[dylan604]

maybe, but it was the coolest part to re-use. whatever inefficiencies the shuttle had that people squabble over, it was a very inspiring program. not sure how much inspiration to a small kid a SpaceX launch is, but i know exactly how much the shuttle was.

[drusepth]

>not sure how much inspiration to a small kid a SpaceX launch is, but i know exactly how much the shuttle was.

From what I've seen, it sounds like many kids these days feel the same way about SpaceX launches now as you did about the shuttle (incredibly inspiring). I hope that's reassuring.

[dylan604]

it is. i know that i flew my shuttle around my room much more than my apollo rockets. my fighter jets had a hard time keeping up with the shuttle in my room too. i once saw footage of the "chase" planes as the shuttle screamed past them on approach. just so much more "cool" to the shuttle than a capsule.

[Robotbeat]

This video showing kids’ reaction to the Falcon Heavy inaugural launch is pretty fun. The dual-landing is absolutely insane. Straight up science fiction. https://youtu.be/A0FZIwabctw

[zugi]

> inefficiencies the shuttle had that people squabble over, it was a very inspiring program

Exactly. The shuttle program was designed by bureaucrats to be "inspiring." Which explains why it was such a dismal failure economically and in turns of safety - killing 14 people which is far more than any other rocket, and costing insanely more than expendables.

The shuttle program set the U.S. space program back by decades. We are only now finally starting to recover from its dismal failure.

[panick21_]

It wasn't designed to be inspiring. That is nonsense. Non of the designers involved would ever claim that's what they did.

It was designed in an environment they couldn't iterate and test, and tried to go from very little knowlage directly to a massively complex system.

And no only that, they were very limited in terms of funding, so anything that required to much development had to be kicked.

[mannerheim]

What do kids have to do with anything? The goal is to get to space affordably and reliably; the shuttle failed on both fronts SpaceX is succeeding at.

[dylan604]

>What do kids have to do with anything?

What do kids ever have to do with anything? They are the next generation that may or may not want to be involved in whatever they might be getting inspired by.

>The goal is to get to space affordably and reliably; the shuttle failed on both fronts SpaceX is succeeding at.

Shuttle had ~135 missions (number from memory) with 1 failure at launch. The second failure was at re-entry, so assumption is that the mission deployed whatever was being deployed (if that was part of the mission). How many missions has SpaceX lost payloads on? >1? If we do percentages, sure, but to say that 1 failure at launch is unreliable is just farcical.

[ktpecot]

Are you actually trying to say the mission when Columbia came apart on re entry and killed 7 people was successful? And you’re gonna say the challenger mission failure that killed people is the same as SpaceX losing a satellite and a dragon cargo capsule.

That’s one of the worst takes I’ve ever heard

[mannerheim]

The space shuttle killed 14 people because it was a poorly-built, designed-by-committee piece of garbage.

[mlindner]

Rockets landing vertically is the most sci-fi thing ever and has been a staple of science fiction since the early 20th century. I think that's plenty more cool than landing it horizontally.

Anyway, coolness factor doesn't really matter for space. Economical things also tend to end up looking cool over time anyway simply because streamlined designs which are efficient tend to also look cool..

[SilverBirch]

Daddy, when I grow up, I want to grab massive government subsidies and attack trans-people, just like Elon…