Starbase Tour with Elon Musk [PART 2 // Summer 2021]

This short video clip quickly makes evident why SpaceX has become so dominant, now sending more than 90% of all global cargo to orbit every year. In short: Musk is operating from first principles, questioning everything from the ground up, willing to try things that others are unwilling to consider or have not even thought of before -- there are no sacred cows. The result is that SpaceX is leaving conventionally run competitors saddled with increasingly outdated, higher cost, less scalable systems and processes. Whenever I watch interviews of other CEOs of other space exploration companies (Boeing, Northrop Grumman, United Launch Allience, etc.) or CEOs of other satellite internet service providers (Viasat, Eutelsat OneWeb, Hughesnet, etc.), I come away with the sense they're so far behind they are not even properly competing against SpaceX. --- PS. If you enjoyed this video clip, you'll also want to watch Musk's tour of Starbase: [link] ▶ this video

in “Why Elon Musk switched Starship from carbon fiber to stainless steel” · View on HN

If you don't mind a little Musk propaganda, I enjoyed these two videos [0] [1] from Everyday Astronaut where he toured the SpaceX factory and launch site ("Starbase") with Musk. My favorite quote was about the most common trap that engineers fall into, which is to waste time optimizing something that shouldn't exist in the first place. I'm sure that's not an original Muskism, but it stuck with me nonetheless. [0] [link] [1] ▶ this video

in “SpaceX prepares to test fire all 33 Starship engines at once” · View on HN

A CNN 2 minute video chopping up what he says to make it sound more grand is not him being a "showman". It's called video editing. You can tell the video has been HIGHLY edited because it's not how he talks. > it's really hard to believe when he's put out stuff like this. [link] ▶ this video [link] This is how Musk actually talks. > Like, did he use up all of his thinking fuel on designing rockets that he didn't understand why the boring company's mission was a total non-starter? He doesn't spend a lot of time working on the boring company to be frank. It's a small side project. He's doing it to see if it's possible.

in “Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal” · View on HN