the other hand, he purchased as a trophy. That's the vanity project.

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upvoteby j1mc51 minutes ago|
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I disagree. The poet Gary Snyder thought space travel was unimaginative - that living life as things are on earth was more interesting and challenging. Owning the Washington Post gives him control over a high visibility U.S. news operation. Nothing vanity about that.
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upvoteby Rover2221 hours ago|
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Lots of Americans are only capable of this logic for now: billionaire bad
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upvoteby steve197740 minutes ago|
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It's more like pretending to care about earth but living a lifestyle with private jets and yachts: hypocrisy
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upvoteby Rover2221 hours ago|
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Oh you know, probably his clearly stated intentions of driving industry off-earth and into orbit.

Is SpaceX also a vanity project? No, Musk actually wants to expand human civilization beyond one planetary sphere.

Just because they're billionaires doesn't mean they're full of shit. In fact, in both of their cases, it means they're extremely driven by... real ambitions.

So obvious.

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upvoteby steve197736 minutes ago|
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> Musk actually wants to expand human civilization beyond one planetary sphere.

Does he want to expand human civilization for the benefit of human civilization or does he want to be the man who made that expansion possible?

I can absolutely see real ambitions behind them, I just think these ambitions are driven by vanity (and other "vices")

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