LAS on the shuttle was impractical for a number of reasons. One of the lessons of the Challenger incident was that LAS was more important of a requirement than they thought when making design trade offs when developing the shuttle. So part of post-Challenger requirements for new designs is to include LAS.

You really should learn about a topic before posting. The Dragon 2 is being developed as part of NASA's commercial crew program. Launch Abort is a NASA requirement. NASA will be using Dragon to transport astronauts to and from the ISS.

The Challenger incident reminded us that rockets are still dangerous. Especially newer rockets, and everything US crew flies on will either be a new-ish rocket (F9), or a rocket with new engines (Atlas V flying Blue Origin's engine as a replacement to Russian engines.) Also, SpaceX has done something rather clever. The abort propellent and engines will eventually be used for propulsive landings instead of coming down under canopy. So their abort system isn't a total waste.

To clarify on this, one of the reasons Armadillo Aerospace was put into hibernation was because it took risks it could not afford. And one crash and a hard landing later they had to close down. I feel bad for Armadillo and Carmack and I wish Slashdot allowed editing of posts since my real target was the AC that assumes to know that Opportunity was over engineered, rather than just being well built and frankly a bit lucky.

Should they have spent time and energy making it last less long? You have no idea why it's lasted as long as it has. You have no idea if it was over-engineered, or just built well with the most appropriate components and technologies available. Millions of dollars were spent just to get the rover to Mars. If it failed do to being under-engineered, THAT would be a complete waste. Seriously, explain to me what parts should be engineered to fail in exactly 90 days? How much time should be spent creating solar panels that fail sooner? Should they make intentionally bad welds?

John Carmack's a smart guy, way smarter than I am. Of course his rocket company failed. He was building small sounding rockets and he failed. There's nothing wrong with failing, that's part of life. On the other hand SpaceX is succeeding. They are delivering satellites to LEO, GTO and even one BEO. They are delivering cargo to the ISS. They are testing the abort system on a crew capsule that will be used to transport astronauts. I think SpaceX knows how to build real rockets better than John Carmack does...

On that note, SpaceX is totally willing to loose rockets in experiments. What they aren't willing to do is knowingly risk loosing a rocket prior to completing the mission. It's important to know when to take risks. If you spent $200 million to get a rover to Mars (made up, but realistic number), it's not a waste to spend a few bucks to make sure it will work when it gets there. And if you're building a rocket to put people and $500 million satellites into orbit, it's important not to kill the passengers or destroy the satellites.

That is awesome! :) Clearly she's a job creator! She created -30,000 jobs at HP, just think what she could do for America!

The GOP's primary tactic for reducing the size of government is completely in line with Ms. Fiorina's techniques used to reduce HP's size. Starve it of income and cut funding for developing future sources of income. This is exactly the GOP strategy. All the while they give the "base" what they want to keep getting re-elected. They keep sending out the social security checks, because not doing so is political suicide. They cut taxes, borrow money from social security and run up the deficit. It's intentional. When the whole system collapses under the weight of financial mismanagement, you "have to" cut programs and you get to blame it on the fiscal irresponsibility of the Democrats.

Like I said, Carly is the perfect GOP candidate.

P.S. Yes, the Democrats suck too. But not in ways compatible with Ms. Fiorina's skill set.

No, but the Internet is still populated by angry trolls that blame others for their miserable lives.

Excellent point. Many people that are not religious have trouble understanding that someone can be religious and intelligent (I suffered this blind spot for a long time.) Actually, I think the blind spot goes further, I think that intelligent person of religion X frequently fails to understand that a follower of religion Y can also be intelligent. But the truth is that the more intelligent someone is, the better they are at rationalizing their own beliefs. Regardless of how rational the beliefs actually are.

Well, played. Now excuse me while I clean the coffee off my screen...

So Jeff Bezos isn't following Musk, he's doing his own thing. Musk isn't following Bezos either. Bezos wasn't trying to solve the specific problem that Musk wants to solve, so he started a company to do it. Both generally want to bring down the price of spaceflight, both believe reusable VTVL rockets are the way to do it, but they have very different philosophies on how to get there.

1. SpaceX is a profitable company and has been for years.
2. The US had completely lost the commercial launch market. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and their bastard child ULA could not compete with the Russians nor ESA. And now SpaceX is regularly winning contracts and launching payloads and using the profits to develop a reusable first stage and a Saturn V class rocket. If that's not "worth a shit," then I don't know what it.
3. Musk is heavily involved in not only the day to day operations of SpaceX and Tesla, but does also get involved in strategic technical decisions.
4. Sour grapes taste sour.

No, it's the same party (Republicans) that want a return to the bronze age. No regulations, might makes right, women are chattel, etc... Though truthfully, the Republicans prefer the Middle Ages. Yes, many extreme liberals dream of a fantasy "Age of Gia" just as extreme conservatives dream of a fantasy "Randian" period. Neither period existed. Life used to be much more brutal, and the human species survived largely by banding together (rarely in some communist equalitarian fantasy, but first as tribes, later as city states, etc.) Nature never made it easy to go it alone. The reactionaries on both sides of the aisle or full of shit, wanting to return to a time that never existed.