For direct phone-to-satellite service SpaceX needs the new V2 satellites. They can only launch a smaller version of these on the F9 and not many of them per launch. So to get enough of them into orbit they need Starship. Starship development isn't going exactly to plan though. OK, the plan was more than ambitious, they were basically planning to whip out a fully reusable heavy lifter out in no time and get it operational and this on a budget others would hardly start to bend metal for.

But it is wise to not announce a launch date for this service. May take one year, may take four years.

Apple probably also was wise to use an existing provider for their emergency sat system (Globalstar) even if it has just a very narrow use case because data rates are extremely low and you basically need to point your phone just right at the sky for minutes. But in an emergency it already is much better to have than nothing.

It's not an "iPhone problem". You can still just install Google Maps or any of the other navigation apps that can work with downloaded maps.

Wind turbines need to sit high to get a good bite at the wind. Wind is slowed by the ground (or the sea in this case) and the wind is more turbulent. Also bigger is more efficient and especially out at sea foundations and connections are cumbersome and expensive, so it's better to make fewer and bigger ones.

All of this favors going as big as you can. It's also good for bragging of course.

The thing is that both NASA and the military have been nothing but happy with what SpaceX delivered in the past. Musk seemingly behaving like an asshole on Twitter won't change much in this regard.

It's mostly a media scandal anyway, they just can't stand Musk being in their (media) business now. Ignoring him hasn't worked too well for the competition in the car and space business after all.

That Starlink has military implications just due to its sheer scale has been obvious from the very beginning. A satellite constellation that has sats in low orbits everywhere at all times is just a wet dream for all kinds of surveillance. It's also an advantage that is very hard to replicate by other nations, again due to its scale.

On the other hand the satellites are just too small for high resolution optics, this is mostly about sigint and situational awareness, but global and basically 24/7.

In the current situation all of this is just too valuable to fight it just because you don't like Musk. It would be outright idiotic to not use it.

But look where relying on the "stable and reliable" companies led to: Unsustainable, expensive hardware of yesteryear. It's just another kind of crazy. If you want to walk, you need to do one step after another and none will be the "right" step forever. Once you stop putting one foot forward you'll either stop or stumble.

Also China seems to have very much learned this lesson already. Look at what China is aiming at now: https://www.lianeon.org/p/a-lo... -- if the US should now fall back to relying again on the old ways, in ten years China will have cheap, reusable heavy rockets while the US will not. This is not just about if you like Musk anymore.

China basically has dropped their SLS equivalent rocket that was in development for quite some time now and now goes to something very much like Starship. And THEY won't stop with this just because someone is an asshole.

The US also didn't drop the Apollo program back then because Wernher von Braun was a former Nazi and allowed the Soviet Union to go to the Moon first. If you like Musk or not should only matter when you want to marry him...

Boeing, Lockheed etc. are NOT going to help the US to dominate space. Boeings capsule still didn't make it to the ISS with a crew. Boeing will not land 100 tons of cargo on the Moon. Their Moon lander proposal was based on the Starliner pressure hull, was meant to land less than 2 tons on the Moon and for that required another $4B SLS launch just for the Moon lander. This would have been just a more expensive Apollo mission and would have led to absolutely nothing but another set of footprints and flags.

People are much too emotional about all this.

I guess it works still the same, just that the magic word(s) change. The problem of course is that the shorter the phrase, the higher the false positive recognitions.

He certainly doesn't sit in front of autocad but he IS chief engineer and not only by title. You just need to look at in-depth videos of him walking someone through the SpaceX facilities to recognize that he very much knows what he is talking about.

He also has a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics and a Bachelor of Science degree in economics.

You don't need to like him but he certainly isn't an idiot.

And you're happily ringing...

Basically all of this is pure nonsense. Up to and including a handful of consumer drones making a real difference in Ukraine.

I could explain in detail why all of this is nonsense but this has been done so often and Iâ(TM)m so tired of doing this over and over.

According to people who do or did work at SpaceX Musk indeed is chief engineer not only by title. But what do they know?

What? Falcon Heavy lifts about 64 metric tons to LEO. The ordinary Falcon 9 lifts 16 tons to LEO (22 tons with an expended first stage). Soyuz payload to LEO is about 7 metric tons.

What SpaceX does is in every way more capable than Soyuz, both for crews and cargo.

Yeah, that's less than the capacity of a Tesla car battery.

I doubt a lot that the real estate for the tower, the tower itself, the weights, motors, generators etc. as well as building and maintaining the ducking thing are in any way cheaper than such a battery.

Gravity energy storage always looks like a great idea until you run the numbers.

Isn't this the same as with everything else? Either you make some effort to protect your IP or others will copy it if there is a market for it and they can make it cheaper than you can. The trouble is that protecting your IP can easily turn out to be a very expensive exercise.

Best place for nuclear waste.

Yes, maybe someone/something designed this simulation at the outset. But this doesn't mean he cares the fuck about you. You're not designed, you're just a data point.