[mmooss]

> Difficult to say

It's not difficult to say. They are behind schedule and everyone, not just Duffy, is talking about it and have been for awhile.

I don't care - beyond how getting to the moon will help future space exploration - and risk is high when developing new tech, but I also don't care about SpaceX. It's very possible Starship won't work out; that's risk and I'm sure SpaceX and NASA people understand that. Why must people on HN defend SpaceX at every turn, like a PR agency. Does anyone point out a genuine, significant, negative about Starship? Why might it not work? What are the risks?

I think more competition is great and hope they reopen the contract. Private industry competing on what is now prosaic space technology, such as orbit and even the moon, is great. Let NASA do the cutting edge stuff like flying to Europa or looking back to the beginning of time or investigating climate change. (Notice that private industry still can't land on the moon reliably - 56 years after NASA demonstrated it.)

[electriclove]

It would be great for there to be more competition. But the reality is that SpaceX is in a different league - why focus on knocking them when there isn’t another alternative ??

[mmooss]

> the reality is that SpaceX is in a different league

They aren't delivering, so maybe not. People on HN state the SpaceX talking points like they are reality. It's an Internet mob; there is no room for any serious examination of the issue.

[BHSPitMonkey]

Even if the bet on Starship fails to pay off, the existing Falcon 9 program is both (1) the dominant launch vehicle in terms of sheer quantity, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of missions and (2) the only system with a reusable first stage. Dragon routinely ferries humans to and from the ISS (and other trajectories) and no one blinks an eye.

How do you square that with "not delivering"? I don't doubt that China could surpass them in the next 5 years, but nobody else is realistically close to doing so.

[mmooss]

They aren't delivering Starship, at the least, not in time. That's what this discussion is about.

As I said, people here will do anything to promote SpaceX.

[electriclove]

I'm all for anyone making progress. Is another company doing similar things more quickly? Dig into what Starship is and you will see how ambitious their goals are.

[mmooss]

I have an ambitious goal to go to Alpha Centuri.