Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit
noneeeed | on: SpaceX Astronauts Begin Spacewalk, Putting New Spacesuits to Test
The interesting thing for me is how this mission underscore the difference between SpaceX and other space companies. SpaceX have become an entire commercial space agency, able to supply everything from the rockets and capsules, to the ground operations and even the space suites and to do that in a complete package.

If you have enough money you can ring them up and say "I want to go into space" and they can make that happen. That is a pretty big deal.

loading story #41520656
stef25 | parent | next
> If you have enough money you can ring them up and say "I want to go into space" and they can make that happen.

To whoever wants to be the first one to drop acid in space, the doors are open

delichon | root | parent | next
When you throw open Huxley's doors of perception you get an extraordinary experience in the most quotidian of conditions. Like watching a river run by or just watching the washing machine run. Non psychonauts have to do extraordinary things, like become astronauts, to get to a similar level of awe-struck. A trip on a trip is a tragic waste of a trip.
loading story #41528337
loading story #41521841
aaronharnly | root | parent | next
One might suspect the CEO has dibs on this one.
jMyles | root | parent | next
> the first one to drop acid in space

Seems unlikely we'll ever definitely now, but I suspect that whomever does it next won't be the first (or second, or third).

loading story #41521011
forgot-im-old | root | parent
They also tested SpaceX's laser links, which are critical for Star Wars / Brilliant Pebbles goals,

https://www.reddit.com/r/KamalaHarris/comments/1eunob4/elon_...

loading story #41520707
paulryanrogers | parent | next
Except for the whole launch facilities thing they lease from the government.
loading story #41520543
loading story #41521586
jdross | root | parent | next
which they have also massively refurbished and could have handled themselves if not for regulations around creating a launch site.

there aren’t many technical issues to pouring concrete in a good lat-lon

michaelt | root | parent
> there aren’t many technical issues to pouring concrete in a good lat-lon

Other than when a powerful and explosion-prone rocket destroyed its launchpad, hurling chunks of steel-reinforced concrete thousands of feet. But it's almost 18 months since that happened.

gertrunde | root | parent | next
That incident probably underscores the parent poster's point quite effectively.

That launch was on 20th April 2023, and the next prototype test launch was only 212 days later on 18th November 2023, although I think the pad redesign/rebuild/repair work was complete by the end of July 2023.

So only 3-4 months to redesign/rebuild/repair the pad (although it's probably reasonable to assume some design work had already occurred).

jandrese | root | parent | next
At the end of the day it wasn't a major problem. SpaceX tried something new, it didn't work out, so they had to fix it. Nobody was hurt. Property damage was minimal. The repair didn't take very long. All in all a good example of learning from your mistakes without spending too much time or money overthinking it.
michaelt | root | parent
In civil engineering terms, if falling apart with debris thrown thousands of feet doesn't count as a "technical issue" what does?

I'm no rocketry expert, but I'm old enough to remember the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster; I'm pretty sure if you've got falling chunks of steel-reinforced concrete hitting your space vehicle during launch, that's an issue.

jjk166 | root | parent | next
The launch pad didn't explode, the rocket on the launch pad exploded. A fully fueled falcon 9 has about as much energy as a small nuclear bomb, it's not a technical issue if your structure is unable to survive that at point blank range.
gertrunde | root | parent
Oh, definitely, of course it wasn't a good or desirable outcome.

But it was also a prototype being deliberately tested to destruction, so the context as compared to Columbia was quite different. (And it wasn't just the rocket itself that was a prototype, the pad and tower were at least a little as well).

And this has always been SpaceX's approach, rapidly iterating their design by building, testing, destroying, rinse/repeat - so it sometimes feels a little difficult to compare to a more NASA-style design process where a (usually) small number of items are produced with a significantly lower tolerance for failure.

(Edit: And how much better is it to learn these design lessons before the cargo is more fragile/delicate/squishy?)

iknowstuff | root | parent | next
Whats your point
michaelt | root | parent | next
That building a rocket launch pad is in fact more difficult than pouring a slab for a garage, and there some nontrivial technical issues involved.

Having chunks of the launchpad go flying isn't just an inconvenience - flying debris during launch can damage critical rocket systems, as the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster demonstrated.

wonderwonder | root | parent
and they figured out how to prevent this happening by the next launch just a few months later. So it turned out to be fairly trivial after all. SpaceX is able to iterate in months what it takes Nasa and its contractors years to do.
taneq | root | parent
Haha well that’s gonna happen from time to time when you try new things.
dmix | root | parent
Can't be taking risks. You might actually accomplish something.
HideousKojima | root | parent | next
Soon to change with Starship launching from Boca Chica. And planned to be able to launch from essentially anywhere, eventually (in Musk Time so give it a decade).
elif | root | parent
I have seen no plans for a 4th launch/catch tower.. has he even hinted at more sites? Or are you referring to the historical BFR design when musk planned on landing them on the ground like falcon?
loading story #41520723
croes | parent
So space will become more expensive.
cwillu | root | parent | next
Go look up the cost of a soyuz launch, let alone a shuttle launch, and then tell us more about how this is making space more expensive.
croes | root | parent
That's why I wrote will become.

SpaceX doesn't have real competition after Boeing failed.

What happens in such a monopoly?

The prices rise.

loading story #41521267
loading story #41521416
loading story #41521400
indoordin0saur | root | parent | next
With the Starship the price to get a 100 ton object to orbit or one that is greater than 5 meters in diameter will suddenly become possible. Something previously cost infinity dollars will then be whatever price SpaceX charges. This is a decrease.
croes | root | parent
Things you don't do, no matter why, cost $0.

My Rolls Royce which I can't afford is a lot cheaper than the car I can afford which got more expensive than my previous one.

elif | root | parent | next
That's not true because your lack of a rolls Royce has forced you into buying a Kia, and not only suffering the cost of that vehicle, you are paying the lost utility and comfort of the rolls Royce.

Similarly, space operators who can't launch goldie-locks efficiency payloads are paying for multiple inefficient small loads instead.

indoordin0saur | root | parent
This is a very strange way to think. You could apply it to anything that could not exist in the past that people happily pay for today. "Medical care was much more affordable in middle ages!"
adolph | root | parent | next
SpaceX is ahead for now and may continue to be ahead but does have very real competition domestically and abroad.

  Tesla : Rivian/Lucid :: SpaceX : Blue Origin/ULA
  Tesla : BYD :: SpaceX : LandSpace [0]/Galactic Energy [1]
0. https://x.com/AJ_FI/status/1833761435362447760

1. https://www.space.com/galactic-energy-ceres-1-sea-launch-vid...

loading story #41521212
jandrese | root | parent | next
Tesla is another company that had a near monopoly in their market space for a couple of years, but that didn't stop competition from showing up. It is notable how their margins have dropped as competition heated up however.
croes | root | parent
Competitors from China.

I doubt that will happen for US satellites

loading story #41521817
api | root | parent | next
It would be hard to make things worse than big classical aerospace.
loading story #41521098
panick21_ | root | parent | next
Yeah its gone be more expensive then literally not able to buy something. Practically infinity expensive.

Because this literally something you couldn't buy before. Maybe if you went to Russia and gave them a lot of money.

SpaceX has made everything cheaper in Space cheaper and many things possible that literally weren't a commercial thing before.

loading story #41521096
chaostheory | root | parent | next
Did you miss the fact that reusable rockets have made it cheaper? Have you kept up with the economics of space travel?
croes | root | parent
That why I wrote will become.

Remember the time when cloud services made things cheaper?

Guess what happened next?

loading story #41521262
loading story #41522517
chaostheory | root | parent
As opposed to the traditional astronomically expensive public launches which haven’t had any real innovation since the 1960s?

The cloud services analogy isn’t a good one because it wasn’t mainly about cost. It’s about not having to deal with the logistics of a commodity layer.

brigadier132 | root | parent | next
Will become more expensive? Are you willfully ignoring the actual data?
croes | root | parent
The actual data doesn't show the future, does it?

What happens if a commercial companies beats its competitors?

Prices rise.

loading story #41521908
teekert | root | parent
Yeah, the way capitalism made goods more expensive. /s
croes | root | parent | next
You mean like Insulin in the US? Or healthcare or housing or education etc.?
loading story #41521297
loading story #41521418
rbanffy | root | parent
The way monopolies do.
loading story #41520711
loading story #41520911