>SpaceX rockets failed repeatedly before getting it right

They didn't, though. There is a HUGE difference between test flights and production flights.

Falcon 1 scheduled several test flights. This where test flights, designed as such, and carrying accordingly mass-simulators, broken satellites, or a bloody wheel of cheese. Their first few failed, which was expected, and not a concern, as this are test flights. Then they reached orbit succesfully, and so they went into production. Their next flight was a production flight, and worked flawlessly too.

Then Falcon 9 came, which worked flawlessly on their first flight, and flew flawlessly for 5 straight years. They had ONE in-flight failure with 1.1, then absolutely none since FT. So 8 years of flawless launches, almost 200 of them too.

Virgin Orbit offers expensive, inconvenient, unreliable launches.

For instance, Electron costs *half* of what a LauncherOne will cost you, and RocketLab is more reliable, has more launches under their belt, and offers a fantastic truly customer-oriented system.

The supposed advantages of air-launch aren't such. First of all, it's for the most part a lie. "It's just a plane, so we can launch anywhere". Well, except you do need pretty much all facilities except for a launch tower at your airport. And you need authorizations from everyone, from the FAA to the airport itself, local authorities, etc. Launching from another country? Even more bureaucracy. And it'll only be ok if it's a NATO country and the US gives the Ok for it (because ITAR). So all of those advantages evaporate fairly quickly.

If you want cheaper, and your orbit allows it, you can get on a SpaceX ridesharing mission. Anywhere from 300k to around 2 to 3 million for the max payload capacity that LauncherOne can handle. And you're launching on the most reliable rocket in history.

The problem with their last launch is a fundamental flaw, not necessarily on design, but on how they do things. Their processes are horrible. Sure, they aren't the same company as Virgin Galactic now, but they used to be, and they obviously inherited the same culture.

VO was already not very appealing, but now there are even more options, and more are coming. VO hasn't gone the way of Astra yet for the same reason BO isn't out of business: A big ego with big pockets behind it.

Ban stuff, steal from you, and generally stand in the way of progress. People seem to have forgotten now, but they shut down a whole lot more than just the internet in 2020, and the sheep seemed ok with it.

Generally, I agree with your sentiment, but also "letting them get away with it" is a bad precedent. We've already seen similar efforts from microsoft, and from other manufacturers. Apple isn't the first, nor will be the last, to try and lock down a platform.

Breaking whatever BS protection they throw at it and doing what you want with the platform is exercising your right to use your own stuff however the hell you want. It's like the US flying over what China claims as the South China Sea. Basically, use it or lose it.

That is correct. The first mission to carry humans for NASA wasn't a production mission, and so it was called Demo-2 (after Demo-1, which did everything but without people onboard). After that, Crew 1 through 6. So it's the 7th mission *for NASA*. In addition, they also flew Axiom 1 and Inspiration 4.

So, 1 manned demo mission, 6 missions for NASA in the main contract, "Crew" series, 1 for Axiom, 1 private, for a grand total of 9 missions with crew onboard so far.

Well, that's all leftists, isn't it? They loved Musk when their mind overlords told him he was ok because EV = Woke. Then they hated him when they were told to.

99% of all commie-shitposts on the internet say "Sent from my iPhone" below.

Well... we should do online voting and have to pass a quiz about the constitution but, apparently, requiring people to know what they're doing is discrimination.

So my last new wonderful, top of the line, latest and greatest phone I bought died just before my two year contract was up, so I bought an older model phone (different brand) on Amazon that was supposed to work with my provider. It was supposed to be a temporary replacement until I could buy a new, latest and greatest phone.... but long story short, it's smaller, slower, and everything I actually need in a phone, so I just decided to just keep it.

I thought IQ was supposed to be scaled so that 100 was average.

Either way, it makes it easier for me to check bags.

I thought "on time" is defined by when it lands. And the fact is that more and more flights are "on time" because they pad the arrival time (like saying a 1.5 hour flight will arrive 2 hours after scheduled departure time); perhaps it's just building in those typical delays into the estimates.

I fly several times a year for my company, and I completely disagree. I think it's more perception than reality.

1) This is the most valid point, but unless you're late to the airport it's a moot point, because the plane's not leaving any sooner because you didn't have to check a bag. If you are late, then it's your own damn fault.

2) Nearly every time I've flown the bag is already there by the time I get to the carousel, or within 5 minutes or so. It depends when you get off the plane. If you rush off, pushing and shoving people out of your way so that you can be first, then you will wait longer.

3) Yes... I've even had luggage lost before. But the fact is that it's really quite rare. Last stat I read didn't clearly say how much was lost, but "Mishandled" bags was around 0.6%, I would expect most of that was damage - and while it may be a hassle, airlines are responsible for up to over $3k per lost bag, so they are actually doing quite a bit to stop it from happening. They REALLY do not want to lose your luggage. From this report, airlines are "now 70 percent less likely to lose our bags than they were 10 years ago."

I've flown for quite some time, and I can tell you that when they didn't charge for checked bags, a LOT fewer people used carry-ons.

Yes - that is the cause. There really is no solution. If you offered a "premium" airline, you'd go out of business pretty quickly, I think.

Your town is your oyster.

They used to do back to front boarding. I mostly fly Delta now, which uses "zones," but zone 1 doesn't necessarily equate to being in the back, and then they load First Class, "Premiere," "Executives" and whatnot first, then handicapped people and people flying with children... the plane is half full by the time they start boarding zone 1. But even way back when, they'd call "now boarding rows 40 and higher" and everybody would run up to and crowd around the gate anyway.