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by alttab 1798 days ago
SpaceX has already done that, in less time, and took humans to the ISS.
3 comments

So we should stop? SpaceX did it first, everyone else can just fold up shop?

C'mon. Blue Origin has a proper rocket, it seems very capable. They even land the booster like SpaceX does. To be unimpressed with their achievements seems like sour grapes.

No, but the press has been crazy about this event to a dispiriting level. I'd have loved to see some restraint and clear criticism of their tiny hops.
>To be unimpressed with their achievements seems like sour grapes.

Carlin says something similar to what I was going to say, but he's better at saying it.

" The phrase sour grapes does not refer to jealousy or envy. Nor is it related to being a sore loser. It deals with the rationalization of failure to attain a desired end. In the original fable by Aesop, "The Fox and the Grapes," when the fox realizes he cannot leap high enough to reach the grapes, he rationalizes that even if he had gotten them, they would probably have been sour anyway. Rationalization, that’s all sour grapes means. It doesn’t mean deal with jealousy or sore losing. Yeah, I know you say, "Well many people are using it that way, so the meaning is changing." And I say, "Well many people are really fuckin’ stupid too, shall we just adopt all their standards?" " [0]

- George Carlin

[0]: https://www.sense.net/~blaine/funstuff/carlin.html

Yes, blue origin was founded in 2000 and spacex founded in 2002.

Blue origin landed it's first rocket in 2005. It was a tiny rocket and a tiny flight and purely for testing.

SpaceX landed it's first rocket in 2015. It was an orbital flight delivering real value.

Would it have made sense for SpaceX to stop because blue origin already flew a reusable rocket?

If you're counting Blue Origin's Charon test vehicle, SpaceX had Grasshopper going several years before 2015, and they'd achieved orbit in 2008 already.
Sure if you pull the date of the first landing I'll update my comment.
I don't see the point of this comment. The parent comment didn't talk anything about SpaceX.

Also, since SpaceX did it already, in less time, should others just close the shop and not try to do the same?