Space Geekout. Our civilization has reached yet another important step. A private company was able to launch a vehicle into Earth orbit. I’m talking about the recent successful launch of the SpaceX Dragon capsule.
Why is this important? Well, while I’m really curious what projects like Space Ship Two will do, I can’t shake the feeling that they are doing a huge show about a not very significant achievement. Yes, they have a plane that can go very high… for a plane. It can reach the edge of space (100km) but that’s not what spaceflight is about. Spaceflight really begins in orbit. Low Earth Orbit is at TWICE that height. And not only that, you also need to go at 30 times the speed of sound to stay there. Space Ship Two is nowhere near that. In order to go to orbit, they need to come up with a more ambitious setup. And I’m looking forward to that.
Meanwhile, SpaceX built a dumb, simple rocket. It’s apparently optimized for simplicity and economy. I like that. That’s something NASA just can’t do. It’s an organization with very different goals. And indeed, if you take a look at the photos of SpaceX installations, it all looks so low-fi mundane. Compare their launch setup to the NASA Arex I-X behemoth. SpaceX has some light scaffolding and a couple of sheds. NASA uses a giant transforming fortress of steel.
What do you need all that Junk for, NASA? This isn’t Rocket Science…well it kinda is… but you know what I mean!
To be fair, the Falcon 9 setup in that picture may not be the actual launch configuration. Still, the rocket just LOOKS less complex, less expensive, less intimidating. After all the the years NASA sold us the idea that going to space was so damn difficult, it’s quite refreshing to see a different approach.
Finally, there is one last thing about SpaceX which makes me really exited. I noticed it before but fellow Indie Developer Yacine Salmi remided me recently.
They have a freaking pricing page! http://www.spacex.com/falcon9.php#pricing_and_performance
