Define "Sore Loser".
11Please phrase your response in the form of a question.
What is Blue Origin?
SpaceX is making rockets. Blue Origin is making powerpoint slides.
SpaceX has made 124 orbital launches. Blue Origin has yet to build ONE orbit capable engine, let alone an entire launch vehicle. They are 4 years late on delivery of two BE-4 engines to ULA.
Throwing rocks at the competition when you have zero orbital capacity isn’t a great look.
- 14 comments, 19 replies
- Comment
The spaceport that does not exist.
At least they’re not Boeing.
@cinoclav Boeing’s 2nd test of the Starliner capsule (The first failed due to a significant software error - there was an 11 hour difference in the system clock between stages, but there’s a lot more to that story.) was supposedly ready to launch, but 13 of 24 oxidizer valves are stuck. Launch scrubbed, and back to the factory.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08/boeing-to-ground-starliner-indefinitely-until-valve-issue-solved/
They tried “electrical, mechanical and thermal techniques” to free them. I think that translates to hammers and blowtorches.
80 corrective actions resulted from the investigation.
There was no end-to-end testing of the entire system done before launch!
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Boeing_Orbital_Flight_Test
On the upside, the first failure revealed another problem that would have caused a collision between the service module & Starliner when they separated for return to earth. That was patched in orbit, just before return.
@blaineg @cinoclav
I think you forgot pry bars
@blaineg Hence my original comment. At this point, I’m not even that secure with flying in Boeing planes!
@cinoclav I’m OK with the old stuff, but I will never get on a 737 Max. The huge new engines they hung on it made it an aerodynamically unstable design, which they attempted to fix with software that they hid from pilots & the FAA.
@blaineg @cinoclav
MAXed out on trust, eh?
Starliner’s valve problem was caused by humidity. Who could have imagined that the Florida coast would be humid?
CGI of Super Heavy booster landing technique. The tower is also the launch tower, and visible in the photo above.
@blaineg Should I be concerned that the support legs aren’t touching the platform?
@sammydog01 They’re not talking about it much, but they’ve perfected anti-gravity.
That, or the CGI model could be better.
Tours of two different rocket factories.
Wait, is that Pikachu on the fitting cap on the left engine?
@blaineg Shocked pikachu. (I’m learning memes to communicate with my son.)
@blaineg @sammydog01
A shocked pikachu
Try a dramatic chipmunk
Or a vintage doge
Oh, cool, just found this. Super Heavy / Starship catch, move to launch position, and stack CGI.
That sums it up pretty damn well, I’d say. Stoner Space Case Musk might be all of those things, but he has actually got a product, and his people are not trying to hide or disavow their mistakes. NASA’s early development programs had loads of kaboomery, too. Overall, I think that even though the guy at the top is a showboating flake, he and the people he’s leading have actually done something, and made it work.
@werehatrack Maybe there’s something to the George Bernard Shaw quote:
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
Why is it so far the count is not ONE (besides OP)?
@blaineg
Define “Sore Loser”.
Please phrase your response in the form of a question.
Ok.
What is a reader of the Meh forums, when @blaineg hasn’t created a topic recently?
—
Great implied rant.
Thx.
“They will never get a real government contract after this.”
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08/heres-why-blue-origin-thinks-it-is-justified-in-continuing-to-protest-nasa/
Blue Origin lost the lunar lander contract based on price, performance, and failing to met the basic bid requirements.
They filed a protest, and GAO denied the protest a couple of weeks ago.
Now they are suing NASA, their potential customer.
/giphy wow
@blaineg
Can’t prove competence
For a high value payload
Corporate petulance
Innovators stand on the shoulders of giants, Blue Origin prefers to stand on their toes.
Let me just throw out a couple of numbers.
NASA’s budget for 2021 is $23.3 billion.
Bezos’ net worth is $190.7 billion.
Why is he pitching such a fit over losing a piddly little $2.9 billion lunar lander contract? Isn’t that couch cushion money?
@blaineg
His net worth includes
Operating ownership
It’s not liquid cash
Oh, this is too good to not share. From the ARS comments:
BO’s new name is Below Orbit.
Celebrate Jeff Bezos’ big day out to space with a $69 miniature d!ck rocket.
https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/tldr/2021/8/26/22642560/blue-origins-new-shephard-model-rocket-estes
@mike808 To make it more realistic, there are no engines available.
@compunaut @mike808
BO Bill and Ted
What number am I thinking
It’s 69 dudes!
@mike808 Just like the original, it’s incapable of reaching orbit. And overpriced.
@blaineg
Tangentially related and actually pretty irrelevant to me…
But I do sporadically enjoy British humor:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/10/jeff-bezos-eternal-life-amazon-taxes
To save you the trouble, Wikipedia says:
@phendrick No worries, I speak boffin. SWMBO is English.