SpaceX is targeting Monday, April 17 for the first flight of Starship | Hacker News Reader

SpaceX is targeting Monday, April 17 for the first flight of Starship

spacex.com

95 pointssamwillis33 comments

We've moved most comments to the related ongoing thread:

The FAA has granted SpaceX permission to launch its Starship rocket - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35575298

Isn't this the better thread? It links directly to the original source. Ars Technica is just reporting on the SpaceX page

They've added some additional background.

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-...

Live now, launching in 25 mins

If I want to watch, is it the 2-hour countdown that starts at 7:00 a.m. Central time?

I’m rooting for this hard, just wish I liked Elon wholeheartedly like I did a few years ago.

Please let's not have another boo-vs.-yay $celebrity thread.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

why not lock replies in such threads to being non-repliable? its not the initial comments or the replies but the giant argument chains that are the problem. or you could allow arguments but offload them to twitter spaces or another real-time platform thats well-suited to such nonsense.

> why not lock replies in such threads to being non-repliable?

People would just post their replies at the top level instead.

for me, not being able to harass a comment from directly below takes a lot of the visceral enjoyment out of it. but ok.

Yup and being denied that enjoyment would create resentment that would convert into mischief.

Basically, technical tricks for controlling discussion don't really work—that's been our experience anyhow.

Even if you're not a fan of Elon or the other stuff he's doing, remember that this is the product of thousands of other people who have worked for SpaceX. It also incorporates the innovations of thousands more who worked for previous rocket companies and NASA over the years since we first started firing stuff into space.

Elon deserves credit for getting this thing going, but it ain't a sole proprietorship. People who didn't like John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, or Werner von Braun could still enjoy watching human beings land on the moon.

Humans are nuts and if we go to space it'll mean crazy humans will be in space. There will be greasy politicians, arrogant business magnates, trolls, culture wars, ... all of it ... in space...

Everyone has flaws. Our system lets the powerful magnify human flaws though.

Everyone has flaws, but not everyone has a clinical-level personality disorder or unethically and unlawfully abuses everyone around them, making a career of stealing from taxpayers, vendors, customers, business partners, shareholders, lenders, employees, etc. with a total lack of empathy or remorse, and then whining pathetically about what a huge victim they are.

It does seem to lead to great results in this instance though. Or maybe despite that.

Many engineers I have interacted with are low empathy. It’s not legal to steal from tax payers, so that also might be an exaggeration.

> "Stealing from taxpayers"

Give us one example.

They aren’t any, he’s just making up bullshit like always

Funny thing is that all pales in comparison to dragging whole industries kicking and screaming into the future.

Why put him at the center of it all with your comment then? There are a literally million other things to talk about when it comes to SpaceX and space travel.

it's nice to be wholeheartedly rooting for a company and the technological progress it represents

Let’s be honest: I’m rooting for the technological progress. The company operates like all companies - exploitation and shareholder manipulation.

The progress is a nice outcome. Even if it makes the asshole owner richer.

Especially because the progress should be open for any tech funded by taxpayer dollars.

>Especially because the progress should be open for any tech funded by taxpayer dollars.

Where did this idea that SpaceX is heavily subsidized by the government come from?

No, the government being a customer != subsidies. (If anything, the government is paying less than market rate, thanks to SpaceX's reusability.)

I never mentioned subsides or heavily but : Gov money is still our money. So I, personally, believe it should be spent on good things that profit us. Financially and socially. Space. Not war. Health not cops. Etc.

I worry some corps will allow for accepting funds and privatizing the profit. Then pivot into needing subsidies because they’re “too big to fail”

With the way musk runs things… That’s what I’m worried about.

Lol. Ask some of the early-mid stage employees whether they were exploited given current valuations.

> The company operates like all companies - exploitation and shareholder manipulation

I don#t suppose there is any chance you can explain what this means. Shareholder manipulation? What exploitation do you reductively observe?

All corps exploit. Its how capitalism treats its labor pool.

Here’s a recent link to some examples. At SpaceX.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/17/former-spacex-employees-file...

Far as shareholder manip - I mean the choice to take roi over people is the shareholders manipulating the company into allowing this behavior by its ceo and to its employees.

I still don't know what point you are making. What alternative do you propose?

so hype

An example of real hype that matters.

This will be interesting to see. I'm sure people will tune in to see Elon both succeed or fail. LFG.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft

https://onxrp.com/glossary/lfg-lets-fcking-go/

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