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Technology / Re: Could private space flight have taken off earlier? Why now?
« on: 21/10/2013 23:55:42 »
Jeff Greason, founder of XCOR, said this of the Challenger disaster:
"As a student at CalTech, with no special expertise in the area, I had heard of the problem with the O-rings. When the Challenger disaster occurred, i said, 'that looks like an O-ring problem. But it can't be - they already solved that problem."
He then goes on to talk of his feeling of frustration with the culture of NASA and the American aerospace industry that inspired him to found XCOR. Elon Musk talks of similar frustration. Both men left the computer / internet industry to found rocket companies. Both men feel that the approach NASA and companies like Boeing were taking to reaching space was fundamentally flawed. Musk is focussing on reuseable rockets, Greason and Burt Rutan are focussing on space planes.
Both these tactics seem like things that could have been developed a long time ago. Was there some reason they couldn't be?
DeGrasse Tyson referred specifically to hauling freight to LEO, that it should have been a job handed over to private industry long ago. I'm not sure what video i saw that in, but i believe he said 'decades' ago. He doesn't believe for a second that SpaceX or anyone else in private industry can get to Mars, much less establish a colony. That he still feels requires much deeper pockets and the ability to take risk that only a government can endure
How long ago did launching satellites for private groups develop into a profitable endeavour? Is that what made the difference?
"As a student at CalTech, with no special expertise in the area, I had heard of the problem with the O-rings. When the Challenger disaster occurred, i said, 'that looks like an O-ring problem. But it can't be - they already solved that problem."
He then goes on to talk of his feeling of frustration with the culture of NASA and the American aerospace industry that inspired him to found XCOR. Elon Musk talks of similar frustration. Both men left the computer / internet industry to found rocket companies. Both men feel that the approach NASA and companies like Boeing were taking to reaching space was fundamentally flawed. Musk is focussing on reuseable rockets, Greason and Burt Rutan are focussing on space planes.
Both these tactics seem like things that could have been developed a long time ago. Was there some reason they couldn't be?
DeGrasse Tyson referred specifically to hauling freight to LEO, that it should have been a job handed over to private industry long ago. I'm not sure what video i saw that in, but i believe he said 'decades' ago. He doesn't believe for a second that SpaceX or anyone else in private industry can get to Mars, much less establish a colony. That he still feels requires much deeper pockets and the ability to take risk that only a government can endure
How long ago did launching satellites for private groups develop into a profitable endeavour? Is that what made the difference?