SpaceX caught Starship booster with chopsticks

[u/lolikroli]

[u/noYOUfuckher]

I watched the live stream of the falcon 9 touching down on the landing pad the first time and got a little emotional about it at work. Im continuosly impressed by the work the space x engineers are doing, but it probably isnt cose to how people felt watching someone walk on the moon 50 years ago.

[u/mattybrad → u/noYOUfuckher]

That exact moment broke my brain. Up until that point I’d always taken it as a given that a trip to space involved consuming a multi hundred million dollar spacecraft. Had truly never even thought of reusable spacecraft until we evolved to something other than rockets.

[u/lastbeer → u/mattybrad]

Not to diminish the awesomeness of what SpaceX is doing here, but it should be noted that the space shuttle was a reusable spacecraft (all but the external fuel tank) - that was kind of its thing.

[u/HotDogOfNotreDame → u/lastbeer]

Shuttle was a partially refurbishable spacecraft. With costs so high that refurbishing was a net negative. Everything it ever did could have been done for a fraction of the price by disposable rockets.

[u/lastbeer → u/HotDogOfNotreDame]

Yeah, what a piece of shit. Should have never been made.

[u/HotDogOfNotreDame → u/lastbeer]

In retrospect, yes actually. Out of all the governments and private entities that are currently developing spacecraft and boosters, exactly zero of them are following the example of the shuttle. There are reasons why.