Hacker News Reader

Comment by r2_pilot | Hacker News Reader

I appreciate SpaceX's mission and purpose as much as anyone, but definitely they do not have a perfect track record either, with the recent environmental disaster accompanying the 4/20 launch. Somehow it was decided to launch on an underdeveloped platform which strew debris and dust far in excess of what could be considered "responsible engineering" considering what we've known since the Saturn V. Having said that, I'd ride in a SpaceX vehicle while I have yet to ride in a Tesla, and for many of the same reasons.

View on HN

> the recent environmental disaster accompanying the 4/20 launch

"Environmental disaster"? A bit overdramatic, isn't it? The amount of "debris and dust" was absolutely minuscule compared to regular human activity in a developed country like the US.

We do try to confine those activities to industrial zones and not in and around protected environments, and we do try and mitigate the worst effects where we can. I personally thought their decision to launch without a proper launch pad was asinine before it happened, and my opinion was not changed for the better by the outcome.

The launch pad is as much in development as the vehicle itself, so it's not at all clear what is "a proper launch pad" for this vehicle. And even once it's clear what it is, I've even seen some estimates that building one on that site may take years for reasons of local geology. Meanwhile they need to perform launch tests, so I'm not sure what else than MVP they're supposed to use. Clearly waiting a few years is not an option in a chicken-and-egg situation.

> Somehow it was decided to launch on an underdeveloped platform which strew debris and dust

unless something comes out in discovery, they didn't know it was going to do that. and they had a reasonable basis for that belief, in the form of the static fire tests.

there are no whistleblowers popping up. i haven't even seen any youtubers popping up with "i told you so!" claims based on all of the footage that was available of the launch site beforehand.

> considering what we've known since the Saturn V.

the saturn V launch facility is an absolutely massive pile of earthworks; it's perfectly reasonable to try and engineer something smaller than that when you want to build a couple dozen of them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com