[steve1977]

I'm not sure if I would call the vanity project of one of the richest people on earth an "underdog".

Btw, "If they're lucky, it's just a stupid mistake" is actually interesting.

If you're at that stage and spending so much money, I would consider making stupid mistakes to be catastrophic.

[imglorp]

BO was founded in 2000 and has about 2 orbital launches with a partly reusable system. They build rockets.

SpaceX was founded in 2002 and has around 660 orbital launches with a fully reusable system. They build rocket factories.

BO is absolutely the underdog, in every way, unless you want to count 38 suborbital joyrides, then they're ahead at 38 to 0.

[perilunar]

None of the SpaceX orbital launches so far have been fully reusable. The second stage is not recovered.

[brookst]

Always hope for the stupid mistake. It’s embarrassing but so much better than having the same problem caused by a complex and difficult-to-root-cause issue.

After a long day of working on a car I would much rather have it fail to start because I forgot to connect the battery than fail to start because the starter I replaced had been returned to the store by a previous purchaser, with the wrong part in the box, which was mechanically compatible with the mount but not with the flywheel. (Hypothetically speaking…)

[AdamN]

Sort of - if it's determined that somebody bypassed a safety control they can just make the control firmer and fire that person and move onto other things. If it's some fundamental flaw in the engine design that could set them back months/years.

[Rover222]

Calling Blue Origin a vanity project is so ridiculous.

[g8oz]

They are going to have to do a lot more than they've done to escape that label.

[steve1977]

What would you say is Jeff Bezos' motivation behind it?

[GMoromisato]

Jeff Bezos loves space exploration. He loves O'Neil's vision of orbital colonies, and he firmly believes that moving heavy industry to orbit will leave Earth better off. That's not a vanity project.

The Washington Post, on the other hand, he purchased as a trophy. That's the vanity project.

[panick21_]

He might have bought the Washington Post as a vanity project, but that has not stopped him as using it as a propaganda tool.

> Jeff Bezos loves space exploration. He loves O'Neil's vision of orbital colonies, and he firmly believes that moving heavy industry to orbit will leave Earth better off. That's not a vanity project.

If that was his strategy he would have been much better of in actually investing his money in, actual space stations. There is a clear aspect of dick measuring with Musk. Like Blue literally threw out a lot of their plans because SpaceX was moving ahead of them so fast.

But instead of using SpaceX capability, they fight against it, sue SpaceX and do everything to compete with SpaceX.

For example, its well known how much Bezos wants to beat Musk and SpaceX in a major NASA competition. This has been reported on. They regularly change plans and reorient themselves and go 'all in' on some major project. This has been reported on quite a bit. Even when it is not profitable for them.

They have also de-empathized their Space station, partly because NASA is less interested. But if Bezos has 2-3 billion $ per year to burn, that would be his actual focus.

So this whole 'its all about getting to O'Neil vision' faster is really only part of the situation and do not really explain much of BlueOrigin strategy as company.

Maybe in the early days when Blue was basically a think-tank, this was true, but its not any longer.

[j1mc]

I disagree. The poet Gary Snyder thought space travel was unimaginative - that living life as things are on earth was more interesting and challenging. Owning the Washington Post gives him control over a high visibility U.S. news operation. Nothing vanity about that.

[NetMageSCW]

Apparently Gary Snyder was an idiot.

[Rover222]

Lots of Americans are only capable of this logic for now: billionaire bad

[steve1977]

It's more like pretending to care about earth but living a lifestyle with private jets and yachts: hypocrisy

[Rover222]

Oh you know, probably his clearly stated intentions of driving industry off-earth and into orbit.

Is SpaceX also a vanity project? No, Musk actually wants to expand human civilization beyond one planetary sphere.

Just because they're billionaires doesn't mean they're full of shit. In fact, in both of their cases, it means they're extremely driven by... real ambitions.

So obvious.

[steve1977]

> Musk actually wants to expand human civilization beyond one planetary sphere.

Does he want to expand human civilization for the benefit of human civilization or does he want to be the man who made that expansion possible?

I can absolutely see real ambitions behind them, I just think these ambitions are driven by vanity (and other "vices")

[LooseMarmoset]

Why can't it be both?

[steve1977]

Because basic desires usually drive more complex ambitions, not the other way round.

[Sparyjerry]

There is clear evidence Musk's original goal with SpaceX was just to encourage more investment into NASA. Remember it was started before Tesla existed and before Musk was a billionaire.