Comment by Bartweiss | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Bartweiss | Hacker News Reader

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> billionaires launching cars into space

Can you help me understand the ire over that launch?

It's standard that new rockets are tested with a dummy payload to avoid destroying something valuable. Typically that's steel plates, but the Falcon Heavy was going to go up with a useless payload regardless. Saturn I-IV did the same, and V only had a payload because it was a module test and a launch test rolled into one.

I suppose the Tesla took up some extra man-hours fitting the car for launch, and the rocket wasn't aimed somewhere it would be destroyed (though I can't tell whether they usually are).

But seeing this spun as "SpaceX won't save us, they're just shooting cars into space!" is baffling to me; it was some personal wealth spent on adding spectacle to a totally normal rocket launch.

Most likely due to the same troll farms that paint the narrative that SpaceX wastes tax payer money.

Now who would not want a new private American company to succeed in revitalizing the industry and increasing competition. Hmm, I can think of a few.

It used to be "NASA is a bloated waste of tax payer money let private Enterprise in."

And now the same people who said that, have been convinced that private industry is stealing.

> the same people who said that

This part doesn't match my experience?

"NASA is a waste" is, broadly, a conservative/Republican stance. Almost everyone I've seen outraged about the Tesla launch was noticeably left of the average Democrat. I don't think a narrative of "they hated the public version, now they hate the private version" holds up for the people I've seen.

Granted, there's a second group on the left who hated NASA before and SpaceX now. But that narrative is usually "space exploration is a waste when people are going hungry", with not much concern about public/private status.

"NASA is a waste" is, broadly, a conservative/Republican stance..."space exploration is a waste when people are going hungry"

It's definitely now also a Far Left talking point. Larry Wilmore basically went back to the old 60's, "Why is there poverty, and we're putting men on the moon?" There's a scene somewhere where he's telling Bill Nye to STFU about his Science. This brings to mind Phillip DeFranco's t-shirt about substituting feelings for facts.

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