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I agree, here's the comparison of what BO is doing compared to SpaceX. http://i.imgur.com/Z81NgAk.png

That compares things location wise, but it misses out entirely on comparing the speeds, the difference of speed is a huge element in comparing the two efforts, in fact it is the distinguishing factor.

Randall Munroe explains this very nicely in his piece on Orbital Speed[1]:

> But getting to space is easy. The problem is staying there.

> To avoid falling back into the atmosphere, you have to go sideways really, really fast…The speed you need to stay in orbit is about 8 kilometers per second. Only a fraction of a rocket's energy is used to lift up out of the atmosphere; the vast majority of it is used to gain orbital (sideways) speed.

Highly recommended.

1: https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/

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