When incompetence is pitted against extreme radicalism, I'll take incompetence any day. As bad as Quinn is, he's head and shoulders above Blago or Ryan. However, the Republican would have to be pretty bad, one I would fear would really screw the country up (anyone named "Bush" would do it). In likelihood I'll vote Greenie or Libbie, depending on their candidates.

Not just Kubrick but damned near every other science fiction writer. Hell, Asimov had antique cars that were not only self-driving but sentient, six years from now.

But a few hundred years from now? I don't think ion drives driven by two fusion generators is out of line for that timeline. By then there will be technologies we can't even dream of today.

I did make a huge math error by not actually doing the math and I'm not sure how I'll fix it. Someone pointed out that you could get to Mars' orbit on the other side of the sun in three days at .8G. Damn.

Referring to Tesla, not SpaceX.

And just like the German head of Airbus had it wrong about SpaceX, MB now has Tesla wrong.

cooler? Perhaps. Cheaper and more profitable? Not likely if they are getting only say 10 re-uses.

considering that fuel is less than 1/4 of a million $, if they can land the first stage, either on land or an old oil rig, AND can get 10 launches from it, they will save 1/3 of their costs. And that is just for the first stage.

Knowing SpaceX, they will cut their price by at least 1/6, so that they pick up just about everything flying, and make increased profits to put into more R&D.

Exactly right.

Hopefully, later on, they will put it on an oil rig, rather than taking it all the way back to land. That will allow a lot more payload.

Anybody that thinks that they will land this on a barge is kidding themselves. SpaceX has never said that, or hinted at that.

I seriously doubt that spaceX has ANY intention of landing on barges. They move too much. Instead, an old oil rig would make far more sense.

Not any time soon. There is no doubt that multiple russian ships including subs, and I will bet Chinese sub has been there as well, have been offshore of florida looking for parts, esp. electronics. The algorithms are what will be of use to them.

Clean it up, land it on the rig, and then offload with a crane to a barge

It would be way cooler if they just gave it a minimal fuel load and flew it back to the cape.

-jcr

The issue is NOT whether they they recovered the stage, but whether it landed at slow controlled speeds. Apparently, SpaceX feels that it did 'land' on the water. As such, one or 2 more times with this, and they will be able to put it on land.

Personally, I think that bringing it all the way back to the cape is a mistake. Instead, they should use one of the old oil rigs that are out there. Clean it up, land it on the rig, and then offload with a crane to a barge and take it back for launc.

Interesting that a russian naval ship (called a tug, but how many miles off florida coast ? ) was there at the landing site to watch this.
I think that everybody who continues to knock SpaceX, is realizing that they are all in serious trouble.

Then it is time for those that are laid off, to sue the company. In particular, in a court, they should be pointing out the security issues, esp. with target. And then push this issue with the courts.

Uh, no. They will use the H1B to learn the position and then go back to India. I watched this happen with Verizon. I was unimpressed.