[cycomanic]

Like what? Seriously, nobody thought shouting rockets into space was impossible. Landing a rocket again nobody had thought it impossible. Sure they brought down prices, again nobody thought it impossible. The question is actually is it desirable. Rocket launches are pretty much the worst one can do in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, but somehow all technerds are falling all over themselves how great it is.

[MPSimmons]

I didn't say people claimed it was impossible, I claimed that they said SpaceX would never do it. And that's _still_ a pretty common claim.

[expedition32]

Yeah but with Starlink I can watch YouTube on a remote Pacific island! (I never visit remote Pacific islands).

[damnitbuilds]

"Landing a rocket again nobody had thought it impossible."

Erm, ESA thought it was a dream:

"Twenty years ago, before SpaceX had launched a single rocket, Richard Bowles, a sales director of the European Arianespace launch consortium, said SpaceX’s ambition to launch, recover and reuse rockets, cutting the price of launches in half, was a dream.

‘SpaceX primarily sems to be selling a dream. Which is good, we should all dream,’ he said. ‘I think reusability is a dream… How am I going to respond to a dream?… First of all you don’t wake people up. They have to wake up on their own… They’re not supermen. Whatever they can do, we can do.’"

https://spectator.com/article/spacex-has-put-europe-to-shame...