I was aware of the DC-X. It was tested in the 90s but it never went anywhere. Why didn't someone else do what SpaceX is now doing? They were too busy selling 70s tech and cashing checks.
When I said 'first new thing in aerospace since the 70s' I meant shipped. Things that never shipped don't exist.
The Shuttle I suppose could count but it was a mixed bag and in some ways a step backward from the Saturn V.
Seems like people have flipped from mindless Musk worship to being haters all the sudden.
Tesla may fail but they validated the market for high-end electric cars. Before Tesla the popular narrative was that EVs are impractical, slow, have poor range, and can't possibly ever compete with ICEs. People argued that modern transportation was absolutely and fundamentally inseparable from oil, even spinning this into popular peak oil doomsday narratives.
The biggest threat to Tesla today is that now that they've validated the market larger more experienced car companies are jumping on the EV bandwagon.
Yeah, the DC-X was neat and all but that's suborbital on a stubby cone shaped rocket. That's essentially what New Shepard accomplished and not really comparable to actually recovering the first stage on a real orbital launch. As for the shuttle, well there's a reason why Buran wound up being nothing more than a hanger queen and it was arguably superior to the shuttle. From a practical perspective I think it's fair to say that SpaceX has been the largest impact in access to orbit since the 70s.
When I said 'first new thing in aerospace since the 70s' I meant shipped. Things that never shipped don't exist.
The Shuttle I suppose could count but it was a mixed bag and in some ways a step backward from the Saturn V.
Seems like people have flipped from mindless Musk worship to being haters all the sudden.
Tesla may fail but they validated the market for high-end electric cars. Before Tesla the popular narrative was that EVs are impractical, slow, have poor range, and can't possibly ever compete with ICEs. People argued that modern transportation was absolutely and fundamentally inseparable from oil, even spinning this into popular peak oil doomsday narratives.
The biggest threat to Tesla today is that now that they've validated the market larger more experienced car companies are jumping on the EV bandwagon.