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Comment by rambambram | Hacker News Reader

I also was a fan - and still am, can't wait to see the next test with Starship - but I'm getting sick of the vaporware around it.

Watch the debunking of Starship on the 'Common Sense Skeptic' channel on Youtube, they do a pretty decent job of explaining why most of the press releases are utter scheiss.

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I don’t really understand this comment. I don’t think I’ve even read a press release from SpaceX, most of my exposure to the Starship program has been to videos of Starships flying (and often exploding)… and then another one flies soon after.

So I’m not sure how we can call the Starship program vaporware? There are stainless steel towers flying in Texas - the only vapor is their exhaust.

The most commonly referenced SpaceX "vaporware" I've seen is the late 2018 crewed Falcon Heavy moon fly-by[0] that was announced in early 2017 that never came to pass, but that pretty clearly was what became Yusaku Maezawa's dearMoon Project[1] that's now planned to fly on Starship.

As for why that happened, I think it's pretty obvious.

1. Crew-rating a rocket is no small feat, and with Falcon 9 already crew rated and Starship advancing quickly Falcon Heavy was never going to get enough crewed missions to justify the cost.

2. If you were picking which tin can to hurdle through space for a week with a few others in, would it be the one with the internal pressurized volume of a minivan (Crew Dragon) or the one with the internal pressurized volume greater than that of an Airbus A380 (Starship)?

[0]: https://spacenews.com/spacex-announces-plan-for-circumlunar-... [1]: http://dearmoon.earth/

I'm unfamiliar with the debunking of starship video, but what's there to "debunk"? Spacex is trying to build new rockets. Either the rockets fly and land, or they do not. Either the cost per launch (cost per launch paid to spacex is transparent in a variety of contract submissions) is lowered, or it isn't. They will try to fly rockets, land them, and have that cost a certain amount. Kind of hard to be vaporware when the reality of the flights are livestreamed and the costs are seen in the contracts they bid.

I’ve seen that video and it’s filled with many errors, most of which betray a total lack of knowledge about rockets and space-flight. I’ve never seen a video about spacex from the debunk/outrage YouTube sphere that wasn’t full of errors. Even thunder foot, the ring leader of YouTube outrage and “debunking” made super embarrassing mathematical errors in one of his videos about starlink. And it’s so interesting to see how criticizing Elon musk is basically a trend right now on YouTube. In this environment of dogma and hyperbole I would recommend using your own judgement rather than some youtuber who wants more Patreon money.

Making outrage videos is a very profitable YouTube niche. It's not product placement it's rage placement.

Vaporware? What are you talking about? Do you know know what that word means?

Common Sense Skeptic has found a niche exploiting the Elon Musk hate and is profiting from it. There are many people making incredible content on yt but he isn't one. Those that really know what they are doing and putting a lot more work into the accuracy of their videos have a very different opinion on SpaceX and Starship.

And I'm not sure what 'press releases' you are even talking about.

I seriously recommend not getting your information from known Musk haters who produce 'debunking' videos.

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